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FREDERICK    THE    SECOND 

is  the  story  of  the  remarkable  man  whose 
power  and  sphere  of  influence  straddled 
the  worlds  of  Christendom  and  of  Islam. 
The  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  Holy 
Roman  Emperor  and  King  of  Sicily  and 
Jerusalem,  Frederick  II  was  an  energetic 
and  versatile  ruler,  a  man  of  great  ambi 
tion  in  whose  lifetime  the  conflict  be 
tween  Emperor  and  Pope  reached  a  new 
intensity.  Excommunicated  three  times 
by  the  Church,  he  was  an  absolute  mon 
arch  whose  power,  defended  in  almost 
continuous  struggle,  extended  over  much 
of  Germany  and  Italy  as  well  as  the  Holy 
Land 

Frederick  was  a  complex  man  of  cul 
tured  tastes  and  licentious  manners  who 
had  unusually  wide  intellectual  interests. 
At  his  Sicilian  court  scholars  of  all  re 
ligions  were  welcomed — Christian,  Jew 
ish,  Mohammedan-  He  founded  the  Uni 
versity  of  Naples  in  1M4  and  was  a 
patron  of  the  arts  and  sciences. 

The  life  of  this  dynamic  man  is  fully 
explored  in  Ernst  Kantorowicz'  notable 
biography,  filled  with  dramatic  incident 
and  absorbing  detail,  and  written  with 

continued  on  back  flap 


92  F9H5k         65-01151* 

Kantorovicz 

Frederick  the  Second  1194-1250 


FREDERICK   THE   SECOND 


MAY         1965 

&  1966 


FREDERICK 
THE    SECOND 

1194-1250 

BY 

ERNST    KANTOROWICZ 


Authorized  English  Version  by 
E.  O.  LORIMER 


With  Seven  Maps 


FREDERICK    UNGAR   PUBLISHING   CO. 
NEW  YORK 


Republished  1957 
by  arrangement  with  Constable  and  Co.,  Ltd.,  London 

First  published  1931 
All  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Library  of  Congress  Catalog  Card  Number  57-9408 


TO    MY    FRIEND 

WOLDEMAR    COUNT    UXKULL-GYLLENBAND 
IN    GRATEFUL    ACKNOWLEDGMENT 


PLAZA 

^50.11.54 

CITY  C10.I  UBKAR> 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

WHEN  the  Kingdom  of  Italy,  in  May  1924,  celebrated  the 
seven-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  University  of  Naples,  a 
foundation  of  the  Hohenstaufen  Frederick  II,  a  wreath  might 
have  been  seen  on  the  Emperor's  sarcophagus  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Palermo  with  this  inscription  : 

SEINEN  KAISERN  UND  HELDEN 
DAS  GEHEIME  DEUTSCHLAND 

This  is  not  to  imply  that  the  present  Life  of  Frederick  II  was 
begotten  of  that  episode  .  .  .  but  that  wreath  may  fairly  be 
taken  as  a  symbol  that — not  alone  in  learned  circles — enthusiasm 
is  astir  for  the  great  German  Rulers  of  the  past :  in  a  day  when 
Kaisers  are  no  more. 


TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE 

THE  English  edition  of  Frederick  II  differs  from  the  German  in  the 
following  points  :  it  has  been  provided  with  maps,  with  a  table  of 
contents,  and  with  page  headlines  which  are  not  in  the  original ;  also 
with  a  few  unobtrusive  footnotes  [signed  Tr.] . 

A  brief  Summary  of  Sources  has  been  appended,  kindly  supplied 
by  the  author  himself. 

Occasionally  an  allusive  passage  has  been  made  clearer  to  an 
English  reader  by  the  insertion  of  an  author's  name  or  the  quotation 
of  an  exact  phrase.  In  a  few  passages  a  paragraph  has  been 
compressed  or  a  recondite  allusion  omitted. 

The  translator  is  deeply  indebted  to  F.  J.  E.  Raby,  who  generously 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  an  amateur  a  scholar's  expert  knowledge 
of  medieval  literature  and  religion,  and  to  D.  L.  R.  Lorimer  for  a 
similar  service  in  oriental  lore  ;  to  both  for  constructive  criticism 
and  suggestion.  The  translator's  responsibility  for  any  errors  or 
mistranslations  remains  undivided. 

E.  O.  L. 


IX 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

DEDICATION  -- V 

PREFATORY  NOTE  -         - yii 

TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE     --------       ix 

LIST  OF  MAPS  -         -         - XIX 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE xxi 

SUMMARY  OF  SOURCES XXV 

i.  FREDERICK'S  CHILDHOOD  3-35 

Prophecies ----  3 

Birth  in  Jesi,  Dec.  26,  1194 5 

Character  of  Henry  VI-------  6 

Hohenstaufen  conception  of  Empire          -  8 

Baptism --ir 

Death  of  Henry  VI 12 

Philip  of  Swabia ;  Otto  of  Brunswick        -        -        -        -        12 

Sicilian  hatred  of  Germans        -         -         -*-         -         -         14 
Papal  policy  towards  Sicily        -         -         -         -         -         -         1 6 

Constance's  Concordat  with  Rome  :  death,  1198  -  -  17 
Innocent :  Deliberatio  super  facto  imperil  -  -  -  19 
The  Sicilian  myth  ...-.--20 

Markward   of  Anweiler  ;    Walter  of   Palear  ;    Walter    of 

Brienne        .-.-...--22 
The  Saracens  of  Sicily     -         -         -        -         -        -         -         25 

Pisa  and  Genoa --25 

San  Germano  ------         ---32 

Frederick  of  age,  1208 33 

Episcopal  elections  -         -         -         -        -         -        -         -         34 

Wedding  with  Constance  of  Aragon,  1209  -         -        -         -         34 

Death  of  Aragon  knights  -        -        -         -        -         -         35 

Revolt  of  island  barons     -         -         -        -         -        -         -         35 

II.   PUER  APULIAE  39~74 

Innocent  III  becomes  Pope 39 

Theories  of  the  Papacy 41 

The  Priest- State 42 

Murder  of  Philip  of  Swabia      ------  46 

Otto  of  Brunswick  crowned  in  Rome,  1209  48 

Revolt  of  Apulian  nobles 50 

Otto  deposed 52 

Frederick  sets  out  for  Rome,  March  1212  -        -        -         -  55 

Genoa,  Cremona,  Chur,  Constance 56 

xi 


xii  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

II.   PUER  APULIAE — Continued.  PAGE 

The  Children's  Crusade  -         - 59 

Alliance  with  French        -         -         -         -         -         -         -  63 

Re-elected  German  King,  Dec.  1212           -         -         -         -  63 

Crowned  in  Mainz,  1212           - 63 

The  regia  stirps  of  the  Hohenstaufen  64 

The  Welf-Waibling  feud 65 

Guelf  and  Ghibelline  in  Italy 68 

The  Ghibelline  spirit 68 

Bouvines,  1214         - 69 

Golden  Bull  of  Eger 70 

Lateran  Council,  1216      -- 71 

Innocent's  death,  1216 71 

Frederick's  entry  into  Aix  ;   coronation  72 

Barbarossa's  re-interment  of  Charlemagne,  1165  74 

Frederick  takes  the  Cross           ------  74 

III.  EARLY  STATESMANSHIP  77-163 

Death  of  Otto 77 

Dawn  of  national  consciousness  in  Germany      -         -         -         81 
Knight  and  Monk   --------82 

The  Cistercians        -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         83 

The  Templars 87 

The  Teutonic  Order  :  Hermann  of  Salza  88 

War  with  Denmark  -         -         -         -         -         -         -         91 

The  Golden  Bull  of  Rimini,  1 226 92 

Pope  Honorius  III  --------         96 

King  Henry  elected  King  of  the  Romans  -         -         -  100 

Diplomatic  victory  over  the  Papacy  -         -         -         -         -101 

Coronation  in  Rome  ;  ceremonial      -         -         -         -         -       107 

De  resignandis  privileges          -         -         -         -         -         -112 

The  Sicilian  barons 113 

Diet  of  Capua          -         -         -         -         -         -         .         -115 

Count  of  Molise 116 

Deportation  of  people  of  Celano 117 

Remodelling  of  the  Feudal  System xi8 

Architecture    -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -120 

Diet  of  Messina,  1 22 1 -       121 

Syracuse  ----.__„..       122 

Measures  against  foreign  trade -       123 

Creation  of  Sicilian  fleet 124 

Saracen  war    - J28 

Lucera I3O 

University  of  Naples         -         -         -         -         -         -        -132 

Crusading  disasters  ;   San  Germane 136 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS  xiii 

III.  EARLY   STATESMANSHIP— continued.  PAGE 

Death  of  Constance  of  Aragon,  1222  -         -         -         -       138 

Marriage  with  Isabella  of  Jerusalem,  1225  -         -         -  139 

Birth  of  Conrad        ---_.»._       I^o 
Berard  of  Palermo    -----,_.       I43 

Lombard  League     -         -         -         -         .         .         _         -147 

Feud  of  Cremona  and  Milan     -         -         -         -         -         -        148 

Franciscans  and  Dominicans     -         -         -         -         .         -154 

Diet  of  Cremona  prevented  by  Lombards,  1226          -         -       156 
Leonardo  of  Pisa      ----._.„       x  eg 

St.  Francis rgo 

Death  of  Honorius  III X62 

Gregory  IX     -         -         -         -         .         .         .         _         -       163 

IV.  THE  CRUSADE  167-221 

Rendezvous  in  Brindisi,  1227 X68 

Pla8ue 169 

Frederick  falls  ill  and  turns  back !7o 

Hostility  of  Gregory  IX I7l 

Excommunication    -----.._        IyI 

Gregory's  entente  with  Lombards I7l 

Loyalty  of  Rome  to  Frederick I74 

Frederick's  first  manifesto         -         -         -         _         .  ^j^ 

Frederick  sails  for  East,  June  1228 I76 

Gregory  attacks  Sicily I77 

Frederick  recovers  Cyprus         -         -         -         -         .         -179 
Lands  at  Acre  -         -         -         _         .         >         _         -182 

Treaty  with  al  Kamil ;   ro-year  truce         -         -         -         -       187 
Saracen  chivalry      -         -         -         -         -         _         .         -189 

Treachery  of  Templars Z89 

Influence  of  East  on  Frederick i^o 

Entry  into  Jerusalem,  March  17,  1229        -         -         -  197 

Self- Coronation,  March  18-         -         -         -         -         -199 

Jerusalem  manifesto          --.--_«       2oo 
Last  scenes  in  Palestine    ---....       3O^ 

Frederick  lands  at  Brindisi,  June  1229        -  206 

Exeunt  papal  troops  from  Sicily 207 

Attitude  of  Gregory  IX  ;  truce 2O8 

Peace  of  Ceperano   --------       209 

V.  TYRANT  OF  SICILY  215-368 

Influence  of  Eastern  success      -         -         -         -         -         -215 

Affection  for  Sicily  --------       220 

Three  Emperor  models    ------  232 

b 


xiv  TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 

V.   TYRANT  OF   SICILY — continued.  PAG« 

Constitutions  of  Melfi,  1231      --*.-.-       223 
Expectation  of  Golden  Age  and  End  of  World  -  224 

Augustales  minted  -         -         -         -         -         .         .         -225 
Frederick's  birthday  a  public  holiday         -  227 

I 
Liber  Augustalis      -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -228 

Cult  of  Justitia 229 

Invocation  of  imperial  name     -         -         -         -         -         -239 

"  Crown  Prosecution  " 240 

Theory  of  the  "  Fall  " 241 

Necessitas 245 

Dante's  de  Monarckia       ----..»       247 
The  Divine  Comedy         -         -         -         -         -         .         -259 

II 

Pope  Gregory  and  the  Liber  Augustalis     -         -         -  261 
Relation  of  Church  and  State   -         -         -         -         -         -262 

Zeal  against  heretics         --.--..  263 
Muslims  and  Jews  -         -         -         -         -         -         .         -267 

State  organisation  :  justiciars,  notaries       -         -         -         -  271 

Conditions  of  service         ---_-_,_  273 

Treatment  of  suspects      ----.._  277 

Rebellious  towns      -----_.„  28o 

Augusta 280 

Uniformity  and  simplification  of  government     -         -         -  281 

Town-creation  ;  frontier  protection  -         -         -         -         -  281 

Monopolies      ------,..._  282 

Customs  and  revenue       -.--.-_  283 
Weights  and  measures      -         -         -         -         -         »         -284 

Fairs  and  markets    -----.._  285 

The  Emperor  as  trader     ---_.__  287 

Taxation          ------...  287 

Commercial  agreements 288 

Overseas  consuls  and  embassies         -         -         -         .         -  289 

A  Sicilian  nation      -----._,  290 

Marriage  ordinances 291 

III 

Triumph  of  lay  culture 293 

Petrus  de  Vinea  (Piero  della  Vigna) 299 

Frederick's  public  speaking 3o7 

Frederick  amongst  intimates 3O7 

Youthfulness  of  Sicilian  court 3O8 

Frederick's  retainers  ;  menagerie 3IO 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xv 

V.   TYRANT   OF  SICILY— Continued.  JACK 

Famous  families  in  his  service  -         -         -         -         -         -313 

Thomas  Aquinas      -         -         -         -         .         .         .         -313 

Valetti  imperatoris  -         -         -         -         .         -         _         -314 

Frederick's  sons       -         -         -         -         -         .         _         -318 

Chivalry  at  court      -----_,.       ^21 

Foggia  :   banquets,  revelry 323 

Michael  Scot  ---------       323 

Sicilian  poetry ;  use  of  vernacular     -         -         -         -  327 

Intellectual  thought  at  court 328 

Learning  at  court     -         -         -         -         -         -         .         -334 

Astronomy  and  Astrology          --_--„       342 
Hebrew  scholars       -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -343 

Spirit  of  Enquiry  ;   Ibn  Sabin  of  Ceuta      -  347 

Research  and  experiment  ------       349 

De  arte  venandi  cum  avibus      -         -         -         -         -         -359 

The  art  of  seeing  "  things  that  are,  as  they  are  "  360 

Frederick's  personal  appearance         -  365 

VI.   GERMAN  EMPEROR  371-438 

Pope  and  Emperor  in  harmony          -         -         -         -  371 

Diet  of  Ravenna,  1231-         -         -         -         -         -         -       372 

King  Henry  ;  Diet  of  Worms,  1231 373 

Diet  of  Friuli,  1232  .---...       374 

Growing  autonomy  of  German  Princes       -  379 

Theory  of  German  Empire        -         -         -         -         -         -385 

Burgundy         -------._       388 

Loss  of  Cyprus         --------       389 

Frederick  aids  Pope  against  Romans  -         -         -  389 

Ideal  relation  of  Empire  and  Papacy  -         -         -  390 

Inquisition       -         -         -         -          -         -         -         -         -393 

The  Great  Halleluja 397 

Dominicans  and  Franciscans     -         -         -         -         -         -397 

Joachim  of  Flora  :  Three  Ages  of  the  world       -  398 

John  of  Vicenza        --------       398 

Conrad  of  Marburg  -------       400 

King  Henry's  rebellion  and  treason  -----       402 

Fate  of  Henry  --------       405 

Frederick  marries  Isabella  of  England        -  407 

Diet  and  Landpeace  of  Mainz  ------       409 

Use  of  German  for  imperial  proclamation  -         -  411 

End  of  Welf-Waibling  feud 412 

Jew  ritual  murder  case      -         -         -         -         -         -         -413 

War  with  Lombardy         -         -         -         -         -         -         -416 


xvi  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

VI.   GERMAN  EMPEROR — continued.  PAGE 

Pope's  manoeuvres  -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -417 

Re-burial  of  St.  Elizabeth,  1236,  at  Marburg     -  419 

"  Execution  of  Justice  "  against  Lombardy         -         -  421 

Appeal  to  all  Christian  monarchs       -----       422 

Appeal  to  Romans   --------       425 

Art  of  war  in  Middle  Ages        ------       427 

Frederick  of  Babenberg  u  the  Quarrelsome  "     -        -        -       428 
Arrogance  of  Gregory  IX          -         -         -         -         -         -429 

"  Donation  of  Constantine "     -         -         -         -         -         -       429 

Capture  of  Vicenza  -        -        -         -         -         -        -        -431 

Diet  of  Vicenza        --------       432 

Conrad,  King  of  the  Romans    -         -         -         -         -         -433 

Cortenuova,  1237     --------       435 

The  "  Triumph  "  in  Cremona 438 

VII.   CAESAR  AND  ROME  441-516 

The  magic  of  Rome          -------       441 

Renovatio  imperii    --------       443 

Identification  with  Caesar         ------       446 

Spolia  opima  from  Cortenuova          -----       448 

Lust  for  personal  glorification  ------       450 

Frederick's  wooing  of  the  Romans     -         -         -         -  451 

Cardinals  and  Pope          -------       45*7 

Progress  in  Lombardy      -         -         -         -         -         -         -459 

Diets  of  Pavia  and  Turin,  1238          -----       460 

Siege  of  Brescia  ;  Calamandrinus      -----       465 

Coalition  against  Frederick        ------       466 

Enzio      --------.„       469 

Imperial  Court  at  Padua  -------       470 

Frederick's  appeal  to  the  Cardinals   -         -         -         -  471 

Frederick  excommunicated        -  -         -        -         -       472 

Death  of  Hermann  of  Salza      -        -        -        -        -        -473 

Reorganisation  and  defence  of  Sicily          -  477 

Destruction  of  Benevento,  1241         -----       483 

Reorganisation  of  Italy     -         -         -         -         -         -         -486 

War  of  manifestos  and  propaganda    -----       495 

Brother  Elias  ---------       509 

Brother  Jordan  and  the  Pope    -        -         -         -        -         -510 

Christmas  in  Pisa     -        -         -         -         -         -        -         -511 

Frederick  invaded  the  Papal  States    -         -         -        -         -511 

Letter  to  Jesi  -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -512 

At  the  gates  of  Rome       -        -        -        -         -        -         -513 

Gregory  turns  the  multitude 516 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VIII.  DOMINUS  MUNDI  5IQ~<>QQ 

Cult  of  the  Emperor .51 

The  sacratissimum  ministerium S26 

Outburst  of  Sicilian  art S2g 

Capuan  Gate  ---.„_ 

Nicholas  of  Pisa -        -         -  535 

St.  Francis  and  "  Gothic  "  painting 536 

Diet  in  Foggia,  1240 6 

Inefficacy  of  papal  ban 

Princes'  effort  to  mediate 5-3 

Surrender  of  Ravenna 

Resistance  of  Fae'nza 5 

Cost  of  prolonged  operations 5-4I 

Issue  of  leather  coins 54I 

Hostilities  against  Venice 542 

Gregory's  General  Council 543 

Frederick's  counter-measures 544 

Gregory's  pact  with  Genoa 544 

Fall  of  Fa&iza,  April  14,  1241 546 

Destruction  of  Benevento -47 

Victory  at  sea,  1241  ;  capture  of  100  prelates     -        -        -  549 

Mongol  threat          ----....  5-x 

Battle  of  Liegnitz,  1241 ^ 

Pope  hinders  Crusade       -        -        -        .        _        .         _  --^ 

Muslims  retake  Jerusalem,  Nov.  1240        -         -         -         -  557 

Frederick  negotiates  recovery  of  Jerusalem         -         -         -  557 

Advance  on  Rome  ;  death  of  Pope  Gregory       -         -         -  558 

Status  of  Empire  in  Europe      -         -         -                  _         -  561 

Relations  between  Frederick  and  brother  kings  -         -         -  562 

Saint  Louis -..„  56g 

Stirps  caesarea  •  deification  of  the  Hohenstaufens       -         -  572 

Conclave  of  Terror,  1241 574 

Innocent  IV  elected  Pope 5^3 

Defection  of  Viterbo         -----..  584 

Treachery  of  Cardinal  Rainer 585 

Provisional  peace,  1244 ;  breaks  down       -         -         -         -  587 

Flight  of  Innocent  IV 588 

Ly°ns 589 

Diet  of  Verona ._  -pr 

Rainer's  hostile  propaganda $gz 

Council  of  Lyons     ------..  507 

Thaddeus  of  Suessa ^ 

Deposition  of  Frederick  II 8 


xviii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IX.  ANTICHRIST  603-689 

Dual  interpretation  of  Frederick's  life        «...  609 

Frederick's  posterity 612 

Satellite  giants  :  Eccelino ,  Guido  of  Sessa,  Hubert  Pallavicini  612 

"  Labour  of  Love  ":  to  purge  the  Church         -        -        -  615 
Reform  manifestos  -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -617 

Pope's  counter-activities 618 

Increasing  savagery  of  Frederick       -  625 

Lure  of  the  East 627 

Conspiracy  of  intimates,  1246 632 

Distrust  of  subordinates  -        - 633 

Punishment  of  conspirators 634 

Complicity  of  Pope  -        -        -        -        -        -        -        -635 

Henry  Raspe 636 

Italy  partitioned  amongst  the  Hohenstaufen       -  637 

March  on  Germany ;  threat  to  Lyons       -        -        -        -  641 

Defection  of  Parma          .......  643 

"  The  Cardinal" 646 

Siege  of  Parma 648 

Saracens  as  executioners 652 

Victoria 654 

Defeat  before  Parma 656 

Money  shortage       --------  5  JJQ 

German  knights  in  Italy  -        -        -        -•        -        .        -  661 

German  influence  on  Renaissance*  art  662 

Renewed  threat  to  Lyons 663 

Fall  of  Piero  della  Vigna                  » 664 

Attempt  to  poison  Frederick 656 

Piero  della  Vigna's  suicide 667 

Enzio  taken  prisoner        ----...  6y0 

Fate  of  King  Conrad 673 

Manfred's  rise  and  fall 5^ 

Conradin's  coronation      -----..  fa* 

Tagliacozzo  ;  Conradin's  execution 676 

Death  of  Enzio fa* 

Curse  on  the  Hohenstaufen 5^8 

Parma  avenged 680 

Death  of  Frederick,  December  13,  1250    -  683 

Burial  at  Palermo 53, 

The  Frederick  myth 6g. 

INDEX  - 


LIST  OF  MAPS 

1.  THE  TWO  SICILIES  (circa  1230)  inside  back  cover 

2.  NORTH  ITALY  AND  TRANSALPINE  EUROPE  (circa  1230) 

inside  back  cover 

3.  THE;  BATTLE  OF  BOUVINES 69 

4.  THE  BIRTH  OF  PRUSSIA  ------        92 

5.  THE  FIFTH  CRUSADE 1 80 

6.  CORTENUOVA 436 

7.  THE  MONGOL  PERIL 552 


XIX 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1 190.  Death  of  Barbarossa 
Emperor  Henry  VI 

1194.  December  26th.    Frederick  II  born  in  Jesi 

1 197.  September  28th.     Death  of  Henry  VI 

1198.  Innocent  III  becomes  Pope 
Welf-Hohenstaufen  rivalries 

1198.  May.  Frederick  II  crowned  in  Palermo  as  King  of 
Sicily 

1198.  November  28th.  Death  of  the  Empress  Constance 
Innocent  III  Regent  of  Sicily  and  Guardian  of 
Frederick  II 

1 20 1.  Markward  of  Anweiler  ruling  in  Palermo 
1204.  Conquest  of  Constantinople  by  the  Crusaders 

1208,  June  2ist,    Murder  of  King  Philip  of  Swabia 
December  26th.    Frederick  II  comes  of  age 

1209.  Marriage  with  Constance  of  Aragon 
Otto  IV  crowned  Emperor  in  Rome 

I2IO-H.  Otto  IV  in  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily 

121 1.  Frederick  II  elected  German  Emperor 

1 212.  Arrival  in  Constance  of  the  Puer  Apuliae 

1215.  Coronation  in  Aix 
Takes  the  Cross 
Fourth  Lateran  Council 

1216.  July  i6th.    Pope  Innocent  III  dies  at  Perugia 
Honorius  III  as  Pope 

1218.  Death  of  Otto  IV 

1220.  Diet  at  Frankfurt 

Henry  (VII)  elected  King  of  the  Romans 
Frederick  crowned  Emperor  in  Rome 
Diet  of  Capua 

1221-23.  Subjugation  of  Sicily 

1224.  Foundation  of  the  University  of  Naples 

1225.  Crusade  Negotiations  with  the  Curia 
Treaty  of  San  Germane 
Marriage  with  Isabella  of  Jerusalem 


xxii  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE 

1226.  Diet  of  Cremona 

Renewal  of  the  League  of  Lombardy 
Order  of  Teutonic  Knights 
Death  of  Francis  of  Assisi 

1227.  Death  of  Honorius 
Pope  Gregory  IX 
Preparations  for  Crusade 
Plague  in  Brindisi 

First  Excommunication  of  Frederick  II 

1229.  March.     Coronation  in  Jerusalem 
Return  to  Sicily 

Rout  of  Papal  Troops 

1230.  Peace  with  the  Curia 

1231.  Constitutions  of  Melfi 
Augustales 

Development  of  the  Sicilian  Monarchy 

1232.  Visit  to  Venice 
Diet  of  Friuli 
King  Henry  VII 

1233.  Penance  Movement  in  Italy 

1235.  King  Henry's  Rebellion 
Frederick's  March  to  Germany 
Court  of  Justice  at  Worms 
Marriage  with  Isabella  of  England 
Diet  of  Mainz 

1236.  Obsequies  of  St.  Elizabeth 
First  Lombard  Campaign 
Conquest  of  Vicenza 
Campaign  against  Austria 
Winter  Camp  at  Vienna 

Conrad  IV  elected  King  of  the  Romans 

1237.  Second  Lombard  Campaign 
Cortenuova 

Triumph  in  Cremona  and  Rome 

1238.  Third  Lombard  Campaign 
Siege  of  Brescia 
Marriage  of  Enzio 

1239.  Camp  at  Padua 
Excommunication 
Fourth  Lombard  Campaign 
Reorganisation  of  Sicily 
Foundation  of  the  Italian  State 
Invasion  of  the  Patrimonium 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xxiii 

1240.  March  on  Rome 
Return  to  Sicily 
Campaign  in  the  Romagna 
Capture  of  Ravenna 
Siege  of  Faenza 

1241.  Capture  of  Faenza 
Victory  at  Sea 
Capture  of  the  Prelates 
Tartar  Invasion  of  Silesia 
New  Campaign  against  Rome 
Death  of  Gregory  IX 

1241-43.  Papal  Chair  vacant 
1243.  Innocent  IV  as  Pope 

Negotiations  for  Peace 

Defection  of  Viterbo 

1244*  Peace  with  the  Curia 

Flight  of  Pope  to  Lyons 

1245.  Council  of  Lyons 
Deposition  of  Frederick  II 

1246.  Camp  at  Grosseto 
Conspiracy 

Campaign  in  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily 
Henry  Raspe  Anti-King  in  Germany 

1247.  Re-organisation  of  Italian  State 
March  on  Lyons 
Defection  of  Parma 

Rise  of  Guelf  Party  in  Italy 
Parma  besieged 
Building  of  Victoria 

1248.  Defeat  of  Parma 

1249.  Arrest  of  Piero  della  Vigna 
Doctor's  attempt  to  poison  Frederick 
King  Enzio  taken  Prisoner 

1249-50.  Crusade  of  Saint  Louis 

1250.  December  I3th.    Death  of  Frederick  II  at  Florentine 

1265.  May  8th.    Birth  of  Dante 

1266.  King  Manfred  killed  at  Benevento 
1268.  Execution  of  Conradin 

1272.  Death  of  King  Enzio 


SUMMARY  OF  SOURCES 

(The  actual  documents  and  references  to  the  sources  on  which  this  book  is 
based  form  a  second  volume  of  the  German  edition,  which  has  just  been 
published  by  Georg  Bondi,  Berlin.  These  pieces  justificative*  will  no  doubt 
be  consulted  in  the  original  tongues  by  serious  students  of  the  subject. 

In  the  meantime  Professor  Kantorowicz  has  kindly  written  for  the  English 
edition  the  following  note  as  a  guide  to  the  general  reader.) 

THE  most  important  sources  for  the  history  of  Frederick  II  are  the 
Regesta  imperil ',  vol.  v :  Die  Regesten  des  Kaiserreichs  unter  PhiUpp, 
Otto  IV,  Friedrich  II,  Heinrich  (VII),  Conrad  IV,  Heinrich  Raspe, 
WiUielm  und  Richard,  1198-1272,  edited  by  Boehmer,  Ficker  and 
Winkelmann  (Innsbruck,  1881-1901).  Letters  and  documents  have 
been  collected  by  Huillard-Bre'holles  in  Historia  diplomatica 
Friderici  secundi  (Paris,  1852-61).  Constitutional  documents,  edicts, 
etc.,  relating  to  the  Empire  are  to  be  found  in  the  Monumenta  Ger- 
maniae  Historica  :  Constitutiones  et  acta  publica  imperatorum  et 
regum,  Tom.  II  (1198-1272),  ed.  L.  Weiland  (Hanover,  1896).  The 
Letters  of  Petrus  de  Vinea  were  last  edited  by  Iselin  (Basle,  1740) ; 
there  is  no  more  modern  edition.  Further  documents  and  letters 
will  be  found  in  J.  F.  Boehmer's  Acta  imperil  selecta  (Innsbruck, 
jSyo) ;  Julius  Ficker 's  Forschungen  zur  Reichs-  und  Rechtsgeschichte 
Italians  (Innsbruck,  1874) ;  E.  Winkelmann's  Acta  imperil  inedita 
saeculi  XIII  (Innsbruck,  1880-85) ;  and  also  in  Italian  and  German 
periodicals,  especially  in  Quellen  und  Forschungen  aus  italienischen 
Archiven  und  Bibliotheken,  published  by  the  Preussische  Histo- 
rische  Institut  in  Rome  (Rome,  1898  ff.).  Karl  Hampe  has  printed 
a  large  number  of  important  letters  ;  the  publications  in  which  these 
have  appeared  are  enumerated  in  Quellen  und  Forschungen  aus 
italienischen  Archiven,  etc.,  vol.  xx,  p.  40. 

The  authoritative  edition  of  the  Emperor's  Sicilian  laws  is  that  of 
C.  Carcani :  Constitutiones  regum  regni  utriusque  Siciliae,  mandante 
Friderico  II  imperatore  (Naples,  1786) ;  the  Greek  translation  and 
the  fragment  of  the  Register  of  1239-40  will  be  found  in  the  same 
place.  The  edition  by  Antonius  Cervonius  :  Constitutionum  regni 
Siciliarum  libri  III  (Naples,  1773)  is  also  useful  on  account  of  con 
taining  the  Glosses.  The  Laws  in  chronological  order  will  be  found 
in  Huillard-Bre'holles,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iv,  pp.  i  fT.  The  courtiers'  letters 


xxvi  SUMMARY  OF   SOURCES 

are  in  an  appendix  to  Huillard-Breholles  :  Vie  et  correspondance  de 
Pierre  de  la  Vigne  {Paris,  1865). 

The  number  of  chronicles  and  annals  relating  to  the  period  of 
Frederick  II  is  extraordinarily  large  ;  an  excellent  summary  of  them 
will  be  found  in  the  Regesta  imperil,  vol.  v,  9,  pp.  Ixxxvii  if.  The 
important  biography  of  Frederick  II  by  Bishop  Mainardinus  of 
Imola  has  unfortunately  perished  ;  it  has  been  as  far  as  possible 
reconstructed  from  surviving  fragments  by  F.  Gueterbock  in 
Neues  Archiv,  vol.  xxx  (1905),  pp.  35-83.  The  most  outstanding 
Italian  chroniclers  are:  Richard  of  San  Germano,  edited  by  A. 
Gaudenzi  in  Monumenti  storici,  serie  prima  :  Cronache  (Naples, 
1888)  ;  the  Guelf  and  Ghibelline  Annals  of  Piacenza  in  the  Monum. 
Germ.  Histor. :  Scriptores,  vol.  xviii,  a  volume  which  also  contains 
the  important  Annales  Januenses  \  the  Chronicle  of  Rolandin  of 
Padua,  ibid.,  vol.  xix,  and  the  Chronicle  of  Fra  Salimbene  of  Parma, 
ibid.,  vol.  xxxii.  The  most  important  German  chroniclers  are  : 
Burchardi  Praepositi  Urspergensis  Chronicon,  ed.  Holder  Egger  and 
B.  v.  Simson  in  Scriptores  rerum  Germanicarwn  (Hanover,  1916), 
and  the  Chronica  regia  Coloniensis,  ed.  G.  Waitz,  in  Scriptores  rerum 
Germanicarum  (Hanover,  1880).  A  further  main  source  is  Roger  of 
Wendover,  Flores  historiarum,  ed.  Coxe  (London,  1841),  and  Matthew 
Paris,  Historia  maior,  ed.  Luard  (London,  1872  ff.).  Both  of  these 
are  Englishmen.  The  Arabic  sources  have  been  edited  and  trans 
lated  into  Italian  by  Michele  Amari,  Bibliotheca  arabo-sicula  (Turin- 
Rome,  1880  if.).  The  most  important  of  the  papal  letters  have  been 
printed  in  Monum.  Germ.  Histor. :  Epistolae  saeculi  XIII  e  regestis 
pontificum  Romanorum  selectae,  ed.  C.  Rodenberg  (Berlin,  1883  if.). 

Among  secondary  authorities  Schirrmacher's  Kaiser  Friedrich  der 
Zzoeite  (Gottingen,  1859-65)  is  superseded  by  E.  Winkelmann  : 
Jahrbiicher  der  deutschen  Geschichte,  Philipp  von  Schwaben  und  Otto 
von  Braunschweig,  2  vols.  (Leipzig,  1873-78),  and  Kaiser  Friedrich  II, 
2  vols.  (Leipzig,  1889-97),  which,  however,  only  extends  to  the  year 
1233.  A  concise  and  more  recent  account  is  given  by  Karl  Hampe's 
Deutsche  Kaisergeschichte  in  der  Zeit  der  Salier  und  Staufer.  Other 
attempts  to  give  a  complete  portrait  are  :  Wolfram  von  den  Steinen's 
Das  Kaisertum  Friedrichs  II  nach  den  Anschauungen  seiner  Staats- 
briefe  (Berlin-Leipzig,  1922) ;  Antonio  de  Stefano  :  Uidea  imperiale 
di  Federico  II  (Florence,  1927)  ;  further,  Otto  Vehse  :  Die  amtliche 
Propaganda  in  der  Staatskunst  Kaiser  Friedrichs  II  (Munich,  1929). 
A  number  of  single  questions  relating  to  the  history  of  the  Emperor 
have  been  handled  in  smaller  monographs  in  the  Heidelberger  Abhand- 
lungen  zur  mittleren  und  neueren  Geschichte  (Heidelberg)  for  the 
medieval  section  of  which  Karl  Hampe  is  the  editor.  The  two 
following  books  are  indispensable  for  a  study  of  the  culture  and 
intellectual  life  at  the  court  of  Frederick  II  :  Hans  Niese's  Zur 


SUMMARY   OF   SOURCES  xxvii 

Geschichte  des  geistigen  Lebens  am  Hofe  Kaiser  Friedrichs  //,  Histo- 
rische  Zeitschrift,  vol.  108  (1912),  pp.  437  ff.,  and  the  supremely 
excellent  researches  of  Charles  Homer  Haskins,  the  bulk  of  which 
are  collected  in  his  Studies  in  the  History  of  Medieval  Science 
(Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A.),  1924. 

E.  K. 


I.  FREDERICK'S  CHILDHOOD 

Prophecies Birth  in  Jesi,  Dec.  26,  1194 Character 

of  Henry  VI Hohenstaufen  conception  of  Empire 

Baptism Death  of  Henry  VI Philip   of  Swabia  ; 

Otto   of  Brunswick Sicilian  hatred   of   Germans 

Papal    policy   towards    Sicily Constance's    Concordat 

with  Rome  ;  death,  1198 Innocent  :  Deliberatio  super 

facto    imperii The    Sicilian    myth Markward    of 

Anweiler  ;  Walter  of  Palear  ;  Walter  of  Brienne The 

Saracens  of  Sicily Pisa  and  Genoa San  Germano 

Frederick   of  age,    1208 Episcopal   elections 

Wedding  with  Constance  of  Aragon,  1209 Death  of 

Aragon  knights Revolt  of  island  barons 


I.  FREDERICK'S  CHILDHOOD 

OF  all  the  prophecies  in  verse  foretelling  a  future  Saviour  to 
which  the  West  has  given  birth,  Vergil's  Fourth  Eclogue  is  the 
most  famous.     Before  celebrating  in  his  mighty  epic  the  future 
of  Imperial  Rome,  the  poet  painted  in  this  relatively  short  poem 
his  picture  of  the  future  ruler  of  the  world.     He  lent  him  all 
the  attributes  of  the  Messiah :   as  befits  a  son  of  the  Gods  he 
shall  greet  Life  with  a  smile,  he  shall  bring  peace  on  earth  and 
the  Age  of  Gold,  and  shall  evoke  once  more  the  kingdom  of 
Apollo.     The  Middle  Ages  never  paused  to  reflect  that  Vergil's 
promises  might  seem  to  be  fulfilled  in  Augustus,  Emperor  of 
Peace,  the  poet's  patron.     To  that  Christian  age  such  prophetic 
verses  could  bear  one  interpretation  only — a  miraculous  fore 
telling  of  Christ's  advent.    That  they  foretold  a  "  Ruler  "  was 
no  deterrent,  for  men  were  wont  to  praise  Christ  as  "  King  of 
the  World  "  and  "  Emperor  of  All,"  and  to  represent  him 
graphically,  in  a  mandorla,  throned  on  clouds,  bearing  the  globe 
and  law  book  in  his  hand  and  on  his  head  the  diadem  :   the 
stern  Ruler  of  the  Cosmos.     To  the  pious  mind  it  was  but  one 
miracle  the  more,  that  the  heathen  Vergil,  like  the  prophets  of 
the  Ancient  Covenant,  had  known  and  told  the  coming  of  the 
Redeemer.     Thus  this  short  poem,  with  its  miraculous  fore 
knowledge,  earned  for  Vergil  the  admiration  and  reverence  of 
the  medieval  world.    This  Vergilian  prophecy  provided  the 
inspiration  both  in  manner  and  matter  for  the  song  in  which  the 
Campanian  poet,  Peter  of  Eboli,  extravagantly  hailed  the  birth 
of  Henry  VFs  only  son.     It  is  by  no  means  without  significance 
that  Vergil  thus  stands  by  the  cradle  of  the  last  and  greatest 
Christian  Emperor  of  the  German  Roman  Imperium. 

The  learned  Peter  of  Eboli  was  not  the  only  poet  and  sooth 
sayer  who  offered  his  prophetic  wares  to  the  new-born  child  on 
the  day  following  the  Christmas  of  1194.  Godfrey  of  Viterbo, 
the  tutor  of  Henry  VI,  hailed  the  boy  as  the  future  Saviour 
foretold  of  prophets,  the  time-fulfilling  Caesar.  Even  before 

3 


4  THE  EMPRESS   CONSTANCE  i 

the  birth  Godfrey  had  in  sibylline  speech  informed  his  master 
that  the  coming  son  was  destined  to  prove  the  long-awaited 
King  of  all  the  World,  who  should  unite  East  and  West  as  the 
Tiburtine  sibyl  had  foretold.  And  later  the  story  ran  that 
East  and  West  had  cried  aloud  with  joy  at  the  birth  of  the 
imperial  heir.  Meanwhile  other  and  less  flattering  predictions 
gained  currency  which  had  likewise  accompanied  the  birth  of 
the  youngest  Hohenstaufen.  The  Breton  wizard  Merlin  was 
said  to  have  spoken  of  the  child's  "  wondrous  and  unhoped  for 
birth  "  and  in  dark  mysterious  words  to  have  hinted  at  disaster. 
The  child  would  be  a  lamb,  to  be  torn  in  pieces,  but  not  to  be 
devoured  ;  he  was  to  be  a  raging  lion  too  amongst  his  own. 
The  Calabrian  Cistercian,  the  Abbot  Joachim  of  Flora,  the 
"  Fore-runner  "  of  St.  Francis,  was  swift  to  recognise  *n  the 
new-born  child  the,  future  Scourge  of  the  World,  the  Anti- 
Christ  who  was  to  bring  confusion  in  his  train.  The  Abbot, 
indeed,  full  of  prophetic  fire,  was  said  to  have  informed  the 
Emperor  betimes  that  the  Empress — overlain  by  a  demon — 
was  pregnant,  without  yet  knowing  of  her  pregnancy.  The 
Empress  too  had  had  a  dream  and  it  had  been  revealed  to  her 
that  she  was  to  bear  the  fiery  brand,  the  torch  of  Italy. 


Constance  obsessed  the  imagination  of  her  contemporaries 
as  few  empresses  have  done.  The  strangely-secluded  girlhood 
of  the  heiress  of  Sicily,  posthumous  daughter  of  the  gifted 
Norman  king  and  state-maker,  Roger  II,  the  great  blond- 
bearded  Viking  :  her  belated  marriage,  when  she  was  already 
over  thirty,  with  Barbarossa's  younger  son,  her  junior  by  ten 
years  :  her  nine  years  of  childlessness  :  the  unexpected  con 
ception  by  the  ageing  woman  :  all  this  was — or  seemed — 
mysterious  enough  to  the  people  of  her  time  to  furnish  ample 
material  for  legend.  According  to  current  rumour  Constance's 
mother,  Beatrice,  daughter  of  Count  Gunther  of  Rethel,  had 
been  a  prey  to  evil  dreams  when,  after  the  death  of  King  Roger, 
she  was  brought  to  bed  of  the  future  Empress.  And  the 
augurs  of  the  half-oriental  Norman  court  declared  that  Con 
stance  would  bring  dire  ruin  on  her  fatherland.  To  avert  this 
evil  fate,  no  doubt,  Constance  was  at  once  doomed  to  be  a 


1 194  FREDERICK'S  BIRTH  5 

nun.  The  fact  that  the  princess  actually  spent  long  periods 
in  various  nunneries  in  Palermo  may  well  have  strengthened 
such  a  report.  The  story  further  ran  that  Constance  had  been 
most  unwilling  to  marry  at  all,  and  this  coloured  Dante's 
conception  of  her  :  because  she  left  her  "  pleasant  cloister's 
pale  "  under  pressure  and  against  her  will,  he  gave  the  Empress 
a  place  in  Paradise.  The  tale  that  Constance  had  taken  the 
veil  was  widely  believed,  and  later  deliberately  circulated  by 
the  Guelfs  out  of  malice  towards  her  son.  The  similar  super 
stition  of  a  later  day  foretold  that  a  nun  should  be  the  mother 
of  Anti-Christ.  Meantime  this  first  and  only  pregnancy  of  the 
forty-year  old  empress  gave  rise  to  another  cycle  of  legend. 
It  became  the  fashion  to  represent  Constance  as  being  consider 
ably  older  than  she  was,  in  order  to  approximate  the  miracle  of 
this  belated  conception  to  Bible  precedent,  and  she  is  tradition 
ally  depicted  as  a  wrinkled  old  woman.  The  rumour  that  the 
child  was  supposititious  was  bound  to  follow,  and  it  was  given 
out  that  he  was  in  reality  the  son  of  a  butcher.  Shrewd 
woman  that  she  was,  Constance  had  taken  measures  to  forestall 
such  gossip  :  she  had  had  a  tent  erected  in  the  open  market 
place,  and  there  in  the  sight  of  all  she  had  borne  her  son  and 
proudly  displayed  her  well-filled  breasts — so  the  counter- 
rumour  ran. 

Not  in  Palermo,  but  in  Jesi,  a  small  town  dating  from  Roman 
times,  in  the  March  near  Ancona,  Constance  brought  her  son  to 
birth.  After  he  was  Emperor,  Frederick  sang  the  praises  of 
his  birthplace  in  a  remarkable  document.  He  called  Jesi  his 
Bethlehem,  and  the  Divine  Mother  who  bore  him  he  placed 
on  the  same  plane  as  the  Mother  of  our  Lord.  Now  the  Ancona 
neighbourhood  with  its  landscapes  belongs  to  the  most  sacred 
regions  of  Renaissance  Italy.  As  soon  as  the  Italian  people 
awoke  to  self-consciousness  it  recognised  this  as  a  sancta  regio 
and  consecrated  it  as  such.  From  1294 — a  hundred  years  after 
the  birth  of  the  Staufen  boy — the  Virgin's  house  from  Nazareth 
stood  in  the  Ancona  Marches,  and  Loreto,  where  it  eventually 
came  to  rest,  became  one  of  the  most  famous  places  of  pilgrimage 
in  Italy.  So  it  need  cause  no  surprise  that  the  March — the 
home  moreover  of  Raphael — supplies  the  actual  landscape 
basis  (so  far  as  a  mythical  landscape  has  a  real  prototype)  for 


6  HENRY  VI  i 

innumerable  pictures  of  the  Madonna  playing  with  the  Holy 
Child. 

These  sunlit  scenes  played  no  part  in  the  actual  childhood  of 
the  boy.  A  few  months  after  his  birth  Constance  had  the 
"  blessed  son  " — to  whom  for  the  moment  she  gave  the  name 
of  Constantine — removed  to  Foligno  near  Assisi  and  placed  in 
the  care  of  the  Duchess  of  Spoleto,  while  the  Empress  herself 
hastened  back  to  her  Sicilian  kingdom.  She  had  only  stayed 
in  Jesi  for  her  confinement,  while  the  Emperor  Henry  travelled 
south  to  repress  a  Sicilian  insurrection.  Thii  he  accomplished 
with  severity  and  bloodshed,  and  at  last,  after  years  of  toil  and 
fighting,  he  took  possession  of  the  hereditary  country  of  his 
consort.  All  that  Barbarossa  had  once  dreamed,  and  had 
hoped  to  achieve  through  the  Sicilian  marriage  of  his  son  :  to 
checkmate  the  exasperating  Normans  who  always  sided  with 
the  enemies  of  the  Empire ;  to  secure  in  the  extreme  south  a 
firm  fulcrum  for  the  Empire  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  corresponding 
to  their  stronghold  north  of  the  Alps,  and  from  these  two  bases 
— independent  of  the  favour  or  disfavour  of  the  German 
princes — to  supervise  and  hold  in  check  the  Patrimonium 
between,  and  the  ever-restive  Italy  :  all  this  had  reached 
fulfilment  one  day  before  the  heir  to  this  imperial  power  was 
born.  Escorted  by  Saracen  trumpeters,  Henry  with  unexampled 
pomp  entered  as  victor  into  the  conquered  city  of  Palermo,  the 
terrified  populace  falling  on  their  knees  as  he  rode  by,  and  on 
Christmas  Day  1194  he  was  crowned  King  of  Sicily  in  the 
cathedral  of  the  capital.  He  was  soon  able  to  announce  in  one 
and  the  same  letter  both  the  victorious  outcome  of  his  cam 
paigns  and  the  birth  of  his  son  and  heir.  The  assurance  of  the 
succession  gave  full  value  to  the  conquest  of  the  southern 
kingdom,  a  hereditary  not  an  elective  monarchy,  and  to  the 
other  great  achievements  of  the  indefatigable  Emperor. 

Henry's  rule  over  the  Roman  Empire  lasted  but  six  years. 
But  this  short  space  sufficed  him  to  crush  the  world  into  the 
dust  before  his  throne.  If,  like  his  son,  he  had  possessed  the 
skill  to  read  the  stars,  and  had  learned  from  them  how  short  a 
span  was  accorded  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  gigantic  task,  he 
could  scarcely  have  economised  his  time  more  drastically  than 
he  did  without  this  foreknowledge.  He  recognised  no  values 


HENRY'S  AMBITIONS  7 

but  the  concrete  and  the  practical ;  he  allowed  no  scruple  to 
stem  his  progress  ;  when  state  policy  was  at  stake  all  con 
ventions  were  but  will-o'-the-wisps.  The  sober  statesmanlike 
genius  that  reveals  itself  in  this  he  shared  with  the  other 
Hohenstaufens,  but  he  lacked  many  another  quality  of  that 
favoured  house  :  he  had  nothing  of  the  genial  bonhomie  of 
his  family,  nothing  of  their  gracious  exterior.  His  body  was 
gaunt  and  frail,  his  sombre  countenance,  dominated  by  the 
mighty  brow,  was  unvaryingly  stern.  His  face  was  pale,  his 
beard  was  scant.  No  man  saw  him  laugh.  His  personality 
completely  lacked  the  amiability  and  compelling  charm  of 
Barbarossa.  He  had  a  gloomy  autocratic  way  with  him  ;  in 
later  days  he  might  almost  have  been  of  stone.  His  policy  was 
ambitious  and  all-embracing,  but  hard  and  uninspired.  Hard 
ness  was  indeed  the  keynote  of  his  being,  a  hardness  as  of 
granite,  and  with  it  a  reserve  rare  in  a  German.  Add  to  this 
a  mighty  will,  a  passion  immensely  strong  but  cold  as  ice, 
an  amazing  shrewdness  and  political  acumen.  There  was  a 
remarkable  absence  of  youthfulness  in  all  these  qualities,  and 
indeed  it  is  easy  to  forget  that  with  his  thirty-second  year 
Henry's  career  had  run  its  course. 

In  addition  to  the  Empire  itself,  Barbarossa  had  bequeathed 
to  his  son  the  sum  total  of  imperial  claims  and  demands  which 
were  his  by  Roman  Law  :  the  theory  that  the  whole  circuit  of 
the  world  was  by  right  under  the  tutelage  of  the  Roman  Im- 
perator.  And  the  task  now  fell  to  Henry  to  make  good  these 
claims.  He  had  none  of  Barbarossa's  devouring  fire  or  infec 
tious  enthusiasm  and  none  of  his  ingenuous  naivete — Barbarossa 
for  instance  had  once  commanded  the  Sultans  to  place  their 
lands  under  his  rule  as  heir  of  the  Augusti,  because  these 
eastern  territories  had  of  old  been  conquered  by  the  generals 
of  his  Caesar  ancestors.  Henry  possessed,  however,  one  quality 
most  essentially  Roman  :  a  boundless,  sober  common  sense. 
He  was  skilful  in  turning  to  account  for  his  own  success  as  a 
world-conqueror  the  enthusiasm  kindled  by  his  father.  "  As 
the  sun  outshines  in  greatness  and  in  glory  all  the  massed  stars 
of  Heaven,  so  the  Roman  Empire  is  lofty  above  the  other 
kingdoms  of  the  world.  Sole  overlordship  belonged  of  yore  to 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  as  the  stars  receive  their  light  from  the 


8  CONCEPTION   OF  EMPIRE  i 

sun,  so  do  the  kings  receive  from  the  Emperor  the  right  to  rule." 
Thus   wrote   not   long   afterwards   the    Rhenish    Cistercian, 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  and  many  non-Germans  would  have 
agreed  with  him.     The  English  John  of  Salisbury,  writing  in 
an  almost  humanistic  atmosphere,  dubbed  them  "  petty  kings," 
and  again  Huguccio  of  Pisa,  with  his  mental  background  of 
Roman  law,  taught :  "  there  be  many  provinces  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  with  many  kings,  but  only  one  Emperor,  their  suzerain." 
Such  is  the  familiar  conception  of  the  imperial  power  held 
by  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen.    As  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide  phrased  it  later,  "  the  minor  kings  surround  thee." 
The  imperial  claim  could  not  always  be  made  good  in  the  form 
of  an  immediate,  absolute  autocracy,  but  with  the  aid  of  feudal 
law  it  could  be  realised  mediately.    Within  a  few  years  the 
West,  and  not  the  West  alone,  had  in  fact  learned  to  recognise 
in  Henry  VI  the  highest  feudal  lord.    Even  before  the  death  of 
Barbarossa  Henry  had  laid  claim  to  Denmark  and  the  Polish 
East ;  England  had  become  a  tributary  vassal  state — the  capture 
of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  was  a  master  stroke  of  Henry's 
calculating    statesmanship.    He    claimed    further,    through 
Coeur  de  Lion,  to  be  acknowledged  as   overlord  by  Philip 
Augustus  of  France  :  for  the  great  English  possessions,  from 
Normandy  to  the  borders  of  Navarre ,  were  French  fiefs .    France 
was  to  be  compelled  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty,  and  Richard  of 
England  was  commissioned,  as  any  subordinate  general  might 
have  been,  to  make  war  on  France  in  the  Emperor's  name,  and 
to  conclude  peace  only  with  the  Emperor's  permission.     The 
Emperor's  pretensions  extended  to  the  kingdom  of  Burgundy, 
which,  since  Barbarossa's  marriage  to  Beatrice,  had  once  more 
reverted  to  the  Empire.    He  even  claimed  Castile  and  asserted 
rights  in  Aragon  which  he  looked  to  the  Genoese  to  uphold  for 
him.    Italy  as  a  whole  was  in  his  hand.    The  Italian  islands 
belonged  to  the  Empire,  the  Lombard  states  scarcely  ventured  to 
resist,  and  the  Pope — in  no  wise  a  match  for  the  imperial  power 
— was  restricted  to  a  patch  of  the  Campagna :  "  where  none 
the  less  men  feared  the  Emperor  rather  than  the  Priest."     The 
entire  Patrimonium,  Spoleto,  the  March,  Tuscany,  were  in  his 
possession.    Rome  accepted  her  Prefect  from  the  Emperor's 
hand,  and  the  whole  side  of  the  city  lying  on  the  right  bank  of 


EXTENT  OF  HENRY'S  POWER  9 

the  Tiber  was  incorporated  in  Tuscany.  Once  Sicily  had  been 
conquered,  therefore — an  undertaking  that  for  many  years 
taxed  all  the  Emperor's  strength — the  whole  of  Italy  was  united 
under  a  single  all-powerful  monarch. 

With  the  possession  of  Sicily  a  new  world  opened  to  Henry  : 
from  the  pillars  of  Hercules  to  the  Hellespont  the  whole  basin 
of  the  Mediterranean  lay  within  the  radius  of  his  power.  He 
conceived  himself  the  heir  of  the  Normans,  not  alone  of  the 
royal  citadel,  of  Palermo  and  of  the  royal  dignities,  but  also 
of  their  rights  and  claims.  Since  the  days  of  Roger  II  the 
Normans  had  styled  themselves  "  Kings  of  Africa,"  and  the 
Muslim  princes,  from  Morocco  to  Tripoli,  were  now  compelled 
to  render  to  the  German  Emperor — the  new  Lord  of  Sicily — 
the  tribute  heretofore  paid  to  their  Norman  masters.  The 
Sultan  of  the  Almohades  did  not  hesitate  long  about  paying 
tribute,  for  he  saw  his  Balearic  islands  threatened  after  the 
fall  of  Sicily.  Henry  VI  further  considered  himself  the  heir 
of  the  campaigns  of  Robert  Guiscard  and  his  followers  against 
the  Eastern  Empire.  The  vivid  German  picture  of  one  uni 
versal  Roman  World  would  have  been  far  from  realisation  if 
Henry  had  tolerated  the  existence  of  the  Greek  Emperor  by 
his  side  :  the  ring  round  the  Mediterranean  would  not  have 
been  complete  without  Byzantium.  Henry  VI  was  able  to 
back  his  claims  by  various  legal  titles,  and  where  these  failed 
the  fear  of  his  power  was  by  itself  enough  to  make  the  powerless 
Greeks  speedily  complacent.  As  heir  of  the  Normans  he 
demanded  all  the  territory  from  Epidaurus  to  Thessalonica, 
and  through  his  ambassador  he  inexorably  exacted  tribute, 
followers,  and  ships  from  the  anaemic  usurper,  Alexius  III. 
"  As  if  he  were  Lord  of  Lords  and  King  of  Kings  "  he  con 
ducted  his  business  with  Byzantium.  To  raise  the  tribute- 
money  Alexius  was  driven  to  institute  a  "  German  Tax/'  and 
he  did  not  shrink  even  from  opening  up  the  imperial  tombs — 
including  that  of  the  great  Constantine — and  plundering  the 
dead  of  their  ornaments.  But  all  these  things  were  only  the 
preliminaries  to  the  conquest  of  the  East,  to  which  the  ambitious 
schemes  of  Henry's  last  years  were  almost  exclusively  directed. 
Some  individual  Christian  princes  in  the  East  had  voluntarily 
placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  only  man  who 


io  HEREDITARY  PRINCIPLE  i 

at  that  time  could  afford  them  any  :  the  thirty-year-old  Em 
peror.  The  king  of  one  of  the  Crusader  states,  Bohemund  of 
Antioch,  had  besought  the  Emperor  to  be  his  feudal  lord  ; 
ambassadors  from  the  King  of  Cilicia  had  done  homage  to 
Henry  and  begged  him  to  grant  their  master  as  his  vassal  the 
crown  and  title  of  "  King  of  the  Armenians,"  exchanging  thus 
their  old  feudal  allegiance  to  the  Eastern  Emperor  for  allegiance 
to  the  new  world-ruler  of  the  West.  The  messengers  of  King 
Amaury  of  Cyprus  penetrated  as  far  north  as  Worms  to  ask  that 
their  master  should  be  feudally  invested  with  his  kingdom  and 
his  crown  at  Henry's  hands.  Meantime  Henry  was  now  plan 
ning  a  Crusade  which  was  finally  to  unlock  the  East  and  make  it 
subject  to  him.  All  preparations  were  made  with  the  greatest 
care.  The  Pope,  the  octogenarian  Celestine  III,  suspected  no 
doubt  the  real  intention  of  this  Holy  War,  but  as  spiritual 
overlord  of  Western  Christendom  he  could  not,  in  those  days 
at  any  rate,  take  up  any  but  a  benevolent  and  helpful  attitude 
towards  such  an  undertaking.  Against  his  will  he  was  harnessed 
to  the  imperial  plans  and  was  able  successfully  to  oppose  the 
Hohenstaufen  will  in  one  particular  only. 

Henry  VI  was  well  aware  that  his  giant  empire  lacked 
organic  unity,  for  each  of  the  component  countries  stood  in  a 
different  relation  to  the  Emperor :  Germany  was  an  elective 
monarchy  ;  Sicily  a  hereditary  one  ;  and  the  other  countries 
were  feudal  dependencies,  many  of  them  mediate.  He  did  his 
utmost  to  pull  the  whole  together  and  give  it  a  certain  stamp  of 
uniformity.  When  his  son  was  born  he  thought  the  time  had 
come.  He  sought  to  win  over  the  German  princes  to  his 
schemes  by  offering  to  the  temporal  princes  the  promise  of  a 
hereditary  succession,  and  to  the  spiritual  ones  free  testa 
mentary  powers.  He  hoped  thus  to  transmute  the  German 
Elective  Kingdom  into  a  Hereditary  Roman  Empire.  To 
achieve  this  end  he  was  prepared  to  incorporate  in  the  Empire 
his  own  personal  hereditary  kingdom  of  Sicily.  The  German 
princes  declared  themselves  in  favour  of  these  proposals  :  all 
except  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  and  a  small  following.  In 
order  to  overcome  the  last  remnants  of  opposition  the  Emperor 
betook  himself  to  Rome.  His  idea  probably  was  to  induce  the 
Pope,  in  defiance  of  any  protest  by  the  princes,  to  crown  his 


FREDERICK'S  BAPTISM  11 

infant  son  as  Roman  Emperor  and  Co- Caesar.  The  Pope 
declined,  and  Henry  had  no  alternative  but  to  do,  as  others 
before  him  had  done  :  to  get  his  son  chosen  by  the  German 
princes  as  their  future  king  and  thus  to  safeguard  the  Empire 
for  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen. 

Henry  had  only  twice,  quite  briefly,  seen  the  heir  of  his 
immense  empire  :  once  in  Foligno  shortly  after  his  birth,  and 
once  when  he  (probably)  attended  his  son's  belated  baptism. 
The  boy  had  been  originally  called  Constantine  by  his  mother 
(no  doubt  in  allusion  to  her  own  name,  Constance,  for  she  liked 
to  think  of  him  as  his  mother's  son  and  heir)  and  the  German 
princes  had  chosen  him  in  Frankfurt  for  their  king  under  this 
foreign-sounding  cognomen.  When  it  came  to  the  baptism, 
however,  which  ultimately  took  place  in  the  presence  of  many 
cardinals  and  bishops — though  not,  as  Henry  had  desired,  of 
the  Pope — the  child  was  given  the  names  of  Frederick  Roger 
after  his  two  grandfathers  :  whom  in  truth  he  was  to  resemble 
rather  than  his  parents.  These  names  had  been  first  suggested 
in  a  poem  by  Peter  of  Eboli,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  to  pro 
phesy  a  future  of  immense  and  almost  god-like  power  for  the 
grandson  of  these  two  mighty  princes  and  the  son  of  Henry  VI. 
All  the  poets  and  wise  men  who  had  stood  by  the  cradle  of  the 
boy  had  shown  themselves  at  one  in  this  anticipation  :  whether 
they  were  rejoicing,  as  friends  of  the  Empire  ;  or,  as  partisans 
of  the  Pope,  were  trembling  for  the  fate  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Before  long,  however,  it  looked  as  if  all  the  prophets  were  at 
fault. 

King  Henry  was  spending  the  summer  of  1197  in  Sicily. 
That  spring  he  had  discovered  a  conspiracy  of  the  Sicilian 
nobility  directed  against  his  life  and  he  had  escaped  only  by 
the  skin  of  his  teeth.  People  said  that  both  Pope  Celestine 
and  the  Empress  Constance  had  had  a  hand  in  the  plot,  and 
there  is  nothing  to  render  this  improbable.  The  Emperor  had 
the  captured  ringleaders  done  to  death  with  the  most  cruel 
tortures,  and  he  compelled  his  wife  to  be  present  at  the  ghastly 
execution  of  her  guilty  countrymen,  while  the  court  jesters 
played  their  grisly  pranks  with  the  still  quivering  bodies. 
Soon  after  this  the  Crusade  was  under  weigh.  The  great 
majority  of  the  Crusaders  had  sailed  across  to  the  Holy  Land 


12  HENRY'S   DEATH  i 

from  Sicily  during  the  course  of  the  summer,  and  it  seemed 
not  impossible  that  the  Emperor  himself  would  bear  a  part  in 
the  crusade,  but  he  thought  it  wise  to  await  developments,  and 
with  a  few  companions  he  remained  behind  in  Sicily.  He  did 
not  even  see  the  Promised  Land  from  afar  as  Barbarossa  had 
done.  During  a  hunting  expedition  he  fell  ill  of  dysentery — 
as  northerners  are  apt  to  do  in  the  dangerous  summer  climate 
of  Sicily.  Within  a  few  weeks,  after  an  initial  improvement, 
he  quite  unexpectedly  succumbed  in  Messina  in  September 
1197.  A  chronicler  announces  with  pride':  *£  Henry  showed 
the  world  the  superiority  of  the  Germans,  and  they  inspired 
terror  in  all  adjacent  peoples  by  their  valour."  With  Henry's 
death  all  this  was  at  once  a  thing  of  the  past.  German  world- 
rule  and  world-greatness,  resting  on  the  qualities  of  a  single 
man  and  not  upon  the  people,  was  fated  to  crumble  in  a 
moment. 

Henry  had  been  well  aware  of  the  danger  threatening  the 
Empire  :  of  that  his  last  will  and  testament  is  overwhelming 
proof.  It  recommends  surrender  on  all  sides  and  the  renuncia 
tion  of  even  valid  claims.  In  the  Empire  itself  it  was  all  too 
well  known  what  Henry's  death  at  this  inopportune  moment  must 
mean  :  his  work  was  still  incomplete,  his  successor  a  three-year 
old  child.  The  parties  of  reaction,  which  had  hitherto  been 
prevented  by  the  Emperor's  power  and  rapidity  of  action,  now 
prepared  for  the  inevitable  counter-blow.  It  would  have  been 
bound  to  corne  even  if  Henry  had  lived ;  but  now  that  the 
only  person  competent  to  oppose  them  was  dead,  the  forces 
of  opposition,  Princes  and  Pope,  hurled  themselves  into  a 
vacuum,  in  which  they  could  unhindered  work  their  devasta 
ting  will.  Some  weeks  before  the  Emperor's  death,  Philip  of 
Swabia  and  Otto  of  Brunswick,  the  one  a  Staufen  and  the  other 
a  Welf,1  had  become  kings  in  Germany,  while  at  the  same 
moment  Innocent  III — in  his  own  way  the  greatest  and  most 
successful  of  all  the  Popes — mounted  the  throne  of  St.  Peter, 
as  the  true  heir  of  world- wide  empire.  During  these  days  some 
people  on  the  Moselle  were  terrified  by  an  apparition  :  they  had 

1  The  German  feud  of  Welf  v.  Waibling  crossed  the  Alps  and  lay  beneath 
the  Italian  struggle  of  Guelf  and  Ghibelline,  which  Italianised  forms  arti 
more  familiar  to  some. — Tr. 


ii97  FREDERICK  TAKEN  TO  SICILY  13 

seen  Dietrich  of  Bern,  mounted  on  his  immense  black  war- 
horse,  coming  to  foretell  mourning  and  disaster  to  the  Roman 
empire. 


While  these  events  were  happening  the  three-year  old  son 
of  the  Emperor  Henry  was  still  in  Foligno.  Philip  of  Swabia, 
the  Emperor's  brother,  was  to  have  fetched  the  boy  thence  and 
escorted  him  to  Germany  for  his  coronation.  But  when  Philip 
had  got  as  far  as  Montefiascone  near  Viterbo  he  received  the 
news  of  the  emperor's  death.  The  immediate  revolt  of  all 
Italy  against  imperial  authority,  and  more  particularly  against 
the  hated  Germans,  compelled  him  to  return  at  full  speed 
across  the  Alps,  leaving  his  mission  unfulfilled.  He  had 
difficulty  in  hewing  his  way  through  to  Germany.  The  few 
days'  delay  which  prevented  the  completion  of  the  task  that  the 
Emperor  had  entrusted  to  him  was  destined  to  be  of  fateful 
consequence  to  the  whole  future  of  Frederick  II.  Firstly, 
because  he  thus  remained  in  Italy  and  grew  up  in  the  southern 
kingdom  of  his  mother,  instead  of  in  his  father's  Swabian  home. 
Secondly — and  this  was  more  serious — he  thus  forfeited, 
through  his  absence  from  Germany,  the  German  crown  to 
which  he  had  already  been  elected.  Quite  apart  from  these 
events  in  the  north,  and  their  consequences,  Frederick's  own 
mother  did  her  best  to  baulk  her  son  of  the  German  throne. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Henry,  Constance  had 
the  child  fetched  from  Foligno  by  an  Apulian  count  and 
brought  to  Sicily.  Dressed  in  widow's  weeds  she  awaited 
her  son  in  Palermo.  There  were  grave  accusatory  rumours 
against  the  Empress  current  at  the  time  :  some  said  she  had 
poisoned  her  husband,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  common  know 
ledge  that  she  had  no  love  for  Germans.  The  suspicion 
of  murder  was  unjust,  but  the  hatred  for  Germans  ascribed 
to  her  was  genuine  enough  ;  she  shared  it  with  her  Sicilian 
fellow-countrymen  and  with  the  Italians  oppressed  by  the 
Roman  Curia.  The  foundations  of  this  hate  were  the  same 
then  as  they  have  always  been  :  the  arrogance  "  allied  with 
unwisdom  "  of  the  Germans  alienated  the  Mediterranean 
peoples,  as  did  their  "  obstinacy  and  self-assertiveness." 


14  REACTION  AGAINST   GERMANS  i 

Their  physical  strength  and  their  savagery  moreover  terrified 
the  Southerners,  the  discords  prevailing  amongst  themselves 
brought  them  scorn  and  contempt.  For  rulers  of  the  world 
they  appeared  "  crude,  coarse  and  uncivilised/*  while  their  yet 
unpolished  language  seemed  to  the  Romans  "  like  the  barking 
of  dogs  and  the  croaking  of  frogs."  But  the  main  factor  in  this 
hate  was  fear  ;  fear  of  the  inrush  "  of  the  winter  and  the  storm 
into  the  rose-gardens  of  Sicily."  This  fear  was  not  allayed  by 
the  savagely  cruel  treatment  meted  out  to  the  Sicilians  by 
Henry  VI.  Perhaps  Innocent  with  his  biblical  phraseology  hit 
on  the  right  description  of  the  German  visitation  of  those  days 
when  he  wrote  :  "  Because  the  people  of  Sicily  and  the  other 
inhabitants  of  this  kingdom  have  grown  effeminate  in  sloth, 
and  undisciplined  through  too  much  peace,  and,  boasting 
themselves  of  their  wealth,  have  given  themselves  over  to  the 
unbridled  lusts  of  the  body,  their  stink  has  gone  up  to  heaven 
and  the  multitude  of  their  sins  has  delivered  them  into  the 
hands  of  the  oppressor." 

Innocent  spoke  thus  out  of  no  friendliness  to  the  Germans. 
The  hate  of  Germans  that  flamed  up  throughout  Italy  on  the 
death  of  the  Emperor  had  been  carefully  nurtured  beforehand 
by  the  Curia,  had  been  given  the  air  of  a  national  pan-Italian 
movement  and  utilised  as  a  means  to  shake  off  the  imperial  yoke 
in  the  south  in  favour  of  a  papal  Italy.  In  resonant  periods 
Innocent  III  had  taken  pains  to  stir  up  and  foster  this  hate  : 
"  The  wrath  of  the  North  wind  whistles  through  the  mountains 
with  a  new  quaking  of  the  earth,  it  drives  through  the  level 
plains  of  Apulia,  whirling  dust  into  the  eyes  of  wanderers 
and  country-dwellers."  Thus  he  wrote  about  the  German, 
Henry  VI,  whom  Dante  also  designated  "  that  loud  blast  which 
blew  the  second  over  Swabia's  realm." 

A  reaction  of  this  sort  against  the  tyranny  of  Henry  VI  was 
of  course  inevitable.  The  importance  of  the  movement  in 
Sicily  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the  Empress  Constance 
took  part  in  it.  Her  motives  were  probably  personal,  for  Henry 
had  made  a  terrific  clearance  amongst  all  related  to  the  old 
Norman  royal  house  and  had  banished  the  survivors  to  Germany. 
On  his  death  Constance  immediately  resumed  the  sovereignty 
of  her  hereditary  domain,  in  accordance  both  with  the 


1198  FREDERICK  KING   OF   SICILY  15 

Emperor's  instructions  and  with  the  right  she  herself  possessed 
as  Norman  Queen.  But  the  new  ruler  of  Sicily  was  Norman 
Queen  only  :  not  widowed  Empress  ;  and  the  first  act  of  her 
reign  was  to  banish  from  her  kingdom  the  Emperor's  inter 
preter,  Markward  of  Anweiler,  and  with  him  all  other  German 
notables,  a  considerable  number  of  whom  held  fief  and  office 
in  the  Norman  territory.  The  pretext  was  that  they  might 
prove  dangerous  to  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  kingdom, 
especially  Markward,  who  had  not  been  slow  to  propose 
himself  as  vicegerent.  Her  next  step  was  to  imprison  the 
Sicilian  Chancellor,  Walter  of  Palear,  Bishop  of  Troia,  who  had 
been  from  of  old  an  opponent  of  the  Norman  dynasty  and  a 
willing  tool  of  the  German  Emperor.  The  intervention  of  the 
Pope  was  necessary  to  effect  the  liberation  of  the  Bishop- 
Chancellor  and  his  re-instatement  in  his  former  offices.  Anti- 
German  feeling  in  the  south  was  so  acute  that  the  first  German 
crusaders  who  were  returning,  all  unsuspecting,  from  the  Holy 
Land  were  surprised  and  plundered  by  the  excited  Sicilians, 
and  after  that  the  home-coming  pilgrims  had  to  avoid  the  har 
bours  of  this  dangerously  inhospitable  kingdom.  Curiously, 
the  German  princes  who  were  on  the  Crusade,  when  they 
received  in  Acre  the  news  of  their  Emperor's  death,  reconfirmed 
the  choice  of  Frederick  as  King  of  the  Romans. 

Constance,  however,  deliberately  shut  her  eyes  to  all  this. 
Her  hate  of  Germany  reinforced  the  maternal  anxiety  which 
heroes'  mothers  are  wont  to  suffer  from  :  in  the  German  crown 
she  saw  a  never-ending  series  of  future  perils  and  struggles  for 
her  son.  She  would  as  far  as  possible  ward  off  such  a  danger 
from  him.  Frederick  should  be  king  of  the  wealthy  Sicily, 
and  in  the  southern  Land  of  Dreams  he  would  quietly  forget  the 
imperial  dignity  of  his  fathers.  A  few  months  after  the  boy's 
arrival  in  Palermo  she  had  him  crowned  King  of  Sicily.  The 
solemn  rite  was  celebrated  on  Whit  Sunday  1198,  with  a  pomp 
and  ceremony  borrowed  from  the  Byzantine  court,  while  in 
accordance  with  ancient  custom  the  people  greeted  their  newly- 
crowned  king  with  the  cry — which  may  still  be  read  on  every 
crucifix  in  southern  Italy — "  Christus  vincit,  Christus  regnat, 
Christus  imperat."  It  is  significant  to  note  that  this  is  also 
the  motto  engraved  on  Frederick's  early  seals.  From  that  day 


16  CONSTANCE  AND   THE  POPE  i 

Constance  omitted  from  all  official  documents  of  the  young 
king  the  title  that  had  previously  figured  there  :  Rex  Romano- 
rum.  From  henceforth  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen  was  to 
content  himself  with  the  many  titles  borne  by  the  reges  felices 
of  Norman  stock.  He  was  to  be,  body  and  soul,  the  son  of  the 
Sicilian  Constance  only,  and  to  be  kept  aloof  from  all  the  fatal, 
unknown  consequences  in  which  the  dangerous  Hohenstaufen 
blood  of  his  father  might  involve  him.  One  is  reminded  of  the 
childhood  of  Achilles  or  of  Parzival. 

The  plans  of  the  Roman  Curia  re-inforced  in  many  points 
the  wishes  of  the  Empress.  They  shared  a  strong  aversion  from 
the  Germans,  they  shared  the  desire  to  strengthen  Frederick 
in  his  hereditary  possessions,  and  to  confine  him  strictly  to 
them.  Sicily  was  a  fief  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  the  Pope  was 
unfeignedly  delighted  to  see  a  four-year  old  king  on  the  throne 
and  the  kingdom  thrown  open  to  papal  influence  for  years  to 
come.  It  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  the  Church  that  the 
imperial  throne  should  be  withheld  from  the  boy.  When 
the  empire  and  Sicily  were  united  in  one  hand  the  States  of  the 
Church  were  surrounded  on  every  side  by  the  imperial  terri 
tories,  and  after  its  recent  experiences  under  Henry  VI  the  Papal 
Curia  had  no  wish  to  be  again  exposed  to  this  intolerable 
constriction.  This  was  the  only  consideration  that  weighed 
with  the  Pope  in  formulating  his  imperial  policy.  Hence,  in 
defiance  of  right  and  justice,  Innocent  III  supported  the  Welf 
pretender  against  Philip  of  Swabia,  so  as  to  avoid  the  threatened 
union  of  the  Empire  and  the  Sicilian  Kingdom  under  any 
Hohenstaufen. 

Constance  was  in  sore  need  of  the  Pope's  support,  so  it  was 
well  that  her  wishes  in  regard  to  Frederick  were  in  unison  with 
his.  Largely  thanks  to  Constance's  anti-German  attitude,  the 
Kingdom  of  Sicily  had  soon  fallen  into  a  state  of  chaos.  Henry 
VTs  partisans,  more  especially  the  Germans,  who  would  in 
other  circumstances  have  stood  by  her,  were  the  most  embittered 
and  dangerous  enemies  of  the  Empress  and  her  son.  She  was 
powerless  to  enforce  her  decree  of  banishment  against  them, 
and  for  ten  years  they  successfully  defied  it  and  brought  down 
endless  wars  upon  the  country.  The  Pope  was  the  only  friend 
whose  alliance  could  help  the  Empress,  and  Innocent  III  sold 


1198  DEATH  OF  CONSTANCE  17 

his  friendship  dear  enough.  Constance  was  obliged  to  seek  as 
a  favour  from  the  Curia  what  the  Emperor  Henry  had  always 
refused,  and  to  implore  the  Pope  to  become  the  feudal  overlord 
of  Sicily.  Before  this  feudal  protection  was  accorded  her  she 
had  to  accept  a  Concordat  which  put  an  end  to  the  unique 
independence  of  the  Sicilian  Church  and  most  of  the  ecclesias 
tical  privileges  of  the  Sicilian  kings.  Constance  did  her  best 
to  stand  out,  but  she  found  she  had  no  option  but  to  comply, 
and  ere  long  a  further  step  was  necessary  :  a  year  after  Henry's 
death  she  herself  lay  dying,  and  in  her  will  she  appointed  the 
Pope  regent  of  the  kingdom  and  guardian  of  her  son.  Innocent 
was  to  be  reimbursed  for  all  expenses,  and  in  addition  to  receive 
annually  the  sum  of  30,000  tarens.1  Constance  thought  she 
had  thus  put  her  son  under  good  protection.  She  handed  over 
the  immediate  care  of  Frederick  and  the  kingdom  to  the  royal 
party,  the  "  Household  Officers  "  of  the  old  Norman  officialdom, 
which  at  the  time  of  her  death  consisted  of  four  archbishops, 
with  Walter  of  Palear,  Bishop  of  Troia,  at  their  head  as  Chan 
cellor.  On  his  mother's  death  in  November  1198  Henry's  son 
became  therefore  a  ward  of  the  Pope  and  of  the  Church, 
and  the  Sicilian  kingdom  fell  into  the  care  of  bishops.  For 
the  time  being  Frederick's  German  crown  was  lost. 


The  Sicilian  scion  of  the  Hohenstaufen  was  soon  forgotten 
in  Germany  in  the  midst  of  the  rival  pretensions  of  Welf  and 
Staufen  to  the  throne,  of  battles,  disturbances  and  wild 
happenings.  At  first  his  name  used  to  crop  up  occasionally 
when  someone  happened  to  remember  that  beside  the  two 
would-be  kings,  Philip  the  Swabian  and  Otto  the  Welf,  there 
was  a  third  pretender  whose  claim  to  the  imperial  crown  might 
carry  weight :  the  boy  whose  home  was  in  the  far-off  south. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  friends  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  who 
might  perhaps  have  espoused  the  cause  of  Frederick,  simply 
drifted  into  the  ranks  of  his  uncle,  Philip  of  Swabia.  Philip 
was  at  first  prepared,  as  "  according  to  law  and  nature  it  was 

1  The  taren  was  the  gold  coin  current  at  the  time  in  Sicily.  30  tarens  = 
i  gold  ounce  ;  i  tar  en =20  grains.  Tarens  were  minted  in  the  royal  mints 
of  Messina,  Brindisi  and  Naples. — Tr. 


i8  PHILIP  OF   SWABIA  i 

seemly,"  to  undertake  the  direction  of  the  Empire  only  as 
regent  in  the  name  and  during  the  minority  of  his  young 
nephew.  But  at  such  a  critical  moment  the  German  princes 
wanted  a  man,  not  a  child,  on  the  throne,  and  they  almost 
unanimously  repudiated  their  choice  of  a  short  year  before. 
The  Archbishop,  Adolf  of  Cologne,  moreover,  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  opposition  hostile  to  the  Staufens.  In  these 
circumstances  Philip  after  some  hesitation  yielded  to  the  pres 
sure  of  his  adherents  and  declared  himself  willing  to  wear  the 
crown  and  thus  secure  it  at  least  for  his  house.  Walther  von 
der  Vogelweide  was  present  at  the  coronation  in  Magdeburg, 
and  records  how  he  saw  the  c '  sweet  young  man,"  as  that  hand 
some  and  luckless  prince  proceeded  "  under  the  crown  "  to  the 
Cathedral,  accompanied  by  the  no  less  beautiful  and  no  less 
unfortunate  Irene,  his  queen  and  well-beloved  consort.  The 
poet  sings  with  what  grace  and  dignity  the  prince  wore  the 
golden  circlet : 

With  measured  step  and  kingly  grace  he  came, 

Behind  him  moved  his  high-born  dame  : 

Rose  without  thorn,  dove  without  gall  was  she.  ... 

The  many  and  varied  endowments  of  the  Hohenstaufen  family 
had  been  divided  in  curiously  contrasting  fashion  between  the 
brothers  Henry  VI  and  Philip  of  Swabia.  The  former  embodied 
all  their  stern  severity  and  autocratic  strength,  the  latter  all 
their  graciousness  and  generosity.  In  contrast  to  the  rest  of 
his  house  Philip  united  his  attractive  qualities  to  a  perfectly 
genuine  piety.  He  had  indeed  been  originally  destined  for  the 
Church,  and  might  often  be  found  sitting  among  the  choir  boys 
singing  the  Hours  and  the  Responsories.  No  milder,  gentler 
prince  had  ever  swayed  the  sceptre  of  Germany's  destinies  ; 
he  was  too  gentle  and  too  mild  for  such  a  time.  During 
Philip's  joint  rule  of  ten  years  he  was  never  once  able  to  lay 
down  his  arms.  This  man  who  was  born  for  times  of  peace 
was  fated  to  undertake  campaign  after  campaign.  Immediately 
after  his  election  the  Rhenish  party  of  opposition,  led  by  Otto 
of  Brunswick,  became  active  and  secured  the  support  of  the 
Papal  Curia,  which  most  unjustly  sided  against  Philip  and 
excommunicated  him. 


INNOCENT'S  "DELIBERATIO   .  .."  19 

This  is  not  the  place  to  pursue  in  detail  the  feuds  of  Welf  and 
Waibling.  After  Innocent  III,  in  his  pettifogging  Deliver atio 
super  facto  imperii,  had  declared  himself  against  the  Hohen- 
staufens  in  general  and  in  particular  against  the  Sicilian  boy, 
not  even  the  name  of  Frederick  played  any  further  part  in  the 
matter.  In  skilful  special  pleading  the  wily  Pope  weighs  the 
pros  and  cons  of  Frederick's  elevation  to  the  Roman  King 
ship.  In  the  first  place,  he  points  out,  the  claim  seems  specious 
enough,  for  Frederick  had  been  duly  elected,  and  almost  all 
the  princes  had  sworn  loyalty  to  him  and  many  had  actually 
taken  the  oath  of  fealty.  Nevertheless  the  election  was  in 
fact  invalid,  because  it  had  taken  place  on  the  assumption  that 
Frederick  at  the  time  of  his  accession  would  be  of  legal  age  : 
but  this  reasonable  anticipation  had  not  been  fulfilled.  More 
over,  at  the  time  when  Frederick  had  been  elected  he  was  still 
unbaptised.  He  had  even  been  chosen  under  the  Greek  name 
of  Constantine.  Secondly,  the  Pope  continued,  it  might  well 
appear  unseemly  that  the  Pope  should  rob  his  ward  of  his  just 
dues,  instead  of  being  his  helpful  guardian.  But  he,  Pope 
Innocent,  had  been  appointed  guardian,  not  to  secure  the 
Imperium  for  Frederick,  but  to  defend  his  maternal  inheritance 
of  Sicily.  Finally,  he  would  remind  his  readers  of  the  warning 
words  of  Scripture  :  "  Woe  to  the  land  whose  king  is  a  child.5* 
Having  thus  disposed  of  these  two  possible  objections  to 
Frederick's  deposition — his  due  election,  and  a  guardian's 
duty — Innocent  weighs  the  consequences  that  would  follow 
the  boy's  recognition.  With  extraordinary  clearsightedness 
the  Pope  foresees  the  whole  trend  of  his  ward's  future  career. 
"  If  once  the  boy  reaches  years  of  understanding  and  perceives 
that  he  has  been  robbed  of  his  honours  as  Emperor  by  the 
Roman  Church,  he  will  assuredly  refuse  her  reverence  and 
will  oppose  her  by  every  means  in  his  power,  he  will  free  Sicily 
from  feudal  fetters  and  deny  the  wonted  homage  to  Rome." 
Innocent  foresaw  precisely  what  was  in  fact  in  store  for  the 
Roman  Church  and  yet  he  chose  to  act  against  his  knowledge. 
His  arguments  were  irrefutable,  and  when  he  was  driven  to 
speak  against  his  own  convictions  he  could  only  do  so  at  the 
sacrifice  of  truth.  He  then  proceeded  to  show  that  there  was 
nothing  to  be  feared  from  the  boy's  vengeance,  for  it  was  not 


20  ROMANCE   OF   SICILY  I 

he,  the  Pope,  but  Philip  of  Swabia  who  had  snatched  from  him 
the  Empire  and  the  Dukedom  of  Swabia.  Were  King  Philip 
to  presume  to  go  further  and  send  his  vassals  to  take  Sicily 
the  Church  would  stand  by  her  ward  with  all  her  powers. 

This  decision  of  the  Pope  quashed  all  conceivable  German 
support  of  Frederick's  claims  :  he  had  vanished  from  the 
political  and  diplomatic  horizon  of  Germany  for  many  years  to 
come.  For  decades  past,  nay,  longer,  everything  Sicilian  had 
worn  a  halo  of  romance  in  German  eyes,  and  his  German 
contemporaries  cherished  a  vision  of  a  fairy  prince  living  in 
distant  Sicily.  Since  the  wanderings  of  the  old  Germanic 
peoples  Sicily  had  exercised  on  the  imaginations  of  men  a 
peculiar  fascination.  The  further  the  Northern  invaders 
penetrated  south  into  regions  of  ever-increasing  wealth  and 
luxuriance  the  nearer  they  seemed  to  approach  the  Garderi  of 
Eden  :  a  dream-fulfilment  of  an  Earthly  Paradise.  The  very 
beginning  of  the  Germanic  epoch  had  seen  the  figure  of  the 
lion-like  young  king,  Alaric  of  the  Western  Goths,  who  with 
scanty  knowledge  but  the  sure  instinct  of  an  animal  had  fought 
his  way  towards  the  southern  Paradise  where  he  was  to  find  his 
grave.  The  end  of  the  same  Germanic  age  provided  a  fitting 
parallel  in  that  young  Conrad  of  Hohenstaufen  who  lost  his 
life  in  Sicily,  The  fate  of  the  Germans  seemed  bound  up  with 
the  south  of  Italy.  In  one  way  or  another  almost  all  the 
medieval  Emperors  had  sought  to  win  it,  until  the  luck  turned 
and  Barbarossa's  scheming  obtained  it  for  his  son  Henry  as 
his  bride's  dower. 

The  possession  of  the  southern  world  wrought  a  fateful 
change  in  Germany  herself :  for  the  Crusading  Knight  the  Magic 
Hoard  had  flitted  southward  from  the  Rhine  to  Sicily.  And 
around  the  Treasure  played  the  heroic  myths  of  Rome  and 
Greece — which  now  began  to  form  a  part  of  German  culture — 
driving  out  Burgundian  kings  and  Hunnish  warriors.  Bishop 
Conrad  of  Hildesheim,  who  accompanied  the  Emperor  to  Sicily 
as  his  chancellor,  brought  back  tales  in  plenty  to  tell  the  Provost 
of  his  church  at  home  about  the  marvels  of  Sicily.  He  had  seen 
the  Fountain  of  Pegasus,  the  Home  of  the  Muses,  and  Naples 
was  full  of  the  wonders  of  the  magician  Vergil  who  had  enclosed 
the  city  in  a  glass  flagon.  The  Bishop  had  sailed — not  without 


CONRAD  OF   HILDESHEIM  21 

anxiety — between  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  and  in  Taormina  he 
had  gazed  on  the  house  of  Daedalus,  remembering  the  fate  of 
Icarus,  and  the  Minotaur  born  of  Pasiphae.  He  had  seen  the 
Well  of  Arethusa  which  first  revealed  to  sorrowing  Ceres  the 
rape  of  Proserpine,  he  had  seen  the  river  Alpheus  which  rises 
in  Arabia,  and  Etna  he  had  seen — which  he  made  the  occasion 
of  weaving  into  his  narrative  the  myths  of  Vulcan,  smith  to 
Jupiter,  and  the  legend  of  the  Blessed  Agatha.  Granted  that 
the  learned  Bishop  saw  in  his  travels  nothing  that  he  had  not 
already  read  in  the  Roman  poets,  yet  the  journey  had  localised 
the  myths  for  him  and  impressed  them  much  more  vividly  on 
his  mind,  especially  as  he  most  reverently  sought  out  all  the 
places  and  marvels  of  which  the  poets  sang.  Proudly  he  wrote 
to  the  Provost :  "  You  do  not  need  to  pass  the  boundaries  of 
our  own  empire,  you  do  not  need  to  quit  the  realm  of  the 
German  people  to  see  all  that  the  poets  have  spent  so  much 
time  and  art  in  describing." 

Reports  like  these  provided  material  and  colour  for  German 
phantasy  to  paint  pictures  of  the  Sicilian  kingdom  which 
Wolfram  of  Eschenbach  chose  to  be  the  site  of  his  magic  castle 
of  Klingsor.  And  even  in  the  North  men  could  see  much  with 
their  own  eyes  :  in  the  year  after  Frederick's  birth  and  Henry's 
conquest  of  Sicily  a  caravan  of  150  mules  appeared  in  Germany 
laden  with  gold  and  silks,  gems  and  precious  stones,  on  its  way 
to  the  imperial  castle  of  Trifels  ;  and  people  heard  that  this  was 
only  a  fraction  of  the  riches  that  the  Emperor  had  plundered 
from  the  royal  citadel  of  Palermo.  The  treasure  was  far  from 
exhausted.  For  a  messenger  of  the  Empress  overtook  the 
Emperor  after  his  return  to  Germany,  announcing  that  the  lost 
treasure  of  King  Roger  had  been  found.  It  had  been  concealed 
behind  a  secret  door  and  a  woman  servant  had  betrayed  the 
clue. 

So  the  Sicilian  kingdom  had  become  to  the  German  mind  a 
distant  land  of  wonders,  and  Frederick  II  was  living  his  child 
hood  in  the  midst  of  it.  Others  had  come  to  know  that  the 
wrath  of  the  Sicilians  against  Henry  VI  was  so  fierce  that  a 
certain  bishop  had  carried  the  child  off  and  was  bringing  him 
up  in  secrecy  for  fear  the  inhabitants  should  find  and  slay  him. 
The  child  indeed  had  persecutions  and  wonderful  escapes 


22  CHAOS   IN   SICILY  i 

enough,  and  the  actual  happenings  in  Palermo  in  the  ancient 
royal  fortress  of  Castellamare  where  Frederick  passed  his 
childhood  were  more  unreal  and  fantastic  than  all  that  legend 
could  invent. 

When  the  Empress  Constance  died,  the  four-year-old  boy 
Frederick  II  was  left  alone  in  the  world  without  a  relation  or 
real  friend  of  any  kind.  The  few  surviving  relations  on  his 
mother's  side  had  been  banished  by  Henry  VI  and  were  hostile 
to  the  Staufen  boy,  and  the  only  surviving  Hohenstaufen,  King 
Philip,  was  so  busy  fighting  in  the  north  that  tie  could  do  prac 
tically  nothing  for  his  nephew.  Frederick  had  no  lack  of  nominal 
friends,  men  who  without  exception  exploited  the  royal  name 
and  dignity  for  their  own  ends,  first  among  these  Pope 
Innocent  III,  guardian  of  the  King.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
during  the  ten  years  of  fighting  and  confusion  in  and  around 
Sicily  Innocent  spared  neither  pains  nor  money  to  defend  his 
ward's  kingdom.  But  the  papal  legates  who  always  accom 
panied  troops  sent  to  Sicily  were  despatched  to  protect  rather 
the  Papal  feudal  state  than  the  interests  of  the  boy  king. 
Innocent's  decision  in  the  matter  of  the  German  succession, 
and  his  attitude  to  the  French  count  Walter  of  Brienne,  showed 
clearly  how  much  less  the  fate  of  his  ward  weighed  with  him 
than  his  own  far-reaching  intrigues.  This  Count  Walter  was 
the  son-in-law  of  the  illegitimate  Tancred,  the  last  of  the 
Norman  kings,  and  he  soon  put  in  an  appearance  to  claim 
the  provinces  of  Lecce  and  Taranto.  A  really  conscientious 
guardian  would  have  considered  it  too  risky  to  permit  the  return 
to  Sicily  of  any  member  of  the  exiled  Norman  dynasty,  yet 
Innocent,  without  any  overwhelming  necessity,  decided  the 
feudal  questions  in  the  Frenchman's  favour,  though  it  is  true 
he  exacted  extensive  guarantees  from  Walter  for  the  personal 
safety  of  Frederick.  Pope  Innocent  badly  wanted  the  French 
count  just  then ;  the  fate  of  the  boy  prince  was  secondary.  Not 
of  course  that  the  Pope  would  dream  of  robbing  him  of  his 
rights  I  But  it  mattered  little  whether  Frederick  II  or  a  scion 
of  the  Norman  dynasty  ruled  in  Sicily,  provided  the  danger  was 
averted  of  a  fusion  of  Sicily  and  the  Empire,  and  provided  that 
Church  influence  in  the  kingdom  was  in  no  wise  curtailed. 
Pope  Innocent  III  dealt  only  in  practical  politics.  Therein 


AN  ORPHAN  KING  23 

lay  his  greatness.  We  can  well  understand  that  Frederick  II 
in  later  days  thought  of  his  papal  guardian  with  wrath  and 
bitterness,  though  in  fact  nothing  but  the  Pope's  regency  had 
saved  the  kingdom  for  him.  On  the  human  side  Innocent  kept 
entirely  aloof  from  his  ward.  He  kept  up  an  interest  in  the 
boy's  affairs  as  far  as  he  could,  he  sent  legates  to  look  after  him, 
felt  anxiety  for  his  dangers,  praised  his  progress  and  expressed 
unfeigned  pleasure  at  his  escape  from  enemy  hands,  but  he  saw 
him  for  the  first  and  last  time  when  the  lad  was  seventeen,  for 
he  had  never  carried  out,  or  never  completely  carried  out,  any 
of  his  many  projected  journeys  to  Sicily. 

The  other  man  to  whom  Constance  had  committed  her  child 
was  the  Sicilian  chancellor,  Walter  of  Palear.  He  remained 
for  many  years — though  sometimes  with  interruptions  of  a 
year  or  so — in  the  immediate  entourage  of  the  King  as  head  of 
the  household  officers  and  de  facto  Regent  of  Sicily.  But  what 
has  been  said  of  the  Pope  applies  even  more  forcibly  to  the 
Chancellor  :  he  also  utilised  his  power  for  his  own  ends,  with 
this  difference  that  his  ends  were  not  of  the  same  world- 
shaking  quality  as  the  Pope's.  His  chief  preoccupation  was  to 
maintain  as  undisputed  as  possible  his  position  as  sole  regent 
of  the  kingdom,  to  retain  undivided  control  of  the  King's 
revenues  and  possessions,  and  to  squander  these  freely  for  the 
benefit  of  himself,  his  family  and  his  adherents.  Politically  he 
had  been  a  supporter  of  the  Emperor  Henry  and  consequently 
an  opponent  of  the  Norman  dynasty,  hence  the  hostility  which 
the  Empress  had  felt  for  him.  In  spite  of  this  she  retained  him 
as  Chancellor  from  a  natural  reluctance  to  feel  that  so  powerful 
a  man  was  her  son's  enemy.  Walter  of  Palear  remained 
faithful  to  his  Hohenstaufen  allegiance,  partly  because  it  seemed 
useful  and  partly  because  any  modification  of  his  attitude 
might  have  lessened  his  independence  as  regent.  There  is 
nothing  to  show  that  he  occupied  himself  much  with  the  boy, 
and  Frederick's  kter  treatment  of  him  makes  this  improbable. 
The  most  we  can  say  is  that  he  was  apparently  never  actively 
unfriendly. 

Though  the  Chancellor  remained  personally  a  defender  of 
the  dynasty  of  Henry  VI,  his  external  politics  were  extremely 
adaptable.  He  had  first  and  foremost  to  protect  the  young 


*4  SICILIAN  FACTIONS  i 

King's  interests — and  his  own — against  the  Germans,  whom 
Constance  had  unfortunately  banished  and  converted  into 
enemies  of  herself  and  her  son.  The  Chancellor,  as  a  partisan 
of  Henry's,  might  have  come  to  terms  with  them,  but  their 
leader,  Markward  of  Anweiler,  maintained  that  the  Emperor 
had  appointed  him  to  be  Administrator  of  Sicily.  There  was, 
no  doubt,  some  truth  in  this  contention.  He  certainly  kept  in 
touch  with  Philip  of  Swabia  and  was  presumably  often  acting 
under  his  instructions.  These  relations  with  Philip  were 
enough  to  bring  down  on  him  the  enmity  of  the  Pope,  while  his 
claims  to  the  regency  of  Sicily  earned  him  the  hatred  of  Walter 
of  Palear.  Pope  and  Chancellor  were  not  long  in  taking  mea 
sures  together  against  Markward  and  the  Germans.  Markward 
had  no  use  for  Frederick  II.  The  "  supposititious  son  "  of 
Constance — as  Henry's  former  interpreter-  chose  to  designate 
the  boy,  affecting  to  give  credence  to  current  rumour — stood 
in  the  way  of  a  union  between  Sicily  and  the  German  Imperium 
of  Philip  of  Swabia,  and  all  Markward Js  efforts  were  directed 
to  the  achievement  of  this  union  :  as  far  as  he  was  not  merely 
pursuing  his  own  priyate  interest.  The  papal  party  reported 
that  he  had  even  attempted  the  child's  life. 

The  general  position  of  affairs  in  Sicily  was  further  com 
plicated  by  the  appearance  of  the  aforementioned  Walter  of 
Brienne.  The  Pope  had  supported  his  claims  to  the  duchies 
of  Lecce  and  Taranto  and  forthwith  made  use  of  him  and  his 
French  knights  in  the  fight  against  the  Germans.  The  Pope's 
support  of  the  son-in-law  of  the  Norman  Tancred  alienated  at 
once  the  Sicilian  Chancellor.  As  the  sworn  foe  of  the  Norman 
dynasty  Walter  of  Palear  looked  with  justifiable  misgiving 
on  the  arrival  of  the  French  count.  On  the  first  convenient 
opportunity  therefore  he  left  the  Pope  in  the  lurch  and  went 
over  to  the  German  side.  The  subterfuges  of  all  parties, 
differences  of  opinion  amongst  the  officers  of  the  household, 
treacheries,  and  the  force  of  arms  ultimately  resulted  in  deliver 
ing  the  capital  of  Palermo  with  the  royal  fortress  and  the  royal 
child  into  the  hands  of  Markward  of  Anweiler,  and  on  his  death 
into  the  hands  of  other  faction  leaders,  his  successors,  such  as 
William  Capparone  and  Diepold  of  Schweinspeunt.  Many 
years  passed  before  Walter  of  Palear,  having  made  friends 


SARACENS  IN   SICILY  25 

again  with  the  Pope  on  the  sudden  death  of  the  Count  of  Brienne, 
was  able  once  more  to  re-enter  Palermo. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  enter  in  detail  into  the 
squabbles,  intrigues,  hostilities  and  alliances  of  the  ten  years' 
Regency.  The  tangle  is  almost  inextricable,  for  behind  the 
four  main  actors — Pope,  Chancellor,  Markward  and  Walter  of 
Brienne — there  were  innumerable  subordinate  characters  who 
attached  themselves  now  to  this  party  and  now  to  that,  according 
as  they  hoped  best  to  promote  their  own  separate  interests. 
First  there  were  the  Saracens  from  the  inner  highlands  of 
Sicily.  As  Muslims  they  had  nothing  to  hope  from  a  papal 
rule  and  were  therefore  hostile  to  the  papal  ward.  For  the  most 
part  they  leaned  to  the  German  side,  though  the  Pope  exerted 
himself  to  secure  their  armed  assistance.  The  general  anarchy 
offered  a  golden  opportunity  to  the  hill  Saracens  to  plunder  the 
whole  country  right  up  to  the  walls  of  the  towns — the  town 
Saracens  in  the  main  remained  neutral — and  even  to  occupy  it 
from  time  to  time.  The  Barons  of  the  Sicilian  mainland  1 
formed  another  group  whose  alliance  was  much  desired  and 
sought  after.  Their  policy  was  simple  :  they  had  nothing  to 
gain  from  law  and  order,  so  they  threw  in  their  lot  with  which 
ever  party  appeared  likely  to  promote  the  continuance  of  dis 
order.  The  people  of  Pisa  were  another  factor.  They  held 
on  principle  with  the  Germans,  for  it  was  their  established 
tradition  to  support  the  Empire,  but  on  the  other  hand  they  had 
many  trade  interests  in  Sicily,  and  this  again  roused  up  the 
Genoese  against  them.  Ultimately,  after  many  and  varied 
quarrels,  the  two  sea  states  contrived  to  establish  themselves 
in  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  Sicilian  coast. 

Though  in  his  childhood  the  boy  Frederick  appeared  the 
mere  plaything  of  those  forces  which  as  a  man  he  mastered  and 
directed,  he  was  even  then  being  educated  by  destiny  for  the 
supreme  power.  In  the  small  island  of  Sicily  all  the  powers  of 
East  and  West  were  represented  ;  on  the  island  and  in  Apulia 
they  tossed  and  tumbled  and  weltered,  at  the  dictates  of  the 
most  primitive  impulses,  surging  through  and  over  each  other 
like  the  waves  of  primeval  chaos  :  Henry  VTs  Germans, 

1  The  non-specialist  reader  will  remember  the  existence  of  Two  Sicilies 
(see  map  inside  back  cover). — Tr. 


26  FREDERICK  BETRAYED  i 

Brienne's  Frenchmen,  Sicilians,  Apulians,  Saracens,  Pisans, 
Genoese — with  here  and  there  a  papal  legate  and  Italian  troops, 
and  finally  even  Spanish  knights  superadded.  These  parties 
had  only  one  thought  in  common  :  to  pursue  their  own  most 
obvious  advantage,  and  to  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
the  helpless  King,  who  thus  became  the  focus  of  all  their 
struggles.  The  goal  above  all  others  to  aim  at  was  to  get 
possession  of  the  King's  person,  for  this  child  denoted  for  the 
de  facto  victor  and  ruler  the  legal  basis  of  his  arbitrary  power. 
Much  like  the  royal  seal  of  Sicily  Frederick  was  therefore 
tossed  from  hand  to  hand,  a  valuable  but  indifferent  piece  of 
property,  exploited  by  each  in  turn,  persecuted  by  the  majority, 
often  in  danger  of  death  :  "  a  lamb  amongst  ravening  wolves," 
as  the  chronicler  has  it. 


Such  was  the  atmosphere  in  which  Frederick  grew  up  : 
amid  the  clash  of  weapons,  sometimes  in  bodily  danger,  and 
for  years  in  actual  want.  In  the  early  days,  as  long  as  Walter 
of  Palear  was  still  at  hand,  things  may  have  been  compara 
tively  bearable,  but  when  Frederick  at  seven  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Markward,  with  his  companions  and  hangers-on,  a  wild  and 
dreary  time  began.  The  circumstances  that  accompanied  the 
conquest  of  the  royal  fortress  and  the  change  of  regency  were 
ominous  enough.  They  are  full  also  of  significance,  for  Frede 
rick  on  this  occasion  shows  himself  for  the  first  time  as  a  man — 
of  seven — in  action.  Markward  took  possession  of  the  capital 
in  1201 .  A  treacherous  chamberlain  betrayed  the  King's  castle, 
with  the  King,  to  the  invaders.  In  this  moment  of  danger  the 
King,  with  his  tutor,  William  Franciscus,  withdrew  to  the  inner 
most  precincts  of  the  palace.  Again  the  guard  betrayed  the 
King  and  revealed  his  hiding-place.  The  treachery  of  the 
bodyguard  and  the  boy  King's  helplessness  precluded  any 
attempt  at  defence  :  Frederick  suddenly  saw  his  pursuers 
enter  the  room.  As  they  sought  to  seize  him — to  fetter  him  it 
might  be — the  young  King,  in  spite  of  the  hopelessness  of  the 
struggle,  sprang  at  the  intruders,  full  of  loathing  at  the  thought 
of  being  touched  by  dastard  hands,  and  fiercely  smote  the  hand 
that  dared  to  lay  a  finger  on  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord.  Seeing 


AET.  7  A  ROYAL  EDUCATION  27 

himself  overpowered,  he  unlaced  his  royal  tunic,  rent  his 
clothing  wrathfully  to  ribbons,  and  with  sharp  nails  tore  his 
flesh  :  an  outburst  of  childish  but  profound  and  savage  wrath 
against  the  insulters  of  his  royal  dignity.  Such  at  least  is  the 
interpretation  put  on  this  scene  by  the  correspondent  who 
describes  it  to  the  Pope ;  the  writer  adds  :  "  a  worthy  omen 
for  the  future  ruler  who  cannot  be  false  to  his  own  nobility, 
who  with  royal  instinct  feels  himself,  like  Mount  Sinai,  out 
raged  by  the  touch  of  a  beast  of  prey." 

From  this  time  forward  no  one  in  the  fortress  seems  to  have 
bothered  his  head  about  the  boy.  The  royal  property  had  been 
so  shockingly  squandered  that  the  child  was  often  literally  in 
want  of  the  barest  necessaries  till  the  compassionate  citizens 
of  Palermo  took  pity  on  him  and  found  him  food.  One  fed 
him  for  a  week,  another  for  a  month,  each  according  to  his 
circumstances.  He  was  a  handsome  boy  whose  clear  bright 
glance  already  caused  remark,  and  the  people  were  probably 
glad  to  see  him  amongst  them.  At  eight  and  nine  years  old 
the  young  King  wandered  about  without  let  or  hindrance,  and 
strolled  unchecked  through  the  narrow  streets  and  markets  and 
gardens  of  the  semi- African  capital  at  the  foot  of  the  Pellegrino. 
An  amazing  variety  of  peoples,  religions  and  customs  jostled 
each  other  before  his  eyes  :  mosques  with  their  minarets, 
synagogues  with  their  cupolas  stood  cheek  by  jowl  with  Norman 
churches  and  cathedrals,  which  again  had  been  adorned  by 
Byzantine  masters  with  gold  mosaics,  their  rafters  supported  by 
Greek  columns  on  which  Saracen  craftsmen  had  carved  in 
Kufic  script  the  name  of  Allah.  Round  the  town  lay  the  plea 
sure  palaces  and  fountains  of  Norman  Kings  in  the  exotic 
gardens  and  animal  preserves  of  the  Conca  d'Oro,  the  delights 
of  which  had  inspired  the  Arab  poets.  In  the  market-places 
the  people  went  about  their  business  in  many-coloured  con 
fusion  :  Normans  and  Italians,  Saracens,  Jews  and  Greeks. 
The  lively  boy  was  driven  back  on  all  these  for  company  and 
soon  learned  the  customs  and  the  speech  of  all  these  tribes  and 
races.  Did  any  wise  Im£m  play  the  part  of  Chiron  to  the  lonely 
child  ?  Did  some  unknown  tutor  teach  the  future  ruler  of 
men  to  observe,  to  know,  to  use,  the  forces  of  Earth  and  Nature  ? 
We  do  not  know.  We  are  certain  only  that  his  education  was 


28  A  SELF-TAUGHT  KING  i 

unique  and  radically  different  from  any  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot 
of  a  royal  child.  Later,  men  marvelled  at  his  knowledge  of 
the  habits  of  man  and  beast  and  plant  as  profoundly  as  they 
trembled  at  his  actual  approach. 

Frederick  was  not  brought  up,  as  his  father  for  instance  had 

been,  by  a  learned  chaplain  of  the  type  of  Godfrey  of  Viterbo, 

nor  reared  like  many  another  prince  by  world-shy  monks  in 

the  seclusion  of  a  cloister.    Amazed  by  his  comprehensive 

knowledge,  his  astounding  exotic  erudition,  men  have  sought 

diligently:  to  trace  the  real  teacher  of  this  great  Hohenstaufen — 

research  has  not  revealed  his  Aristotle.    And  with  reason. 

The  teacher  never  existed  whom  he  would  not  have  surpassed 

and  disillusioned,  and  the  school  of  a  mere  fencing-master 

would  not  long  have  satisfied  him.     Frederick  II  is  a  typically 

self-taught  man  :   he  had  no  one  to  thank  for  his  education  : 

what  he  was,  he  was  sud  virtute.    Quite  possibly  he  learnt  the 

elements  from  that  Magister  William  Franciscus  who  has  once 

been  mentioned  in  attendance  on  him  as  a  seven-year-old  child, 

and  is  on  record  as  still  with  him  in  1208.    Quite  possibly  one  or 

another  of  the  papal  legates  may  have  taken  an  interest  in  him 

and  taught  him  the  necessary  amount  of  Scripture.     Quite 

possibly  he  received  irregular  instruction  now  and  then  in 

other  things,  but  he  never  enjoyed  a  systematic  education.     His 

later  learning  bears  all  the  marks  of  being  not  the  product  of 

"  school "  but  of  life  itself.    He  was  compelled  from  his 

tenderest  years  to  absorb  directly,  without  extraneous  aid  and 

from  every  source,  the  strength  he  needed.     This  differentiated 

his  knowledge  both  in  its  content  and  in  its  application  from 

that  of  his  contemporaries.     Stern  Necessity  was  his  first  tutor, 

and  she — to.  quote  the  Pope's  expression — "  taught  him  the 

eloquence  of  grief  and  of  complaint  at  an  age  when  other 

children  scarcely  lisp  aright."     His  next  instructors  were  the 

market-places  and  streets  of  Palermo  :  Life  itself.    He  laid  the 

foundations  of  his  wisdom  in  those  wanderings  which  made  him 

the  friend  of  every  man. 

The  vital  importance  of  the  fact  that  Frederick  spent  his 
childhood  in  Sicily  has  never  been  ignored.  The  Romano- 
Germanic  mixture  in  his  race  inheritance,  Swabian-Burgundian 
on  his  father's  side,  Norman-Lorraine  on  his  mother's,  guaran- 


AET.  12  FREDERICK'S   SELF-WILL  29 

teed  a  certain  mental  and  spiritual  universality  of  gifts.  These 
gifts  Sicily  fostered.  Here  in  Palermo  three  great  cultural 
systems  existed  side  by  side,  in  tangible  reality  :  Antiquity,  the 
East,  the  Church.  Not  merely  the  breath  and  spirit,  but  the 
languages,  rites  and  customs,  and  the  human  atmosphere  of 
those  three  worlds  were  familiar  to  the  child  from  babyhood. 
Pope  Innocent  once  wrote  :  "  His  hereditary  land,  rich  and 
noble  beyond  the  other  kingdoms  of  the  world  is  the  port  and 
navel  of  them  all."  The  phrase  might  be  read  almost  in  its 
literal  sense.  Sicily  was  the  navel  of  the  new  world  that  was 
here  to  come  to  birth. 

The  rule  of  Markward  of  Anweiler  and  his  successors  lasted 
five  years,  and  five  years  lasted  also  the  free  unfettered  vaga 
bondage  of  the  young  Sicilian  king.  When,  at  the  beginning 
of  1207,  Walter  of  Palear  resumed  the  charge  of  his  protege, 
the  Chancellor  and  his  following  must  have  been  surprised  at 
the  maturity  of  the  twelve-year  old  prince.  His  conduct  and 
manners  they  found  "  awkward  and  unseemly,"  but  this  they 
attributed  to  the  "  rude  company  "  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
and  to  no  fault  of  his  own  nature,  and  they  were  only  distressed 
to  think  that  "  his  too  widespread  intercourse  with  all  and 
sundry,  and  the  public  comment  thereby  provoked  "  might 
dimmish  the  due  reverence  of  the  Sicilians  for  their  King.  His 
royal  bearing  and  autocratic  dignity  were  immediately  remarked ; 
his  complete  unreceptiveness  to  reproof  was  no  less  manifest. 
"  He  will  follow  only  the  dictates  of  his  own  will,"  they  said. 
The  boy  possessed  immense  strength  of  will,  which  had  been 
left  entirely  untamed.  Only  Frederick  himself,  and  Frederick's 
own  intelligence,  and  stern  necessity  at  times,  had  ever  curbed 
it ;  hence  no  doubt  the  unruliness  of  the  boy,  and  the  iron 
determination  of  the  later  Emperor  that  brooked  no  opposition. 
At  twelve  Frederick  wanted  to  dispense  with  all  regencies  and 
guardianships.  It  was  "  disgraceful  "  to  his  boyish  pride  to 
be  a  ward,  and  to  be  treated  as  a  boy  and  not  a  king.  He 
already  compelled  respect  from  those  who  saw  him,  and  it 
was  clear  that  unconditional  obedience  would  soon  be  the 
order  of  the  day.  This  self-confidence  of  his,  not  artificially 
stimulated,  but  an  entirely  natural  growth,  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  take  liberties  which,  people  sometimes  thought,  often 


30  LUST  FOR  KNOWLEDGE  i 

overstepped  the  measure  of  what  is  allowed  a  king.     On  the 
other  hand  his  entourage  could  not  deny  the  complete  assurance 
of  his  behaviour  ;  they  had  to  admit  that  the  young  king  had  an 
unerring  instinct  for  the  true  and  the  false,  an  opinion  of  his 
own,  and  an  eagle  eye  to  discern  the  nature  of  the  men  around 
him.    His   inborn   kingliness   and   the   nobility  of  his   race 
enabled  him,  as  Innocent  once  wrote,  "  to  tread  firmly  on 
both  feet."    During  the  years  of  his  unrestricted  wanderings 
Frederick  had  thoroughly  exercised  his  body.     He  was  only 
of  medium  height,  but  even  as  a  boy  nimble  and  untiring. 
He  had  powerful  limbs  which  gave  him  great  natural  endurance 
in  every  sort  of  physical  exertion.     He  was  skilful  and  efficient 
in  handling  any  and  every  type  of  weapon.     Even  in  the  early 
days  he  was  a  good  archer  and  a  passionately  keen  horseman 
with  a  particular  love  of  well-bred  horses,  as  indeed  we  should 
naturally  expect,  remembering  the  famous  huntsman  he  after 
wards  became.    He  was  particularly  skilful  in  fencing  with  the 
sword,  and  his  opponents  must  sometimes  have  had  a  tough 
time  of  it,  for  with  his  fiery  temper  he  easily  worked  himself 
into  a  passion  during  a  fight.     What  struck  people  especially 
was  that  he  "  never  passed  a  day  quietly  in  continuous  activity." 
If  he  had  had  exercise  during  the  day  the  twelve-year-old  boy 
would  work  late  into  the  night  to  extend  his  knowledge.     His 
favourite  reading  was  history— probably  Roman  history— the 
tale  of  wars  and  deeds  of  arms.     He  thus  showed  already  the 
unresting  activity  and  zeal  common  to  men  of  his  quality  which 
often  made  the  Emperor  seem  more  than  human.    He  was  able 
nevertheless  to  preserve  the  power  of  quiet  reflection. 

Pope  Innocent  was  not  to  be  troubled  with  the  boy  much 
longer.  Like  the  other  Hohenstaufens  Frederick  matured 
extremely  early,  but  it  was  not  that  unhappy  precocity  (so 
often  observed  in  Germans)  which  precedes  a  rapid  exhaustion 
of  strength  after  the  prime.  That  old  saying,  which  Pope 
Innocent  once  quoted  of  his  ward,  "  the  manhood  of  a  Caesar 
sets  m  before  its  time  "  might  apply  to  the  whole  house  of 
Hohenstaufen.  The  country  of  his  boyhood  and  the  self- 
reliance  which  his  severe  youth  imposed  on  Frederick  as  a 
child  probably  accentuated  this  natural  tendency.  The  Pope 
at  any  rate  reported  that  the  boy  was  striding  to  the  threshold 


MARRIAGE   NEGOTIATIONS  31 

of  maturity  with  winged  feet,  and  that  day  by  day  he  grew  in 
wisdom  and  efficiency.  Men  praised  his  clearheadedness  and 
shrewdness  and  remarked  that  you  must  not  judge  Frederick 
by  the  tale  of  his  years,  for  in  knowledge  he  was  already  a  man 
and  in  dignity  already  a  ruler.  In  spite  of  his  almost  super 
human  ability  Frederick  was  no  artificially- reared  phenomenon, 
but  merely  the  best  that  can  be  hoped  from  youth.  It  was  the 
thoroughness  and  completeness  of  his  development,  his  absolute 
normality  that  was  remarkable ;  he  was  completus  they  said. 
Similarly  of  his  stature  :  "  You  must  not  picture  the  King  as 
exactly  small,  but  neither  must  you  imagine  him  taller  than 
befits  his  years/'  And  another  writes  :  "  So  completely  has 
the  King  developed  the  knowledge  and  strength  suited  to  his 
age  that  you  will  find  in  him  onfy  what  would  grace  a  perfect 
man.5)  Thus  the  moment  rapidly  approached  when  Frederick 
could  shake  off  the  yoke  of  guardianship.  In  accordance  with 
the  feudal  law  of  Sicily  he  came  of  age  as  King  of  Sicily  with 
the  completion  of  his  fourteenth  year. 


Pope  Innocent  was  anxious  completely  to  fulfil  his  duties  as 
guardian  before  finally  releasing  his  ward.  He  married  the 
boy.  The  Empress  Constance  had  had  in  view  a  matrimonial 
alliance  with  the  royal  house  of  Aragon,  and  when  Frederick 
at  seven  fell  into  the  hands  of  Markward  of  Anweiler  the  Pope 
for  practical  reasons  took  up  the  scheme  again.  In  1202  he 
negotiated  a  betrothal  between  his  ward  and  Sancha,  the  sister 
of  King  Peter  of  Aragon.  The  Pope's  calculation  in  the  matter 
was  that  King  Peter  would  have  to  send  a  body  of  Spanish 
knights  to  Sicily  to  free  Frederick  from  the  power  of  Markward 
the  German.  He  hoped,  moreover,  that  the  Spanish  Queen- 
Mother  would  go  to  live  in  Sicily  to  bring  the  boy  and  girl 
together.  For  the  Pope  did  not  consider  wholly  suitable  or 
desirable  the  exclusively  male  atmosphere  in  which  Frederick 
was  growing  up.  But  the  Pope's  plans  fell  through  and  the 
betrothal  was  cancelled.  During  the  following  years,  however, 
Innocent  did  not  lose  sight  of  an  alliance  that  would  spell  no 
small  advantage  to  the  Church — Aragon,  like  Sicily,  was  a 
feudal  fief  of  the  Holy  See.  After  lengthy  criss-cross  negotia- 


32  THE  ARAGON  ALLIANCE  i 

tions  he  brought  about  another  betrothal— which  irresistibly 
recalls  the  fables  of  the  patriarchs  and  other  fairy  tales.     Frede 
rick  is  now  to  marry,  not  the  young  Sancha,  to  whom  he  was 
originally  engaged,  but  her  much  older  sister,   Constance. 
Constance  had  been  married  to  the  King  of  Hungary,  had  just 
recently  been  widowed  and  was  a  full  ten  years  older  than  the 
Hohenstaufen  lad.    The  Pope  had  considerable  difficulty  in 
gaining  the  consent  of  the  fourteen-year  old  Frederick  to  this 
match,  but  here  for  the  first  time  he  bowed  to  immediate  State 
necessity.     Constance  of  Aragon  promised  to  bring  him  as  her 
dowry  five  hundred  Spanish  knights  to  help  him  to  reconquer 
his  completely  disintegrated  Sicilian  kingdom.    And  this  troop 
of  warriors — who  ultimately  were  to  prove  a  bitter  disillusion 
ment — seemed  to  the  boy  so  invaluable  that  he  was  willing  to 
accept  the  wife  into  the  bargain.     For,  althpugh  he  had  made 
some  most  promising  attempts,  he  could  scarcely  hope  unaided 
to  establish  order  in  the  whirlpool  of  anarchy  that  had  been 
raging  for  so  many  years.    Pope  Innocent  had,  it  is  true,  during 
the  last  years  of  his  guardianship,  seriously  bestirred  himself 
to  establish  a  passable  state  of  affairs  in  Sicily,  though  he  hoped 
that  the  really  essential  work  would  be  done  by  the  Aragon 
contingent.    He  had,  however,  himself  crossed  the  frontier 
into  the  kingdom  and  had  assembled  the  Sicilian  nobles  in 
San  Germano  (near  Monte  Cassino  on  the  border  of  the  States 
of  the  Church)  and  had  proclaimed  a  general  peace  throughout 
the  land.    To  maintain  this  peace  he  appointed  the  two  most 
powerful  vassals  of  continental  Sicily  as  Grand-Captains,  hoping 
thus  to  neutralise  their  dangerous  power.    The  papal  efforts 
were  not  of  any  very  decisive  value,  but,  nevertheless,  after 
the  years  of  chaos  the  hand  of  authority  began  to  be  felt  in  the 
northern  half  of  the  kingdom,  the  Sicily  that  marched  with  the 
States  of  the  Church.    In  the  island  itself,  on  the  other  hand, 
everything  remained  in  a  bad  way  until  the  young  King,  soon 
after  attaining  his  majority,  began  to  tackle  matters  himself  with 
zeal  and  vigour.    As  soon  as  he  was  independent  the  boy — only 
just  fourteen — displayed  extreme  daring.    He  issued  challenges 
simultaneously  in  several  directions  against  those  who  actually 
or  apparently  infringed  his  royal  rights.     On  the  26th  of 
December,  1208,  the  king's  fifteenth  birthday,  the  Pope  for- 


AET.  15  FREDERICK  OF  AGE  33 

mally  laid  down  his  guardianship.  From  this  moment 
Frederick  ruled  alone.  Two  weeks  later  followed  his  first 
brush  with  the  Pope,  the  mighty  Innocent — a  beginning  full  of 
promise.  The  point  at  issue  was  the  appointment  of  a  new 
incumbent  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Palermo.  With  the  King's 
approval  the  Cathedral  Chapter  proposed  an  election.  Three 
of  the  Chapter,  however,  objected,  for  reasons  unknown,  and 
appealed  to  the  Pope.  The  King  considered  this  appeal  a 
direct  infringement  of  his  authority.  He  banished  the  appel 
lants  from  the  kingdom,  and  wrote  to  the  astonished  Pope 
that  the  moderation  of  his  action  was  solely  due  to  the  respect 
he  felt  for  the  Pope  personally  and  for  the  Church  in  general. 
Innocent  III,  one  of  the  most  powerful  rulers  the  world  has 
known,  was  at  that  moment  recognised  by  all  the  monarchs  of 
Europe  as  the  verus  Imperator  of  Christendom.  He  by  no 
means  shared  his  ward's  view  of  the  situation.  According  to 
the  Concordat  which  Constance  had  signed  with  him  the  right 
of  the  Sicilian  king  in  episcopal  elections  was  confined  to  one 
single  point :  the  Chapter  elected  the  Bishop  without  royal 
interference,  but  the  King's  consent  was  necessary  before  the 
enthronement  could  take  place.  The  final  word,  however, 
remained  with  the  Church,  for  even  after  his  enthronement 
the  Bishop  could  officiate  only  after  the  Pope  in  final  instance 
had  ratified  the  election.  Thus,  even  if  the  King  and  Chapter 
were  at  one  in  their  choice  of  the  future  Bishop,  the  Pope 
retained  the  right  to  reject  a  persona  ingrata — and  the  persona 
grata  of  the  King  was  almost  invariably  ingrata  to  the  Pope. 
According  to  this  Concordat,  therefore,  Frederick  had  only  the 
right  of  consent.  He  had  not  the  shadow  of  a  right  to  prevent 
a  direct  appeal  to  the  Pope,  even  if  this  would  have  been  con 
trary  to  the  older,  now  abrogated,  privileges  of  the  Norman 
Kings.  Pope  Innocent  was  wise  enough  to  dismiss  this  affair 
with  a  long  exhortation  couched  in  paternal  terms,  the  gist  of 
which  was  that  Frederick  had  lent  an  ear  to  unwise  coun 
sellors.  He  must  let  secular  business  suffice  him  and  not 
stretch  out  a  hand  towards  affairs  of  the  spirit  which  were 
reserved  for  the  Pope  alone.  "  It  would  have  beseemed  thee 
to  reflect,  and  to  have  been  warned  thereby,"  he  wrote,  "  how  by 
the  evil-doing  of  thy  forefathers  in  seeking  to  arrogate  to  them- 


34  BRUSH  WITH  THE  POPE  I 

selves  spiritual  authority,  thy  kingdom  was  plunged  into  the 
chaos  and  confusion  that  thou  wottest  of."  A  detailed  exposition 
of  the  Empress's  Concordat  followed,  and  Innocent  concluded 
his  homily  with  the  command  that  the  banished  members  of 
the  Cathedral  Chapter  should  be  forthwith  summoned  back  to 
Palermo. 

Frederick  was  unquestionably  in  the  wrong  and  had  no  option 
but  to  obey.  The  interesting  point  is  this  :  that  in  his  very 
first  act  of  government  Frederick  had  put  his  finger  with  un 
erring  instinct  on  the  vital  question  of  episcopal  election  which 
was  for  decades  to  provide  the  ostensible  bone  of  contention  in 
his  quarrels  with  the  Curia.  In  compensation  for  this  setback 
Frederick  had  greater  success  in  another  direction.  We  cannot 
be  quite  sure  what  the  first  measures  were  which  the  young 
King  took  to  restore  order  in  his  kingdom,  but  he  must  have 
accomplished  much  more  in  this  way  than  it  has  till  recently 
been  the  fashion  to  recognise.  One  thing  is  certain  :  in  the 
spring  of  1209  he  undertook  a  royal  progress  "  with  great  force  " 
through  Sicily,  by  way  of  Nicosia  to  Catania  and  on  to  Messina. 
We  learn  from  his  own  words  that  this  was  no  peaceful  pilgrim 
age  :  he  quelled  "  the  sons  of  disturbance  who  hated  peace,  so 
that  they  bent  their  necks  under  his  yoke."  Within  a  few 
months  the  fourteen-year-old  King  had  more  than  half  subdued 
the  North-East  of  the  island  and  was  evolving  further  plans 
of  action.  Individual  proclamations,  whose  authoritative  tone 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  indicate  clearly  that  he  was  intend 
ing  to  cross  to  the  mainland  and  re-establish  there  his  royal 
authority.  For  that  he  wanted  Aragon  assistance. 

While  Frederick  was  still  a  minor  his  marriage  with  Constance 
had  been  celebrated  in  the  cathedral  of  Saragossa,  a  Sicilian 
Bishop  acting  as  the  King's  proxy.  The  Queen's  arrival  in 
Palermo  was  planned  for  March  1209,  but  she  did  not  reach 
the  Sicilian  capital  till  August.  She  was  accompanied  by  her 
brother,  Count  Alfonso  of  Provence,  and  the  five  hundred 
promised  knights.  Frederick,  who  was  still  in  Messina, 
hastened  to  Palermo,  where  the  wedding  ceremonies  were 
solemnised  forthwith.  Immediately  after  the  festivities  Frede 
rick  wanted  to  set  out  for  Messina,  to  undertake  without  delay 
his  projected  campaign  on  the  mainland.  A  year  before,  the 


I209  THE  ARAGON  KNIGHTS  35 

Pope,  on  the  day  of  San  Germano,  had  gathered  together 
several  hundred  feudal  knights,  and  these  with  the  Spanish 
contingent  would  have  constituted  a  very  considerable  force. 
All  the  hopes  of  the  young  King  were  doomed.  The  Spaniards, 
on  whose  help  he  had  so  eagerly  counted,  were  struck  down — 
either  during  their  preparations  for  the  start,  or  immediately 
after  leaving  Palermo — by  an  epidemic  of  plague,  which  slew 
the  majority  of  them,  including  Count  Alfonso  the  Queen's 
brother.  This  tragedy  rendered  the  projected  campaign 
impossible.  Worse  still,  the  discontented  Sicilian  barons 
seized  the  opportunity  of  their  King's  embarrassment  to  form 
a  conspiracy  to  rid  themselves  of  their  inconvenient  master  : 
a  prelude  to  many  a  similar  occurrence.  In  the  most  amazing 
manner  Frederick  contrived  to  quell  the  revolt.  The  ring 
leader  was  a  Calabrian  count.  He  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
Frederick  on  his  side  seized  the  opportunity  to  wring  from  the 
conspirators  a  part  of  the  Demanium,  the  royal  demesne,  which 
they  had  unjustly  seized  during  the  days  of  the  Regency. 

This  success  demonstrated  the  determination  and  forceful- 
ness  of  the  young  King,  but  also,  alas,  the  full  hopelessness  of 
his  position.  He  was  irredeemably  impoverished,  and  without 
foreign  aid  he  could  never  succeed  in  accomplishing  anything 
in  Sicily.  It  had  been  decreed  by  his  "  two  mothers,"  the 
Roman  Church,  his  spiritual  mother,  and  the  Empress  Con 
stance,  his  mother  in  the  flesh,  that  he  was  to  wear  out  his  life 
in  his  Sicilian  inheritance  and  in  Palermo,  the  "  fortunate  city  " ; 
but  the  decree  was  theirs  alone.  Other  tasks  were  to  be  laid 
on  him.  While  he  was  still  pluckily  pitting  himself  against 
the  Sicilian  chaos,  important  events'  had  been  taking  place 
in  Germany.  More  than  a  year  before,  in  June  1208,  King 
Philip  of  Swabia  had  been  treacherously  murdered  in  Bamberg 
by  the  Count  Palatine,  Otto  of  Wittelsbach.  Frederick,  the 
Pope's  ward,  was  now  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufen.  A  new 
vista  opened  before  him  :  the  mothers  could  no  longer  hold  him 
down,  the  call  had  come  to  rise  and  join  his  fathers. 


II.  PUER  APULIAE 

Innocent  III  becomes  Pope Theories  of  the  Papacy 

The  Priest-State Murder  of  Philip  of  Swabia 

Otto  of  Brunswick  crowned  in  Rome,  1209 Revolt  of 

Apulian  nobles Otto  deposed Frederick  sets  out  for 

Rome,  March  1212 Genoa,  Cremona,  Chur,  Constance 

The  Children's  Crusade Alliance  with  French — — 

Re-elected   German  King,   Dec.   1212 Crowned  in 

Mainz,  1212 The  regia  stirps  of  the  Hohenstaufen 

The  Welf-Waibling  feud Guelf  and  Ghibelline  in  Italy 

The  Ghibelline  spirit Bouvines,  1214 Golden 

Bull  of  Eger Lateran  Council,   1216 Innocent's 

death,  1216 Frederick's  entry  into  Aix ;    coronation 

Barbarossa's  re-interment  of  Charlemagne,  1165 

Frederick  takes  the  Cross 


II.  PUER  APULIAE 

POPE  INNOCENT  III — by  birth  Lotario  dei  Conti — presided  over 
the  Christian  world  with  a  plenitude  of  actual  power  which 
many  a  bishop  of  Rome  has  claimed,  but  none  other  before  or 
since  has  exercised.  This  learned  priest,  with  his  aristocratic 
Roman  features,  his  majestic  and  distinguished  air,  was  favoured 
in  no  common  measure  by  the  moment  of  his  birth.  He 
studied  theology  and  law  in  Paris  and  Bologna  and  was  com 
pletely  master  of  the  learning  of  the  day.  He  was  barely 
thirty-seven  when  in  1198  he  mounted  the  papal  throne,  three 
months  after  the  death  of  Henry  VI. 

The  world  which  that  great  Hohenstaufen  Emperor  had 
welded  into  temporary  unity  immediately  fell  to  pieces  at  his 
death,  and  no  single  power  was  competent  seriously  to  challenge 
the  papal  claims  still  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Gregory  VII.  It 
was  generally  recognised  as  the  particular  business  of  the  Roman 
Emperor  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  against  the  Pope,  but  in 
the  Imperium  of  that  day  there  was  no  Caesar.  It  was  rent 
asunder  by  the  Welf-Waibling  faction-fight,  and  so — since  the 
world  needs  must  look  to  an  overlord — Pope  Innocent  held 
sway  within  the  Empire  as  almost  the  verus  imperator  which  he 
was  called  by  his  contemporary,  Gervase  of  Tilbury. 

The  phrase  was  no  idle  curial  flattery  :  Innocent's  own 
figures  of  speech  were  more  arrogant  still,  though  it  was  reserved 
for  Dante's  pope,  Boniface  VIII,  nearly  a  century  later  to  coin 
the  classic  formula  of  papal-imperial  majesty :  "  Ego  sum 
Caesar,  ego  imperator,"  before  with  him  there  passed  away  the 
two  centuries  of  papal  claim  to  world  dominion  initiated  by 
Gregory  VII. 

Innocent  III,  holding  a  place  in  time  half  way  between 
Gregory  and  Boniface,  was  the  actual  fulfiller  of  the  papal  claim 
to  universal  rule.  A  chronicler  writes  :  "  The  Church  in  his 
day,  in  the  glory  of  her  bloom  and  the  zenith  of  her  power, 
held  sway  over  the  Roman  Empire  and  over  all  Kings  and 

39 


4o  INNOCENT  III  n 

Princes  of  the  universe."  As  cardinal,  Innocent  had  written 
a  book  On  the  Contempt  of  the  World  ;  in  spite  of  this  and  of  his 
own  Spartan  mode  of  life — which  he  was  fond  of  holding  up 
as  an  example  to  others — his  whole  being  was  permeated  by 
a  profound  belief  in  the  sanctity  and  dignity  of  his  priestly 
office,  a  belief  which  dictated  the  display  on  occasion  of 
majestic  and  imperial  pomp.  Thus,  for  instance,  contrary  to 
custom,  he  delayed  his  enthronement  for  many  weeks  after 
his  election  in  order  to  add  to  the  glory  of  the  ceremony  by 
taking  his  seat  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  on  the  very  festival  of 
St.  Peter's  Chair.  No  doubt  he  wanted  to  play  the  part  of 
Peter  on  that  day — as  at  times  he  liked  to  take  the  role  of  Christ. 
A  witty  story  is  told  that  he  had  once  donned  the  "  coat  without 
a  seam/'  preserved  in  the  Lateran,  to  see  whether  the  Master 
had  not  been  a  smaller  man  than  he  ;  but,  alas,  it  proved  too 
big.  He  felt  himself  to  be  completely  the  Emperor  of  Christen 
dom,  and  in  fact  he  was  so  in  a  quite  peculiar  way.  As  ruler  and 
statesman  of  the  first  water  he  was  the  first  to  make  the  Church, 
in  its  narrower  sense  of  the  hierarchy  of  priests  and  bishops, 
really  an  effective  "  State,"  an  Absolute  Monarchy  in  which  he 
himself  as  sole  autocrat  was  sole  fountain  of  power,  justice  and 
mercy. 

Innocent's  life  was  immensely  rich  in  events  of  magnitude  : 
he  saw  in  turn  all  the  kings  of  Europe  kneel  at  his  feet  to  receive 
their  countries  from  his  hand  in  fee  ;  in  the  interests  of  the  true 
faith  he  conjured  up  all  the  horrors  of  the  Albigensian  war  ; 
he  first  banned  the  Crusaders  who  conquered  Byzantium  and 
then  founded  a  Latin  Empire  in  the  East  under  the  aegis  of  the 
Latin  Church  ;  but  this  eventful  life  does  not  here  concern  us. 
Our  interest  lies  only  with  the  statesman  who  proclaimed 
himself  the  spiritual  father  of  Frederick  II,  appointed  by  God 
to  replace  the  earthly  father  he  had  lost ;  who  in  the  line  of 
medieval  monarchs  filled  the  hiatus  that  fell  between  the  son 
and  the  grandson  of  Barbarossa,  the  aroma  of  whose  spiritual 
reign  still  filled  the  air  when  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens 
mounted  the  imperial  throne. 

The  royal  High  Priest  of  the  Christian  Church,  the  verus 
imperator  of  the  Christian  Empire,  the  first  judge  of  Christen 
dom,  these  three  are  one  and  of  one  origin  :  they  are  the  Pope. 


THEORY  OF  THE  PAPACY  41 

That  is  roughly  the  underlying  principle  which  first  comes  to  the 
fore  with  Innocent  III,  not  as  a  claim  but  as  an  axiom,  a  rounded 
whole,  a  "  Summa."  Innocent's  point  of  departure  was  that  the 
Pope — though  the  successor  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles — was 
not  his  representative  on  earth,  not  the  representative  of  any 
man,  but  the  representative  of  Christ  himself,  and  through  him 
the  representative  of  God.  Direct  from  God  himself  he  held 
the  plenitude  potestati$>  the  sum  total  of  all  power,  from  which 
derive  all  earthly  powers  :  the  priest's,  the  judge's  and  the 
king's.  Innocent  in  an  unprecedentedly  ambitious  exposition 
of  the  papal  role  of  mediator  inculcated  this  doctrine  most 
explicitly.  All  power  is  from  God.  The  Pope,  however,  is 
placed  as  "  mediator  between  God  and  man  ;  nearer  than 
God,  further  than  man  ;  less  than  God  but  more  than  man," 
and  to  complete  the  circle  of  transmitted  power  he  further 
states  :  "  God  is  honoured  in  us  when  we  are  honoured,  and  in 
us  is  God  despised  when  we  are  despised."  From  this  latter 
postulate  sprang  the  later  dogma,  probably  first  formulated  by 
Thomas  Aquinas,  "  submission  to  the  Pope  is  essential  to  every 
man  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul." 

This  dual  position  of  the  Pope  as  mediator  made  possible 
the  transmission  of  power  which  is  closely  bound  up  with 
Innocent's  transmutation  of  the  Church  into  a  Priest-State. 
The  first  conception  of  the  hierarchy  as  a  State  was  not  his,  but 
by  a  fortunate  concurrence  of  time  and  opportunity  its  realisa 
tion  was  his  work.  The  priestly  power  was  derived  from  God 
through  the  papal  mediator,  and  if  this  was  to  pass  over 
immediate  and  uninterrupted  to  the  bishops,  it  was  in  the  highest 
degree  important  that  every  other  influence  should  be  ruled  out 
at  their  election,  especially  the  influence  of  despised  secular 
authorities — whatever  ancient  privileges  King  or  Emperor  might 
claim.  Shrewdly,  skilfully,  unscrupulously,  Pope  Innocent 
contrived  to  stage-manage  in  his  own  sense  the  bishops' 
elections  in  all  countries,  exploiting  for  his  own  ends  the  politi 
cal  impotence  that  crippled  Europe  (with  the  sole  exception  of 
France).  Sometimes  he  made  treaties,  sometimes  concordats, 
and  he  contrived  ere  long  to  end  the  whole  question  of  investi 
ture  disputes,  and  make  the  bishops  throughout  the  Christian 
world  his  own  immediate  dependants,  creatures  whom  he — 


42  THE  CHURCH-STATE  n 

and  in  still  wider  measure  his  successors — began,  like  the  veriest 
autocrat,  to  appoint,  remove,  transfer,  according  to  papal 
caprice.  This  he  had  the  right  to  do,  for  this  Pope-god  was 
mighty  to  bind  or  to  loose  the  spiritual  wedlock — otherwise 
indissoluble — of  the  bishop  with  his  diocese,  "  not  as  man,  for 
he  was  not  the  vicegerent  of  man,  but  as  God,  for  he  was  the 
vicegerent  of  God." 

With  this  "  freedom  of  episcopal  elections  "  the  constitution 
of  the  Church  achieved  its  complete  independence  of  the 
temporal  powers.  On  a  plane  above  the  profane  world  the 
Church  became  a  peculiar  state,  in  which  the  bishops  played 
only  the  part  of  obedient  civil  servants,  provincial  governors 
and  ambassadors  of  their  papal  Imperator.  The  divorce  of  the 
secular  power  from  the  Church  patronage  it  had  hitherto  en 
joyed  was  made  final  and  complete  by  the  papal  Legates,  who 
as  plenipotentiaries  of  the  Pope  ranked  above  the  archbishops 
themselves  and  supervised  the  activities  of  the  bishops'  offi 
cials,  without  the  secular  power  being  in  a  position  to  protest 
at  finding  itself  deprived  of  all  supervision  over  the  Church. 

Corresponding  agreements,  including  the  right  of  sending 
legates  to  the  individual  countries,  were  now  usually  added  to 
treaties.  A  third  stipulation  commonly  reserved  to  the  priests 
the  "  right  of  direct  appeal/'  the  right  that  is  to  say  of  every 
priest  to  approach  the  Pope  without  the  intermediary  of  the 
secular  power.  This  first  secured  the  real  cohesion  of  the 
spiritual  State  whose  head  was  the  Pope.  If  the  firmly  dove 
tailed  fabric  of  the  Church-state  were  not  to  be  sprung,  a 
further  consequence  inevitably  followed  :  no  "  officials  "  of  the 
Pope,  with  isolated  exceptions,  should  in  the  future  be  amenable, 
as  to  a  certain  extent  they  had  been  heretofore,  to  secular  courts. 
This  necessitated  a  further  development  of  the  Canon  law 
which  Innocent  made  by  a  collection  of  Decretals,  a  work  thus 
inaugurated  by  the  Pope  himself,  though  not  completed  till 
twenty  years  after  his  death.  Like  all  the  great  Popes  of  the 
later  Middle  Ages,  especially  his  predecessor  Alexander  III, 
Innocent  was  a  first-class  jurist,  which  in  those  days  was  almost 
synonymous  with  statesman.  It  is  self-evident  that  if  this  great 
work  of  building  up  his  state  was  to  reach  perfection  he  had 
no  option  but  to  proceed  without  scruple  and  without  ruth. 


PRESTIGE  OF  THE  PRIEST  43 

The  bishops  and  priests  had  hitherto  been  wont,  not  without 
advantage,  to  play  off  the  papal  against  the  royal  power,  and 
vice  versa.  The  freedom  that  they  lost,  however,  by  the  meta 
morphosis  of  the  Church  into  a  well-knit,  monarchical,  priest- 
state  based  on  obedience,  was  made  good  in  other  ways.  By 
Pope  Innocent's  lofty  conception  of  his  priestly  office  the 
prestige  of  the  cleric  vis-d-vis  the  layman  was  immensely 
enhanced.  Every  ancient  edict  which  could  serve  to  evoke 
increased  respect  for  the  priest  was  calkd  anew  into  remem 
brance  and  given  fresh  emphasis.  For  instance,  the  layman 
was  unconditionally  dependent  on  the  mediation  of  the  priest ; 
the  priest  must  be  correctly  ordained  ;  the  sacramental  power  of 
the  priest  was  independent  of  his  personal  unworthiness ;  simony 
was  treason  against  king  and  state.  This  vital  importance  of 
simony  from  a  political  point  of  view  is  comprehensible,  since 
it  interferes  with  the  transmission  of  grace,  which  instead  of 
proceeding  from  God  and  the  Pope  has  been  bought  for  money. 

This  new  aloofness  of  the  priest  and  his  severance  from  the 
lay  world  is  clearly  marked  by  certain  pregnant  innovations  in 
ritual,  provoked  by  acute  reaction  against  the  heretics — just 
now  beginning  to  show  their  heads — one  of  whose  expressed 
aims  was  to  lessen,  the  cleavage  between  the  layman  and  the 
priest.  Amongst  these  new  ordinances  may  be  cited,  for 
instance,  the  rule  that  the  priest  henceforth  completes  the 
mysteries  with  his  face  turned  towards  the  altar  and  the  East, 
and  with  his  back  to  the  people,  not  facing  the  congregation 
as  heretofore  :  "  less  than  God,  but  more  than  man."  The 
presence  of  the  lay  worshippers  has  become  a  matter  of  indif 
ference  in  face  of  the  magic  metamorphosis  of  the  elements 
which  was  wrought  by  the  priestly  benediction — the  "  Tran- 
substantiation  "  as  Pope  Innocent  first  described  the  mystic 
miracle.  In  1215  he  elevated  this  doctrine  into  a  dogma. 

The  reformed  papacy  of  the  eleventh  century  had  under 
Gregory  VII  initiated  the  emancipation  of  the  papal  office  and 
the  papal  elections  from  the  power  of  the  Emperor.  Innocent 
III  gradually  extended  this  emancipation  down  to  the  bishops 
and  sought  to  free  their  election  and  their  office  from  temporal 
influences.  This,  however,  was  a  very  different  matter, 
fraught  with  no  little  danger  to  the  Church :  might  not  a 


44  THE  POPE  AS  MEDIATOR  n 

temporal  ruler  on  his  part  create  a  wholly  temporal  state 
exempt  from  all  allegiance  to  the  Church  ?  It  has  too  seldom 
been  remarked  that  it  was  the  Church  who  first  craved  complete 
severance,  and  achieved  it  by  every  means  in  her  power,  who 
first,  by  the  creation  of  a  unified  self-sufficing  priest-state, 
furnished  a  model  for  a  wholly  temporal  empire.  The  most 
remarkable  point  is,  however,  that  the  Church  herself  laid  down 
certain  principles — in  somewhat  "  unorthodox  "  fashion — for 
this  imitation  of  the  spiritual  by  the  temporal  empire.  * 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  Pope  should  stress  the  uncon 
ditional  and  unique  quality  of  his  office  as  mediator  with 
reference  to  priestly  power.  But  it  is  notorious  that  he  did 
not  confine  himself  to  this  :  the  plenitudo  potestatis  conferred 
on  him  as  God's  vicegerent  rendered  him  the  mediator  not  only 
for  all  spiritual,  but  also  for  all  worldly  authority — the  knightly 
as  the  kingly.  The  very  words  in  which  he  celebrated  his 
media torship,  in  what  was  practically  a  self-apotheosis,  added  a 
rider  to  the  well-known  doctrine  :  as  mediator  it  was  his  mission 
"  to  judge  all  men,  but  to  be  judged  of  none."  This  priestly 
spirit  which  breathed  fire  into  Innocent's  judicial  functions 
endowed  the  temporal  power  with  new  strength.  This  faith 
in  the  actual,  uninterrupted  working  and  overflowing  of  divine 
power,  through  the  Mediator,  into  judges  and  kings  as  well  as 
into  priests,  constituted  the  very  essence  of  the  medieval 
mediatorship.  This  conception  had  been  till  now  foreign,  in 
lay  affairs  at  any  rate,  to  the  medieval  mind.  True,  the  ruler 
received  his  power  always  direct  from  God  as  a  fief,  a  beneficium, 
but  he,  as  a  temporal  sovereign,  was  no  mediator  in  the  priestly 
sense.  Innocent,  of  course,  was  not  concerned  to  distinguish 
a  spiritual  and  a  temporal  mediatorship,  since  the  totality  of 
power,  the  plenitudo  potestatis y  dwelt  in  him  alone,  as  High 
Priest.  All  the  greater  would  be  some  day  the  portent  when 
the  temporal  power  would  claim  the  temporal  mediatorship  in 
respect  of  royal  and  judicial  functions,  would  sever  this  from 
the  mediatorship  of  the  high  priest  and,  following  the  Pope's 
example,  would  perform  its  own  apotheosis. 

All  unwitting,  Innocent  III  had  paved  the  road  to  a  Kingship 
and  a  Judgeship  that  should  challenge  the  rights  of  Priesthood. 
Eager  to  assert  his  limitless  judicial  powers  he  sought  to  break 


THE  ORDER  OF  MELCHIZEDEK  45 

down  all  lines  of  demarcation.  He  liked  to  entitle  Peter  the 
sacerdos  sivejudex,  "  priest  or  judge/'  and  to  use  the  Levites  as 
an  illustration  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  priestly  and  judicial 
functions.  The  Lord  himself  had  recognised  the  fact  that  the 
highest  judicial  authority  was  to  be  found  in  Rome.  Peter, 
flying  from  Rome,  had  asked  the  question  :  Quo  vadis,  Domine  ? 
and  did  not  Christ  reply  :  Romam  venio  iterum  crucifigi  !  Rome 
therefore — that  is,  of  course,  the  Pope — became  the  court  of 
highest  instance  on  earth,  with  jurisdiction  in  worldly  matters 
also,  wherever  dubious  or  mysterious  cases  were  in  question. 
God  himself  had  placed  the  Pope,  as  Innocent  untiringly 
repeated,  on  the  throne  of  Justice,  so  that  he  might  pronounce 
judgment  also  on  the  princes  of  the  earth.  And  thus  the  Pope, 
though  for  the  most  part  not  interfering  in  the  secular  admini 
stration  of  justice,  became  the  Over- Judge  who  could  summon 
to  his  forum  any  quarrel  in  all  the  Christian  world. 

In  precisely  similar  fashion  Innocent  sought  to  fuse  priest 
hood  and  kingship.  The  Old  and  New  Testament  were  at  one, 
he  pointed  out,  in  holding  that  kingship  was  a  priestly,  and 
priesthood  a  royal  office,  and  thus  it  was  that  the  Saviour  who 
— like  the  Pope — had  been  the  Mediator  between  God  and  man 
was,  as  scion  of  David's  royal  house,  a  King  ;  as  a  son  of  God, 
a  Priest.  Innocent  lent  new  life  to  a  Bible  figure,  hitherto 
unregarded,  or  insufficiently  exploited,  by  the  Curia  :  that 
remarkable  foreshadowing  of  Christ,  the  Priest-King  of  Salem, 
Melchizedek.  Christ,  and,  as  his  representative,  the  Pope  also, 
was  a  priest  "  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek,"  such  is  the 
perpetually  recurring  formula  in  all  the  writings  of  Innocent  the 
Great.  With  an  inexhaustible  variety  of  imagery  he  demon 
strates  that :  "  like  as  the  soul  is  more  than  the  body,  so  the 
priest  is  more  than  the  king/'  and  he  applies  to  the  Pope  the 
words  of  Scripture  :  "  By  me  kings  reign  and  princes  decree 
justice/5  He  seeks  ever  fresh  comparisons  and  metaphors  to 
equate  the  vicegerent  and  mediator  with  the  Lord  himself,  that 
he  may  appear  as  verus  imperator,  Emperor-Priest  and  Ruler 
of  the  world.  There  was  nothing  absolutely  new  in  all  this, 
save  the  Pope's  unrelenting  reiteration,  which  incessantly  and 
particularly  focussed  the  world's  attention  on  the  priestly 
empire  and  the  imperial  priesthood. 


46  RIVAL  PRETENDERS  n 

Pope  Innocent  achieved  his  end.  The  wearer  of  the  papal 
tiara  was  enthroned  henceforth  on  giddy  heights.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  thanks  to  the  great  Pope's  adoption  of  so 
many  symbols  and  tokens  of  the  Roman  Emperors,  the  secular 
empire  was  saturated  through  and  through  with  an  atmosphere 
of  hieratic  sanctity.  And  the  power  of  the  Emperor,  far  from 
being  weakened  by  this  eloquence,  received  an  undreamt-of 
accession  of  prestige.  Thus  Pope  Innocent  III,  a  spiritual 
father  in  very  deed,  must  be  reckoned,  alongside  Norman  and 
Hohenstaufen,  as  amongst  the  immediate  ancestors  and  pre 
decessors  of  the  young  King  Frederick. 


Buoyed  up  by  such  conceptions  Innocent  III  flung  himself 
into  the  quarrel  of  the  succession.  Formerly  he  had  favoured 
Otto  the  Welf  against  Philip  the  Hohenstaufen,  first,  because 
"  no  pope  loves  a  Staufen  "  ;  secondly,  because  a  Hohenstaufen 
Emperor  involved  the  danger,  of  which  under  a  Welf  there  was 
no  fear,  of  a  fusion  of  Sicily  with  the  Empire  ;  thirdly,  because 
the  Welf  was  poor  and  had  few  adherents  and  would  therefore 
be  wholly  beholden  to  the  Curia  and  likely  to  prove  a  useful  and 
obedient  creature  of  the  Pope.  Lastly,  the  Welf  was  uncultured 
and  unintellectual,  but  possessed  in  compensation  an  excep 
tionally  powerful  physique  which  well  qualified  him  to  be  "  the 
secular  sword  of  the  Church."  In  spite  of  the  Pope's  assist 
ance,  however,  Otto  had  not  succeeded  in  making  headway  in 
Germany  against  the  Hohenstaufen  rival.  He  would  inevitably 
have  succumbed  in  the  last  campaign  of  the  Swabian  Philip 
which  was  to  have  taken  place  in  the  summer  of  1208.  The 
attitude  of  Rome  is  an  infallible  index  to  the  hopelessness  of  his 
cause :  Pope  Innocent  withdrew  his  support  from  the  Welf, 
released  the  Hohenstaufen  from  the  ban,  recognised  the  latter 
as  king,  and  promised  him  the  imperial  crown  if  he  would  but 
make  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome. 

Just  as  the  Hohenstaufen  was  on  the  threshold  of  victory 
his  assassination  by  the  Count  Palatine,  Otto  of  Wittelsbach,  a 
purely  personal  revenge,  and  the  first  regicide  since  there  had 
been  a  German  Empire,  decided  the  succession  in  favour  of  the 
Welf.  For  the  German  princes  were  weary  of  civil  war  and 


1209  KAISER  OTTO   IV  47 

quickly  united  to  choose  Otto  of  Brunswick,  who  hoped  to 
unite  the  claims  of  both  parties  in  his  own  person  by  betroth 
ing  himself,  with  the  Pope's  approval,  to  Beatrice,  the  eleven- 
year-old  daughter  of  the  murdered  man.  Pope  Innocent  had 
conquered  without  effort :  he  hastened  to  declare  himself  ready 
to  crown  his  protege — whom  he  had  so  reluctantly  thrown  to  the 
wolves — as  Emperor  in  Rome. 

It  was  not  the  wont  of  the  Roman  Curia,  since  she  had  come 
to  power,  to  bestow  the  Emperor's  crown  without  a  quid  pro 
quo,  and  it  was  natural  to  demand  an  extra  large  one  from  her 
creature  Otto  IV  ;  first,  free  episcopal  election  in  Germany — 
which  the  Hohenstaufen  had  always  refused  to  tolerate — then 
the  recognition  of  Sicily  as  a  papal  fief,  and  an  assurance  of  its 
absolute  immunity  from  attack ;  and,  finally,  the  cession  to  the 
Pope  of  certain  imperial  territories  in  Central  Italy  :  the  March 
of  Ancona,  Spoleto,  the  so-called  Matilda  inheritance,  and 
others.  Jn  the  general  confusion  created  by  the  death  of 
Henry  VI,  Pope  Innocent  had  hastily  seized  these  territories 
from  the  Empire,  rightly  or  wrongly,  and  under  the  name  of 
"  Recuperations  "  incorporated  them  in  the  Patrimonium 
Petri.  The  Patrimonium  now — in  this  extent  a  creation  of 
Innocent's — stretched  right  across  Italy,  a  self-contained  wedge 
driven  between  the  papal  fief  of  Sicily  on  the  south  and  Lom- 
bardy,  at  all  times  hostile  to  the  Empire.  The  dream  of  a 
united  papal  Italy  seemed  not  too  remote  a  possibility. 

Otto  was  eager  to  reach  his  goal.  He  had  already  promised 
these  concessions  as  long  ago  as  1201  ;  he  had  no  option  but 
to  cede  what  the  Pope  requested — without,  however,  securing 
the  written  confirmation  of  the  German  princes.  He  set  out 
shortly  to  cross  the  Alps.  As  the  boisterous  march  of  his 
brilliant  retinue  broke  the  stillness  of  Rivotorto  St.  Francis  is 
said  to  have  sent  one  of  his  disciples  to  bid  the  future  Emperor 
ponder  on  the  evanescence  of  earthly  greatness.  Otto  pursued 
his  march.  In  the  late  autumn  of  1209  he  was  crowned  in  Rome 
by  Innocent  himself  as  Roman  Emperor,  As  for  Innocent,  he 
had,  it  seemed,  accomplished  all  his  desires.  His  protege  was 
Emperor  ;  the  severance  of  the  Hohenstaufen  Sicily  from  the 
empire  of  the  Welfs  seemed  final  and  complete. 

Suddenly  events  took  place  which  threatened  to  overturn 


48  OTTO  AND  THE  POPE  n 

the  whole  nicely-balanced  edifice  of  papal  politics.  The  Welf , 
no  sooner  crowned,  repudiated  his  promises.  He  laughed 
aloud  when  Innocent  reminded  him  of  his  earlier  agreements. 
In  the  very  first  negotiations  about  the  central  Italian  terri 
tories  Otto  showed  himself  anything  but  the  Church's  "  docile 
son."  The  barons  of  the  Sicilian  mainland  gave  the  immediate 
provocation  for  an  incurable  breach  between  Emperor  and  Pope. 
The  arrival  in  Italy  of  the  German  Otto  was  heralded  by  the 
feudal  nobility  of  Apulia  as  the  signal  to  throw  off  for  ever  the 
yoke  of  the  impotent  young  King.  The  conspiracy  of  Septem 
ber  1209,  directed  against  Frederick  by  the  barons  of  Sicily 
and  Calabria,  had  fallen  through,  the  Apulian  barons  had 
recourse  this  time  to  treachery.  Their  ringleader  was  the 
Count  of  Acerra,  Diepold  of  Schweinspeunt,  one  of  the  young 
Germans  who  had  held  sway  during  Frederick's  boyhood  in 
the  royal  castle  of  Palermo  as  successor  to  Markward  of 
Anweiler.  In  addition  to  personal  advantage  and  the  hope  of 
power,  Diepold,  like  Markward,  held  firmly  to  the  conviction 
that  Sicily  belonged  unconditionally  to  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  that  the  Norman  heir  of  the  Hohenstaufen  was  simply  an 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  union.  After  the  lapse  of  over  ten  years 
an  Emperor  had  appeared  again  in  Italy.  Diepold,  therefore, 
immediately  set  himself  to  play  into  the  hands  of  Otto  IV  as  the 
only  legitimate  ruler  of  the  kingdom. 

Soon  after  his  coronation  in  November  1209  Kaiser  Otto 
visited  Pisa,  a  town  that  had  long  been  in  alliance  with  Diepold 
and  the  Germans.  Here  the  Apulian  magnates  sought  him 
out,  did  him  homage,  and  importuned  him  to  seize  the  unpro 
tected  kingdom,  for  t%  none  but  the  wearer  of  the  Empire's 
crown  may  reign  by  right  in  Sicily."  It  is  true  that  Otto  had 
given  the  Pope  assurances  of  the  inviolability  of  Sicily,  but  he 
no  longer  held  himself  bound  by  the  promise.  It  matters  little 
whether  the  Emperor  had  from  the  first  contemplated  the 
reconquest  of  Sicily  for  the  Empire — following  the  precedent 
of  Henry  VI — or  whether  he  was  now  lured  into  the  enterprise 
by  the  urgency  of  the  Apulians,  reinforced  by  the  prayers  of  the 
Pisans.  He  agreed.  He  soon  created  Diepold  Duke  of  Spoleto 
— an  act  of  open  hostility  to  the  Pope — and  in  the  following 
months,  while  regulating  the  affairs  of  Middle  and  Northern 


CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  SICILY  49 

Italy,  he  began,  as  unobtrusively  as  possible,  to  make  prepara 
tion  for  a  campaign  against  Sicily.  A  further  consideration 
may  have  weighed  with  him.  The  last  of  the  Hohenstaufen, 
who  was  already  a  burden,  might  ere  long  be  a  danger.  The 
imperial  crown  had  been  denied  to  Frederick  after  Philip's 
murder,  but  he  might  at  least  lodge  a  claim  to  his  father's 
inheritance  in  Swabia,  and  there  had  in  fact  been  negotiations 
between  Pope  and  Emperor  about  some  compromise  with  the 
young  King.  Many  motives  conspired  to  urge  Otto  forward 
to  the  fateful  adventure,  the  Sicilian  campaign. 

It  was  a  favourite  boast  of  the  Roman  Curia  to  have f  *  the  ears 
and  eyes  of  many  )J  at  its  disposal.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
Pope  was  apprised  of  Otto's  intentions.  The  Pope  confessed  : 
"  the  sword  we  fashioned  for  ourselves  deals  us  dire  blows." 
Now  from  the  Welf  side  he  saw  arise  the  eternally  recurrent 
nightmare  of  a  German- Sicilian  fusion,  and  well  knowing 
that  the  bare  possession  of  the  Church's  fief  was  at  stake,  he 
began  at  the  first  symptom  of  danger  cautiously  to  lay  his 
snares.  From  his  base  in  the  Lateran  he  put  himself  at  once 
in  touch  with  Otto's  enemies.  His  first  step  was  to  send  an 
encyclical  to  the  German. bishops,  informing  them  of  the 
Emperor's  intentions.  His  letter  began  with  the  scriptural 
phrase  :  "  it  repenteth  me  to  have  created  man,  "  and  concluded 
with  the  exhortation  immediately  to  release  all  vassals  from  their 
oaths  of  fealty  in  the  event  of  the  Emperor's  being  excommuni 
cated.  Innocent  issued  no  direct  command,  but  he  gave  the 
clearest  instructions  as  to  his  wishes  and  their  future  line  of 
conduct  towards  the  Emperor.  The  bishops  must  have  set  to 
work  at  once  to  influence  the  secular  princes,  for  it  was  easy  to 
foster  opposition  to  Otto,  if  it  did  not  already  exist,  and  there 
was  only  a  question  of  working  up  a  useful  counter-party. 

Innocent  followed  up  his  letter  to  the  bishops  by  another  to 
the  King  of  France,  the  Capet,  Philip  II  "  Augustus  ".  He  had 
always  been  the  declared  enemy  of  the  Welf,  for  Otto,  as  nephew 
of  his  great  foe,  the  English  King,  John  Lackland,  was  always  in 
alliance  with  England  and  had  frequently  threatened  to  make 
war  on  France.  The  King  of  France  had  therefore  been  hostile 
from  the  first  to  a  Welf  Empire,  and  the  Pope  had  striven  to 
mediate  between  the  two  rulers.  Innocent  now  wrote  in  no 


5o  FREDERICK'S  PERIL  n 

peace-making  spirit.  He  regretted  he  had  not  been  so  quick 
as  Philip  Augustus  to  see  through  the  Welf ,  told  him  what  he 
had  written  to  the  German  bishops,  and  skilfully  wove  into  the 
end  of  his  letter  a  few  remarks  that  Otto  had  made.  He  had 
said — the  Pope  averred — that  he  could  not  sleep  at  night  for 
very  shame  while  the  French  King  was  still  in  possession  of 
lands  belonging  to  his  uncle,  John  of  England :  and  so  forth. 

In  this  case  also  Innocent  refrained  from  making  positive 
suggestions,  but  he  felt  fairly  sure  of  the  ultimate  effect  of  his 
poison,  temperately  administered.  Philip  Augustus  was  not 
slow  to  understand.  With  great  precaution  he  proceeded  to 
get  into  touch  with  the  German  princes  of  the  opposition  party, 
and  by  September  1210  Philip  of  France,  Innocent  III,  and  a 
considerable  number  of  Middle  German  princes  were  at  one 
on  the  vital  issues. 

Innocent  could  now  take  action.  Kaiser  Otto,  having  com 
pleted  his  preliminaries  in  the  autumn  of  1210,  set  out  on  the 
march  to  Apulia.  Just  as  he  invaded  the  Tuscan  Patrimonium 
he  was  excommunicated  by  the  Pope  as  agreed  upon — after 
the  mockery  of  a  fruitless  negotiation — and  his  subjects  were 
released  from  their  oath.  For  the  moment  this  upset  Otto 
very  little  :  within  a  few  weeks  he  was  in  possession  of  consider 
able  portions  of  Apulia,  and  the  course  of  the  following  year 
ought  to  have  seen  the  southern  half  of  the  Italian  peninsula 
in  his  hands. 

The  most  pressing  and  immediate  danger  now  threatened 
the  young  Sicilian  King.  The  Pope  had  indeed  warned  him  of 
Otto's  plans,  but  how  was  Frederick  to  withstand  the  powerful 
emperor  ?  He  was  not  even  master  of  his  internal  enemies  ; 
almost  the  whole  of  the  feudal  nobility  of  Sicily  had  volun 
tarily  sworn  obedience  to  the  invader.  He  could  trust  no  one 
in  his  ruined  and  neglected  kingdom,  not  even,  as  it  seemed,  his 
nearest  entourage,  for  when  the  news  came  of  the  treachery  of 
the  continental  barons  under  the  leadership  of  Diepold — whom 
Frederick  had  himself  nominated  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  Apulia 
— he  was  obliged  to  depose  his  Bishop-Chancellor,  Walter  of 
Palear.  Innocent  promptly  forbade  such  a  step — the  Chan 
cellor  was  of  course  also  a  bishop — with  the  phrase  "  this  is  not 
the  time  for  boyish  pranks,"  but  Frederick  did  not  revoke  his 


OTTO'S   SUCCESSES  51 

action.  The  Chancellor  was  related  to  the  rebel  barons  and  on 
terms  of  the  closest  intimacy  with  them,  and  in  view  of  Walter's 
well-known  adaptability  in  political  matters — which  Frederick 
was  in  a  better  position  to  assess  than  the  Pope — his  retention 
in  so  influential  a  post  was  certainly  not  without  risk.  The 
threatening  danger  was,  however,  not  appreciably  lessened  by 
the  Chancellor's  fall. 

During  1210,  while  Otto  was  still  busy  with  his  preparations, 
and  even  in  the  early  months  of  the  following  year,  while 
Aversa — encouraged  to  resistance  by  the  Pope — stemmed 
Otto's  advance  for  a  time,  Frederick  still  enjoyed  some  prestige 
in  Catania  and  Messina,  and  when  he  passed  through  these 
towns  he  must  have  striven  to  secure,  as  a  last  relic  of  his  realm, 
the  north-east  corner  of  the  island,  the  first  of  his  conquests. 
But  the  Welf  continued  almost  unopposed  his  career  of  con 
quest  in  the  Sicilian  mainland  ;  towns  like  Barletta  and  Ban  in 
Apulia  surrendered  to  him,  and  thereupon  the  two  provinces  of 
Calabria  and  the  Basilicata — the  two  nearest  to  the  island — 
declared  for  the  Emperor.  Even  the  Saracens  of  the  Sicilian 
highlands  invited  Otto  to  cross  the  sea,  promising  him  their 
support  :  it  looked  as  if  Frederick  might  well  give  his  whole 
kingdom  up  for  lost  except  the  city  of  Palermo. 

Robbed  of  his  towns,  his  castles,  his  lands,  the  regulus  non  rex 
seemed  face  to  face  with  inevitable  ruin.  Frederick,  however, 
had  not  lost  his  pride.  In  imitation  of  the  Emperor  he  chose 
this  juncture  to  insert  in  the  royal  seal  of  Sicily  the  figures  of 
the  sun  and  moon,  symbols  of  world  sovereignty.  But  even  he 
could  scarcely  cherish  a  serious  hope  of  salvation.  In  the  spring 
Frederick  had  sought  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  Otto,  had 
declared  himself  ready  to  renounce  all  Swabian  claims,  which 
he  had  just  verified  in  the  Swabian  monastery  records,  and  had 
finally  offered  the  Emperor  several  thousand  pounds  of  gold  and 
silver — which  it  is  unlikely  that  he  possessed  (for  he  had  had 
to  pledge  the  county  of  Sora  to  Innocent  to  reimburse  him  for 
the  expenses  of  the  regency).  All  had  been  in  vain.  The 
impetuous  Welf  hearkened  to  nothing ;  he  "  spat  upon  "  the 
tenders  of  Pope  and  King,  who  indeed  offered  only  what  he 
already  held  or  proposed  to  seize.  Now,  in  September  1211, 
he  was  in  Calabria,  about  to  cross  the  narrow  river  Faro.  He 


52  REACTION  AGAINST  OTTO  n 

was  merely  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  Pisan  fleet  which  had  set 
sail  from  the  Arno  that  same  month.  Meanwhile  Frederick 
had  fallen  into  such  straits  that  he  kept  a  galley  ready  at  anchor 
near  the  fort  of  Castellamare  in  Palermo  to  secure  his  flight  to 
Africa  when  the  ultimate  need  should  come. 

At  this  very  moment  of  maximum  danger  the  incredible 
happened.  Otto  relinquished  his  certain  prey,  abandoned  the 
entire  campaign,  and  in  sudden  haste  took  his  departure  from 
the  kingdom  :  the  incessant  machinations  of  the  Pope  had  begun 
to  take  effect.  Innocent  had  watched  Otto's  progress  with 
acute  anxiety.  Negotiations,  in  which  the  Pope  was  prepared 
to  offer  up  his  "  recuperations "  in  Central  Italy  in  return 
for  the  Emperor's  recognition  of  Sicily  as  a  papal  domain,  had 
produced  only  a  momentary  wavering.  Nothing  had  been 
achieved  ;  the  Welf  could  only  be  overthrown  by  indirect 
methods.  So  Pope  Innocent  set  once  more  in  motion  all  the 
intrigue  and  diplomatic  art  at  his  command,  strongly  reinfofced 
by  edicts  of  excommunication  ;  he  poured  out  letters  to  the 
German  princes,  to  the  Italian  clergy,  to  the  King  of  France ; 
threats  of  the  papal  ban  against  the  adherents  of  Otto,  words  of 
encouragement  to  Otto's  enemies  ...  all  to  one  end — to  under 
mine  the  Emperor's  position  in  Italy  and  even  more  in  Germany. 
Now,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  success  attended  the  cumulative 
effect  of  his  exertions. 

After  lengthy  secret  negotiations  the  anti-Welf  German 
princes,  not  uninfluenced  by  the  King  of  France,  assembled  in 
September  1211  in  Nuremberg,  declared  the  excommunicated 
Emperor  deposed,  and  further — also  at  the  instigation  of  Philip 
Augustus,  a  pro-Staufen  of  earlier  days — chose  as  rival  King 
Frederick  of  Sicily,  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens.  There  was 
in  Germany  no  lack  of  wealthier  and  more  powerful  princes 
than  the  Sicilian  boy,  but  it  was  realised  that  for  this  anti-Welf 
campaign  there  lay  more  might  in  the  Hohenstaufen  name  than 
in  the  wealth  and  weapons  of  other  men.  The  glory  of  the 
great  Staufen  emperors  lingered  yet,  and  a  scion  of  this  house 
was  secure  of  a  far  wider  general  support  than  any  Thuringian 
or  other  prince  could  at  short  notice  hope  to  win.  Nor  was  the 
original  choice  of  Henry's  son  without  its  weight.  Thus  it 
came  that  the  assembled  princes  unanimously  despatched  from 


i2i2  SUMMONS  TO  FREDERICK  53 

Nuremberg  an  express  messenger  to  the  Pope  for  his  acquies 
cence  in,  and  to  Frederick  for  his  acceptance  of,  their  election. 
Friends  of  the  Welf  sent  likewise  warning  to  their  master  : 
all  Germany  was  in  revolt,  a  rival  king  was  chosen,  Otto  should 
return  with  speed,  his  rule  in  Germany  was  at  stake.  Kaiser 
Otto  was  still  in  Calabria  wlien  the  German  messenger  arrived, 
accompanied  by  Milanese  and  men  from  other  friendly  Lombard 
towns.  They  urgently  implored  him  to  break  off  the  Sicilian 
campaign  at  all  costs  and  to  return  to  save  his  Imperium. 
Their  exaggerated  reports  did  ill  service  to  the  emperor.  A 
speedy  conquest  of  the  island  would  have  been  the  shortest  road 
to  the  possession  of  his  royal  rival's  person,  but  the  long-legged 
Welf  was  aghast  at  the  shameful  treachery  of  the  German 
princes.  He  completely  lost  his  head,  and,  "  shaken  to  the 
marrow,"  he  quitted  Sicily  and  hastened  north.  Moreover,  a 
dream  had  added  to  his  panic  :  a  young  bear  had  mounted  the 
imperial  bed  ;  larger  and  larger  it  grew  with  every  moment,  till 
at  last  it  filled  the  entire  space  and  pushed  him  from  his  couch. 
In  Lodi  Otto  IV  held  one  last  brilliant  court  on  Italian  soil,  then 
crossed  the  Alps,  in  midwinter,  and  in  March  1212  he  was  once 
more  in  Frankfurt. 


Frederick  of  Sicily  was  saved.  And  more.  Immediately 
after  the  stampede  of  the  Welf  the  envoy  from  Nuremberg 
appeared,  a  Swabian  nobleman,  Anselm  of  Justingen,  to 
announce  to  the  boy  his  election  as  Roman  Emperor  and  the 
summons  of  the  princes.  Beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility  it 
seemed  :  just  now  prepared  for  flight,  scarcely  hoping  to  escape 
with  his  life  .  .  .  and  now — without  transition — offered  the 
imperial  diadem,  the  crown  of  all  the  Christian  world.  To  his 
dying  day  Frederick  held  it  to  be  a  miracle.  Later,  when  he 
spoke  of  his  being  directly  singled  out  as  an  instrument  of 
Divine  Providence,  he  always  quoted  this  as  the  first  clear  call 
from  God,  a  sign  from  heaven  "  against  all  the  probabilities  or 
hopes  of  men."  In  Palermo  every  one  sought  to  dissuade  him 
from  accepting  the  election,  his  wife  Queen  Constance  above 
all.  (She  had  just  given  birth  to  her  first  and  only  son, 
Henry.)  The  nobles  of  Sicily  seconded  her  in  seeking  to 


54  VACILLATION  OF  THE  PRINCES  n 

restrain  their  barely  seventeen-year-old  king  from  the  vague 
and  unpromising  adventure.  They  scented  danger  for  him  ; 
they  mistrusted  the  bona  fides  of  the  Germans,  one  of  whom, 
Diepold,  had  just  betrayed  him.  These  misgivings  were 
assuredly  not  without  excuse.  Apart  from  the  perilous 
journey  and  the  impoverished  impotence  of  the  King,  what 
assurance  had  Frederick  that  the  German  princes,  faithless  and 
capricious,  might  not  have  changed  their  minds  before  his 
arrival  ?  That  conjecture  struck  home.  For  when  Kaiser 
Otto  reappeared  in  Germany  a  number  of  princes  veered  from 
Staufen  to  Welf  again,  playing  the  "  princely  game  "  of  "  hither 
and  thither"  as  Walther  phrased  it.  And — most  vital  ques 
tion  of  all — what  guarantee  had  Frederick  that  the  Pope,  now 
that  Sicily  was  secured  for  St.  Peter,  would  enter  the  lists  to 
ensure  the  elevation  of  a  Hohenstaufen,  and  the  Sicilian 
Hohenstaufen  at  that  ?  For  the  Pope's  ways  were  dark  :  he 
would  first  cut  down  a  Staufen  to  exalt  a  Welf,  and  when 
successful  would  cast  down  his  Welf  again  in  favour  of  a 
Hohenstaufen.  This  procedure  was  far  removed  from  papal 
immutability,  and  the  best  minds  of  the  time  were  at  a  loss  to 
reconcile  themselves  to  the  methods  of  the  Curia.  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide  writes  bitterly  of  papal  arrogance  in  his 
Reichsspriiche : 

For  God  makes  kings  of  whom  he  will  .  .  . 

This  word  fills  simple  men  with  hope — 

But  then  again  priests  say  it  is  the  Pope. 

Tell  us  in  sooth, 

Which  is  the  truth  ? 
Two  voices  in  one  mouth — it  likes  me  ill. 

The  procedure  least  in  accord  with  the  whole  trend  of  papal 
policy  would  be  the  elevation  of  the  Sicilian  King  to  the  imperial 
throne.  But  Philip  Augustus  of  France  confronted  Innocent 
practically  with  a.  fait  accompli,  and  to  hunt  round  for  another 
pretender — especially  as  the  princes  had  been  unanimous  in 
their  choice  of  Frederick — would  have  been  waste  of  time. 
Facts,  for  once,  rode  roughshod  over  papal  politics.  Or  did 
Innocent  dream  that  perchance  the  elevation  of  Frederick — 
his  ward  and  vassal — might  even  be  made  to  subserve  his  own 
omnipotence,  for  would  not  the  Roman  Emperor  be  in  fact  the 


MARCH  1212     LAST  OF  THE  HOHENSTAUFEN         55 

vassal  of  the  Holy  See  ?  Frederick  II  believed  that  the  Pope 
acted  under  the  direct  compulsion  of  Providence,  since  "  God, 
contrary  to  human  knowledge,  had  miraculously  preserved  for 
the  governance  of  the  Roman  Empire  "  the  last  of  the  Hohen- 
staufen.  So  interpenetrated  was  Frederick  by  the  fatefulness 
of  this  call  to  the  "  last  survivor  "  that  he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
shrewd  and  prudent  warnings.  He  recognised  his  mission. 
He  accepted  his  election.  A  joyful  pride  in  his  own  uniqueness 
informs  the  words  in  which  he  confirmed  his  acceptance  : 
"  since  no  other  was  to  be  found,  who  could  have  accepted  the 
proffered  dignity  in  opposition  to  us  and  to  our  right  .  .  .  since 
the  princes  summoned  us  and  since  from  their  own  choice  the 

crown  is  ours "    The  miraculous  call  was  followed  by  a  not 

less  miraculous  fulfilment. 

A  rare  and  amazing  luck — savouring  of  fairy  tales  and  dreams 
— and  his  own  peculiar  charm  of  personality,  enabled  Frederick 
to  reach  his  journey's  end  in  safety  despite  unnumbered 
ambushes  and  pursuits.  Without  men,  without  money,  with 
out  an  effective  knowledge  of  German,  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Pope's  support,  banking  on  the  probable  good  faith  of  a  few 
German  princes  and  on  the  magic  of  his  name,  he  set  out, 
following  the  star,  from  Palermo  to  Messina,  to  conquer  the 
Empire  for  himself.  With  the  long  reddish-blond  curls  of  his 
family,  his  boyish  appearance,  his  "  fair  and  gracious  coun 
tenance  :  merry  the  brow  and  merrier  yet  the  sparkle  of  the 
eyes,"  the  sunburnt  Sicilian  boy  looked  less  like  the  "  chosen 
Roman  Emperor"  that  he  styled  himself,  than  a  fairy  prince 
or  an  adventurer  in  tatters.  For  "  as  torn  and  ragged  as  a 
beggar  boy  "  he  boarded  a  foreign  vessel  in  the  middle  of 
March  1212  and  with  a  handful  of  retainers  quitted  his  here 
ditary  home. 

At  the  Pope's  request  Frederick's  infant  son,  Henry,  was 
crowned  King  of  Sicily  before  his  father's  departure — for 
Innocent  was  again  striving  to  forestall  the  new  danger  of  the 
fusion  of  the  two  kingdoms — and  the  Regency  was  entrusted 
to  the  Queen.  Frederick  had  also  been  obliged  to  renew  in 
writing  his  mother's  Concordat  with  the  Pope  and  was  presently 
to  reconfirm  it  in  person.  Hence  Rome  was  his  immediate 
goal.  He  was  held  up  nearly  a  month  in  Gaeta,  probably 


S6  FREDERICK  IN  ROME  n 

because  the  Pisan  fleet,  faithful  to  the  Welfs,  was  lying  in  wait 
for  him.  He  did  not  arrive  in  Rome  till  the  middle  of  April. 
He  was  received  with  the  utmost  honour  by  Pope  Innocent  and 
the  Cardinals,  the  Senate  and  the  People  of  Rome,  who,  accord 
ing  to  ancient  Roman  custom,  recently  revived,  "  collauded  " 
him  as  Roman  Emperor.  For  the  first  and  only  time  Innocent 
and  Frederick  met  face  to  face,  but  little  has  been  put  on  record 
of  this  memorable  interview  between  the  rising  and  the  setting 
suns. 

As  King  "  by  the  grace  of  God  and  of  the  Pope  "  Frederick 
presented  his  credentials  to  his  erstwhile  guardian,  to  whom, 
under  God,  he  owed  all  power.  Further  he  had,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  Norman  Kings  of  Sicily,  to  do  homage  and 
take  the  oath  of  fealty.  This  done  the  interests  of  Pope  and 
Hohenstaufen  were  one.  Innocent  spoke  words  of  encourage 
ment  and  gave  what  help  he  could.  He  took  on  himself  the 
expenses  of  Frederick's  brief  stay  in  Rome,  and  sent  him  on  his 
way  after  a  few  days,  equipped  with  a  sum  of  money.  In  later 
years  Frederick  liked  to  recall  his  departure  from  the  City  of 
Cities,  to  celebrate  it  in  a  peculiar  and  symbolic  way  :  "  Not 
the  Pope,  not  the  German  princes,  but  the  Populus  Romanus, 
yea  glorious  Rome  herself,  had  sent  him  forth,  as  a  mother  sends 
her  son,  to  scale  the  highest  heights  of  Empire/'  and  it  may  have 
been  in  that  supreme  moment  that  he  felt  "  the  august  spirit  of 
the  Caesars  take  possession  of  the  boy,"  as  he  triumphantly 
expressed  it  in  a  later  document. 

Little,  however,  of  the  ancient  glory  of  the  Caesars  just  then 
surrounded  the  Staufen  prince.  The  land  journey  was  too 
unsafe  on  account  of  Otto's  garrisons,  and  so,  on  a  hired 
Genoese  ship,  the  "  Son  of  the  Church  J5  (the  Pope's  phrase), 
the  "  Priestling-Emperor,"  to  quote  his  opponents,  continued 
his  journey  and  arrived  on  the  ist  of  May  at  Genoa,  a  town  that 
in  rivalry  with  Welf-loving  Pisa  clung  to  the  Staufen  house. 
Here  and  everywhere  he  was  received  with  honour  and  hailed 
with  delight.  But  weeks  passed  and  still  the  impatient  lad  was 
held  up  in  Genoa  because  all  the  roads  were  unsafe.  This 
proved,  however,  to  be  the  last  serious  interruption  to  his 
journey.  In  exchange  for  a  mass  of  promises  that  bore  the 
quaint  postscriptum  "  valid  for  the  day  when  I  am  Emperor," 


JULY  1212      CROSSING  THE   LAMBRO  57 

Frederick  extracted  money  from  the  Genoese  for  his  main 
tenance,  whilst  Pavia  shouldered  the  expenses  for  his  journey 
from  Rome  to  Genoa.  In  the  middle  of  July  the  King  set  out 
for  Pavia  with  a  few  friends  and, a  Genoese  escort.  The  direct 
road  was  held  by  forces  from  the  Welf  towns,  so  Frederick 
made  a  detour  via  Asti  and  thus  at  last  arrived  circuitously  at 
Pavia.  Clergy,  knights  and  populace  received  him  as  if  he  were 
already  the  crowned  Emperor,  and  carried  over  his  head  the 
canopy  "  as  the  custom  of  imperial  majesty  demands." 

The  crucial  test  lay  still  ahead.  To  reach  Cremona  Frederick 
must  fight  his  way  through  hostile  country.  Piacenza  lay 
across  his  path.  Any  serious  circuit  would  take  him  too  near 
Milan.  Besides,  the  people  of  Milan  and  Piacenza  had  already 
got  news  of  his  journey  and  of  his  plans,  and  had  armed  them 
selves  in  great  wrath  and  excitement  and  had  brought  forth 
their  standard-bearing  chariot  for  the  fray.  The  loyal  folk  of 
Pavia  had  publicly  made  oath  to  convey  their  future  Emperor 
to  safety  by  force  or  guile,  and  to  this  end  had  made  a  compact 
with  the  Cremonese  to  meet  them  halfway  at  the  river  Lambro. 
The  Milanese,  however,  marched  south  to  the  same  rendezvous, 
while  the  Piacenzans  held  up  every  ship  sailing  down  the  Po  and 
searched  it  thoroughly  to  find  the  Staufen  boy. 

As  the  vesper  bells  were  ringing  one  Saturday  evening  at  the 
end  of  July  the  Pavians  set  out  at  dusk  and  rode  all  night  with 
their  guest  till  they  reached  the  Lambro.  Faithful  to  their 
promise  the  Cremonese,  under  the  Margrave  of  Este,  had  started 
at  the  same  time,  and  they  also  reached  the  river  in  the  grey 
dawn  of  the  Sunday  morning.  While  both  parties  were 
enjoying  a  brief  rest  the  Milanese  suddenly  appeared  to  seize 
the  King.  At  their  approach  he  flung  himself  on  a  barebacked 
horse — so  the  story  goes — and  swam  the  river,  as  little  moved 
by  the  taunts  the  Milanese  hurled  after  him  as  by  the  bloody 
massacre  they  made  amongst  his  returning  Pavians.  Frederick 
himself  was  saved.  A  few  moments  had  been  decisive.  People 
were  amazed.  They  opined  that  "  Christ  sought  to  show  forth 
his  wonders,"  and  when  Frederick  finally  arrived  in  the  ever- 
faithful  Staufen  town  of  Cremona  they  received  the  lucky 
youth  with  loud  rejoicing  and  welcomed  him  as  if  they  saw  in 
him  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord."  There  was  now  no  holding 


58  ENTRY  INTO  CONSTANCE  n 

Him  :  from  Cremona  (which  was  not  slow  to  secure  consider 
able  earthly  benefits  from  the  unearthly  visitant,  and  see  them 
duly  put  on  record  too),  he  hastened  to  Mantua  ;  from  Mantua 
to  Verona ;  from  Verona  up  the  valley  of  the  Adige  to  Trent. 
Further  than  this  he  could  not  use  the  Brenner  road  because  the 
Dukes  of  Meran  and  Bavaria  were  supporters  of  Otto.  Hence 
he  had  to  leave  the  great  Alp  thoroughfare,  and  turning  west 
wards  seek  himself  a  passage  through  the  bleakest  mountain 
tracts  across  into  the  Engadine.  And  thus  in  the  beginning  of 
September  he  reached  Chur  with  a  handful  of  followers. 

The  papal  commands  that  the  Hohenstaufen  should  every 
where  be  supported  and  received  with  honour  began  now  to 
take  effect  in  German  territory.  The  Bishop  of  Chur  received 
the  traveller  most  hospitably  and  himself  escorted  him  to  St. 
Gall,  where  the  Abbot  of  St.  Gall  and  the  Advocate  of  Pfaffers 
brought  the  strength  of  the  Kong's  forces  up  to  some  300 
horsemen.  With  this  force  Frederick  hastened  on  to  Constance. 
Once  again  his  luck  held  ;  a  few  hours  decided  his  fate  and  the 
Empire's. 

While  he  was  riding  full  speed  for  Constance  his  enemy 
Kaiser  Otto  was  already  encamped  at  tJberlingen  on  the 
northern  shore  of  the  lake.  During  the  last  few  months  Otto 
had  to  a  very  large  extent  re-established  his  power  in  Germany, 
and  when  he  heard  of  Frederick's  coming  he  hastened  south  to 
meet  the  Staufen  on  his  first  arrival.  He  was  just  about  to 
cross  over  to  Constance  ;  his  servants  had  arrived  there,  his 
cooks  were  already  busily  preparing  his  imperial  dinner,  the 
town  was  arranging  a  reception  for  him.  Suddenly,  instead 
of  the  expected  Otto,  Frederick  stood  before  their  gates  and 
demanded  admission.  The  Bishop,  who  was  prepared  to 
welcome  Otto,  at  first  refused  to  receive  Frederick.  Everything 
was  at  stake.  The  papal  legate,  Archbishop  Berard  of  Ban, 
who  accompanied  the  King,  rehearsed  the  Pope's  excommuni 
cation  of  Kaiser  Otto  ;  the  Bishop  gave  way,  not  without  mis 
giving,  and  accorded  to  the  Hohenstaufen  entrance  into  the 
town,  already  lavishly  decorated  in  honour  of  his  rivaL  Hastily 
they  fortified  the  bridge  over  the  Rhine  on  the  tJberlingen  road. 
Three  hours  later  the  Emperor  Otto  stood  without  the  closed 
gates  of  Constance.  He  had  arrived  with  weak  forces  and  scanty 


"THE   CHILD  FROM   APULIA"  59 

retinue  and  could  not  risk  a  battle.  "  Had  Frederick  reached 
Constance  three  hours  later,"  so  they  say,  "  he  would  never 
have  been  successful  in  Germany." 

The  news  of  the  miraculous  appearance  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
spread  like  wildfire.  Frederick's  success  was  manifestly  a  sign, 
an  act  of  God  :  his  following  grew  hourly.  Within  a  few 
days  all  the  nobles  and  princes  of  the  Upper  Rhine  jubilantly 
embraced  his  cause,  castles  and  strongholds  and  towns  were 
illuminated.  When  he  rode  into  Basel  a  week  later  it  was  with 
a  royal  retinue.  The  Bishops  of  Chur  and  Constance,  the 
Abbots  of  Reichenau  and  St.  Gall,  the  Counts  Ulrich  of  Kiburg 
and  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  with  many  others  joined  the  cortege 
that  had  at  the  beginning  been  so  modest,  and  in  Basel  the 
Bishop  of  Strasburg  brought  him  500  troopers.  The  King  of 
Bohemia's  ambassador  petitioned  the  seventeen-year  old  mon 
arch  for  the  confirmation  of  his  master's  crown.  Fortunate 
and  victorious,  Frederick  could  now  afford  to  forget  the  help 
lessness  of  his  childhood  and  the  Welf-persecutions  of  his 
boyhood.  He  was  in  any  case  precociously  mature,  and  now  in 
a  night,  not  in  a  dream,  like  the  heroes  of  romance,  but  in  an 
almost  dream-like  reality,  he  had  won  the  security  of  a  young 
conqueror,  though  people  still  styled  him  "  the  child,"  "  the 
Child  from  Apulia." 

The  possession  of  Basel  and  Constance  gave  him  a  firm 
footing.  Kaiser  Otto  tried  to  bar  the  Rhine  valley  against  him 
by  investing  Breisach,  but  Frederick  did  not  need  to  take  up 
arms  against  him  in  person.  The  Saxons  had  made  themselves 
unpopular  in  the  south  by  many  a  deed  of  tyranny,  and  the 
embittered  Breisachers,  hearing  of  Frederick's  approach  to  their 
relief,  vigorously  took  up  their  own  defence  and  frightened  off 
the  Emperor  and  his  troops.  Otto  was  deserted  by  numbers  of 
his  followers  and  fled  to  Hagenau,  whence  he  was  ejected  by 
Frederick's  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Lorraine.  The  Welf  was 
unable  to  rally  himself  and  his  forces  till  he  reached  Cologne  on 
the  lower  Rhine,  which  had  formerly  acclaimed  him.  The 
whole  upper  valley  of  the  Rhine  was  thus  in  Staufen  hands. 
This  valley  had  been  the  scene  not  long  before  of  the  Children's 
Crusade,  when  hordes  of  boys  and  girls,  seized  with  a  blind 
enthusiasm  and  passionate  fanaticism  had  poured  into  Italy 


60  THE  BEGGAR  PRINCE 


ii 


from  the  countries  by  the  Rhine.  People  had  gazed  in  deep 
depression  at  this  hapless  procession  of  ill-starred  youngsters, 
moving  to  inevitable  destruction  .  .  .  the  more  gladly  did  they 
now  greet  the  festive  progress  of  the  Hohenstaufen  boy. 

He  was  hailed  with  matchless  enthusiasm  as  German  King 
as  he  slowly  moved  downstream  through  the  decorated 
Rhenish  towns.  He  traversed  Alsace,  "  most  well-beloved  of 
our  hereditary  lands  "  he  called  it,  and  was  met  everywhere  by 
cries  of  joy  as  the  populace  escorted  him  and  his  ever- swelling 
multitudes  in  unbroken  triumph  through  the  valleys  of  the 
Rhine.  An  Italian  had  said  :  "  it  is  a  joy  merely  to  gaze  on 
the  handsome  Hohenstaufen  boy/'  and  the  people  of  the  upper 
Rhine  felt  this  still  more  strongly.  In  the  driest  and  most 
meagre  chronicles  you  can  read  between  the  lines  the  sympathy 
and  joy  of  the  writer  in  the  young  King's  success,  whose  first 
easy  victory  stood  out  like  a  miracle. 

Even  the  outward  circumstances  of ,  his  surprising  rise  to 
power  seemed  like  the  fulfilment  of  well-known  legends  and 
fairy-tales  :  the  Beggar  Prince  knocking  at  the  gate  of  Constance, 
finding  the  dinner  laid  for  another,  and  winning  the  Empire  in  a 
couple  of  hours — these  were  episodes  familiar  in  story,  which 
yet  in  everyday  life  seemed  strangely  remote  and  far  away.  And 
thus  a  touch  of  glamour  lingered  round  the  boy,  and  the  Germans 
seemed  to  feel  a  breath  of  Sicilian  air  and  the  dream  atmosphere 
of  childhood  enveloping  him.  His  appearance  too — so  homely 
in  spite  of  its  foreignness — marked  him  as  one  of  their  own 
people.  Just  so  must  Duke  Ernest  of  Swabia  have  looked  long 
ago,  the  songs  of  whose  wonder  journeys  were  now  beginning 
to  be  heard,  set  to  the  tune  intended  for  Frederick.  People 
rarely  called  him  by  his  name  or  title  ;  to  all  he  was  "  the 
Apulian  Lad,"  "  the  Child  of  Pulle,"  or  just  "  Our  Boy,"  and 
decades  afterwards  the  chroniclers  still  added  to  the  mighty 
Emperor's  name,  as  if  it  were  a  cognomen,  the  title  Puer  Aputiae. 

As  the  chosen  of  the  Pope  a  further  peculiar  glory  surrounded 
him,  and  the  simple  people  who  were  accustomed  to  view 
temporal  events  in  the  light  of  spiritual  imagery,  celebrated  in 
their  Staufen  hero  the  victory  of  the  eternal  CHILD,  who  with 
invisible  weapons  overthrows  the  mighty.  The  Pope  himself, 
finding  the  Goliath  story  apt  to  existing  circumstance,  had  sent 


FREDERICK'S   LIBERALITY  61 

the  boy  forth  as  his  "  David  "  against  the  giant  Welf.  And  the 
people  interpreted  the  victory  in  similar  vein  :  one  writer 
represents  the  Welf  as  a  species  of  monster  creeping  off  to  its 
distant  lair  before  the  face  of  the  Apulian  child.  Another  said  : 
"  The  child  has  conquered  the  Welf  with  heavenly  rather  than 
with  earthly  might,"  and  yet  another  speaks  of  the  "  wise  child 
of  Apulia."  "  Behold  the  power  of  the  child  "  sang  one  of  the 
troubadours,  and  a  rhymed  chronicle  in  kindred  mood  sum 
marises  : 

Now  comes  the  Pulian  Child  along — 

The  Kaiser's  sword  is  twice  as  strong, 

Whom  yet  the  Child  did  overthrow 

Without  a  single  swordsman's  blow  : 

The  people's  love  towards  him  did  flow  .  .  . 

About  this  time,  or  it  may  have  been  a  few  years  later,  the 
troubadour,  Aimeric  of  Peguilain,  at  the  court  of  the  Margrave 
of  Montferrat,  maintained  that  till  he  had  witnessed  the  deeds 
of  Frederick  he  had  never  been  able  to  believe  in  the  exploits 
of  Alexander  :  for  the  Staufen,  the  "  Physician  of  Salerno/* 
had  raised  Generosity  from  her  sick  bed.  The  troubadours 
praised  other  qualities  of  Frederick's  also — the  freshness  of 
his  youth — his  jpie  de  more — his  beauty — for  he  fulfilled  the 
Minnesangers'  ideal  of  a  king — his  medium  height  (for 
"  moderation  "  was  valued  above  all) — his  golden  hair  ;  but 
nothing  was  lauded  so  highly  as  his  "  graciousness,"  of  which 
the  Macedonian  king  had  also  been  a  pattern.  Openhanded- 
ness  as  a  royal  virtue  was  a  relic  of  the  heathen  streak  that 
coloured  the  ethics  of  the  troubadours.  For  the  true  medieval 
Christian — in  the  absence  of  a  Bible  parallel — knew  nothing  of 
liberalitas,  whether  as  an  expression  of  overflowing  joy  in  life 
or  of  humane  intent,  but  reverenced  only  caritas  indulged  for 
the  soul's  salvation.  Since  Hohenstaufen  days  Generosity 
belonged  once  more  to  the  make-up  of  the  perfect  king,  and 
when  Frederick  in  the  very  first  document  written  on  German 
soil  thus  expressed  himself :  "  Kingly  dignity  is  enhanced  by 
openhandedness,  and  prestige  loses  nothing  by  the  giving  of 
gifts,"  this  saying  of  his  tallied  word  for  word  with  many  a 
verse  of  Minnesang. 

Frederick  II  acted  only,  as  he  frequently  asserted,  "accordingto 


62  FREDERICK'S   POPULARITY 


ii 


common  royal  custom  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  accord 
ing  to  a  certain  magnanimity  peculiarly  his  own."  Thus  the  poets 
praised  especially  his  innata  liber alitas ,  even  when  in  later  days 
for  grave  reasons  of  state  he  was  least  able  to  display  it  towards 
the  troubadours.  Just  now,  however,  he  had  scarcely  set  foot 
in  Germany  than  his  "  graciousness  "  bordered  on  prodigality. 
In  the  first  intoxication  of  success  the  young  prince  gave  with 
both  hands  ancestral  estates  and  imperial  property  to  all  who 
crowded  round  him,  and  when  resources  failed  him  for  the  nonce 
he  promised  gifts  for  the  day  "  when  with  God's  help  he  would 
have  wealth  again."  When  money  came  his  way  he  handed 
it  over  forthwith  to  his  hangers-on.  The  ambassadors  of  the 
French  King  who  in  the  first  weeks  brought  him  a  very  consider 
able  sum  of  money  must  have  been  more  than  a  little  surprised 
when  the  Chancellor  asked  where  the  money  was  to  be  kept 
and  received  for  answer  :  "  Neither  this  nor  any  other  money 
is  to  be  kept  at  all ;  it  is  to  be  distributed  amongst  the  princes." 

"  When  people  heard  of  this  high-hearted  generosity  of  the 
King  a  universal  shout  of  jubilation  was  raised  in  his  favour  " 
— "  all  were  bound  to  him  and  he  became  dear  to  all  by  his 
liberality  " — such  is  the  unanimous  verdict  of  the  chroniclers. 
The  Puer  Apuliae  knew  exactly  what  he  was  doing,  and  the 
means  by  which  he  could  secure  the  adherence  of  the  ever- 
hungry  counts  and  princes.  The  gesture  of  openhandedness 
perhaps  came  natural  to  him,  but  he  was  by  no  means  unaware 
of  the  contrast  it  would  point  between  him  and  the  notoriously 
parsimonious  Welf.  He  declared  himself:  "Wisdom  coun 
selled  it,  and  it  gives  us  advantage  in  men's  minds  over  our  foe 
who  acts  in  other  manner  and  thus  brings  down  on  his  own  head 
the  hatred  of  men  and  the  displeasure  of  heaven." 

In  a  few  weeks  Frederick  was  master  of  the  whole  of  the  south 
of  Germany  from  Burgundy  to  Bohemia  without  exertion  and 
without  a  blow.  His  debt  to  Pope  Innocent  was  immeasurable, 
and  it  has  justly  been  pointed  out  that  his  progress  had  hitherto 
lain  through  lands  predominantly  belonging  to  the  Church. 
Chur,  Constance,  Basel  and  Strasburg  were  all  bishop's  seats, 
as  indeed  was  almost  the  whole  plain  of  the  upper  Rhine.  Next 
to  the  Pope's  the  French  King's  help  had  been  of  most  value, 
and  he  was  to  get  further  assistance  from  the  same  quarter. 


DEC.  1212  CORONATION  IN  MAINZ  63 

In  November  1212  Frederick  met  the  French  heir  to  the 
throne  in  Vaucouleurs  near  Toul  and  was  reported  to  have  had 
a  narrow  escape  from  the  daggers  of  Otto's  assassins.  He 
concluded  an  alliance  with  the  French  against  England,  binding 
himself  not  to  make  peace  with  the  foe  without  the  consent  of 
France.  In  these  early  years  Frederick  was  wholly  dependent 
on  the  powers  that  had  helped  to  raise  him,  and  was  particularly 
bound  to  Philip  Augustus  who  espoused  his  cause,  a  trifle  too 
warmly  perhaps.  A  certain  arrogance  was  noticeable  on  the 
French  side,  as  for  instance  when  a  French  vassal  swore  to  his 
king  to  support  him  and  the  Hohenstaufen  Frederick,  and,  in 
the  case  of  the  latter's  death,  the  feudal  oath  ran  on,  "  whomso 
ever  the  electors  might,  with  the  approval  of  the  King  of  France, 
choose  for  Roman  Emperor."  As  France  supported  the  Hohen 
staufen,  England  backed  the  Welf,  and  so  the  day  was  coming 
when — sign  of  the  appalling  disintegration  of  Germany — the 
imperial  throne  would  be  the  stake  in  a  war  between  England 
and  France.  French  envoys  were  present  when  Frederick  II 
on  the  5th  of  December,  1212,  was  once  more  formally  elected 
King  at  a  great  assembly  of  princes  in  Frankfurt,  and  four  days 
later  at  his  coronation  in  Mainz.  He  was  crowned  it  is  true 
with  imitation  regalia,  for  the  Welf  had  possession  of  the  real 
ones,  and  not  in  Aix  la  Chapelle  which  was  for  the  moment  held 
by  Kaiser  Otto  and  his  minions. 

There  was  yet  no  open  fighting  between  the  two  opponents. 
Otto  was  busy  with  haphazard  little  feuds  in  his  native  Saxony 
and  Thuringia  along  the  lower  Rhine,  and  Frederick  had  not 
yet  mustered  an  army.  To  gather  forces,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  show  himself  to  his  vassals  in  the  various  provinces  and 
receive  their  homage,  Frederick  held  a  series  of  royal  courts  : 
one  in  Ratisbon  for  Bavaria  and  Bohemia,  one  in  Constance 
for  Swabia.  Much  as  Frederick  owed  to  the  Pope  and  to  the 
King  of  France  it  was  clear  that  in  the  south  of  Germany,  and 
above  all  in  Swabia,  other  and  mighty  influences  were  at  work 
helping  him  to  victory.  The  populace  hailed  him  as  their 
hereditary  Lord,  their  Hohenstaufen.  His  enemy  had  set  ugly 
tales  in  circulation  :  he  was  no  son  of  Henry's  but  the  bastard 
of  some  papal  official;  just  such  a  tale  as  had  been  circulated 
at  the  time  of  his  birth  and  was  to  crop  up  again  not  infrequently . 


64  THE  HOHENSTAUFEN   LEGEND  n 

How  the  mere  sight  of  him  sufficed  to  quench  all  such  gossip 
is  best  told  in  the  words  of  the  chronicler  :  "  While  now  these 
fateful  chatterings  began  to  fly  from  lip  to  lip,  lo,  on  a  sudden, 
there  appears  amidst  his  Swabians,  Bavarians  and  Bohemians, 
the  young  King  as  conqueror  over  his  foes ,  and  proves  the  nobility 
of  his  race  by  the  courtesy  and  dignity  of  his  behaviour."  Here 
he  was  hailed  therefore  as  the  legitimate  heir,  entering  the 
kingdom  of  his  fathers,  by  birth  the  lord  of  Swabia,  whose  due 
succession  as  Duke  had  been  recognised  by  the  Swabian 
monasteries  immediately  on  the  murder  of  Philip.  People 
recalled  once  more  that  long  ago  in  the  lifetime  of  Henry  VI 
Frederick  had  been  elected  King,  and  that  only  his  youth,  his 
absence,  and  the  wiles  of  others  had  kept  him  from  his  throne, 
and  they  maintained  that  the  imperial  crown  was  the  preroga 
tive  of  a  Hohenstaufen.  For,  they  told  each  other,  there  was 
only  one  imperial  race,  one  regia  stzrps  that  begot  Emperors, 
the  race  of  the  Waiblings  which  reckoned  doubly  royal  blood, 
the  Carolingian  and  the  Salian,  and  through  the  latter  traced  its 
descent  from  Troy.  The  Staufen  ancestor  had,  at  God's 
express  command,  wedded  a  Waibling  maid,  and  Barbarossa 
had  been  justified  in  his  boast  that  he  sprang  from  the  regia 
sttrps  Waiblingensium.  All  this  contributed  not  a  little  to  the 
glorification  of  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens  whom  people  had 
fetched  home  from  Sicily. 

Had  not  the  Heruli  of  old — as  with  amazement  the  Byzan 
tines  related — sent  out  messengers  to  Ultima  Thule  to  spy  out 
the  land  and  see  whether  a  scion  of  their  ancient  royal  house 
might  there  be  found  ?  And  had  not  the  Heruli  also — weary 
of  waiting  for  their  messengers'  return — chosen  themselves  a 
new  king  whom,  however,  they  stealthily  forsook  by  night  when 
the  news  came  that  their  envoys  were  on  the  way  bringing 
their  hereditary  prince.  Not  otherwise  had  it  been  in  Swabia. 
Kaiser  Otto  had  returned  in  haste  from  Italy  and  by  his  friends' 
advice  had  hastily  married  the  Staufen  heiress  Beatrice,  to 
whom  he  was  long  since  betrothed,  and  had  hoped  thereby  to 
secure  the  loyalty  of  Bavarian  and  Swabian  warriors.  But  his 
young  bride  died  shortly  after,  and  almost  simultaneously  the 
news  came  that  the  last  of  the  Hohenstaufens  was  coming  home. 
By  night  his  men  of  war  crept  off  and  returned  to  their  home- 


OTTO  THE  WELF  65 

steads,  leaving  bag  and  baggage  in  Otto's  hands.     For  in  these 
regions  none  loved  "  the  Saxon  "  as  they  always  called  the  Welf. 


Frederick's  life  was  to  be  rich  in  wars  against  almost  all  the 
powers.  It  is  significant  that  his  career  begins  with  the  renewal 
of  a  prehistoric  racial  feud.  The  boy  had  scarcely  yet  had  time 
to  make  enemies  of  his  own,  but  Otto  the  Welf,  who  from  birth, 
as  son  of  an  Englishwoman,  seemed  destined  for  the  most 
northern  throne  in  Europe  as  King  of  the  Scots,  as  the  Staufen 
was  born  to  a  southern  crown,  seemed  expressly  created  by  fate 
to  be  the  antithesis  in  every  detail  of  his  Waibling  rival :  even 
in  his  exterior.  The  Welf,  heroic  to  foolhardiness,  was  a  fear 
less  dashing  knight,  unwontedly  tall,  with  powerful  frame  and 
well-proportioned  limbs.  His  strength  lay  in  his  mighty  fist, 
trusting  to  which  he  bore  himself  with  aggressive  arrogance, 
"  like  a  lion  whose  very  voice  inspires  terror  in  all  around." 
Not  many  years  before  Frederick's  tour  of  his  Swabian  duke 
dom  Kaiser  Otto  had  visited  the  country  in  his  royal  progress. 
Swabia  in  those  days  centred  round  the  Lake  of  Constance  in 
the  west  and  stretched  far  beyond  the  Rhine,  embracing  the 
whole  of  Alsace  and  reaching  southward  across  the  Alps  almost 
to  Lake  Como.  It  was  the  oldest  Roman  settlement  in  Germany 
and  as  such  tended  to  turn  its  gaze  southward  as  of  course. 
Throughout  this  Swabia  then,  Otto  of  Brunswick  remained  "  the 
Stranger,"  "  the  Saxon."  True,  the  Welfs  were  Swabian  too 
by  origin,  and  not  until  after  the  fall  of  Henry  the  Lion,  Otto's 
great  state-founding  father,  had  they  been  restricted  to  Bruns 
wick.  Kaiser  Otto  in  filial  piety  had  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
those  spots  of  Swabia  that  were  dear  to  his  house  :  Augsburg 
for  instance  and  the  monastery  of  Weingarten,  but  he  had  spent 
his  boyhood  at  the  English  court  of  his  uncle,  Richard  Coeur  de 
Lion,  and  had  become  estranged  from  the  land  of  his  forebears. 
He  displays  many  an  English  trait :  a  frugality  bordering  on 
parsimony,  which  Walther  held  up  to  scorn — "  If  he  had  been 
as  generous  as  he  was  long,  he  would  have  had  many  virtues  " 
— an  amazing  lack  of  education,  a  poverty  of  intellect.  How 
could  such  a  boor  hold  his  own  in  the  delicate  play  of  intrigue 
of  the  Roman  Curia  or  prove  a  match  for  the  great  Pope 


66  DEATH  OF  OTTO  n 

Innocent.  He  moves  us  almost  to  pity  as  we  see  him  powerless 
in  the  grip  of  forces  which  he  did  not  even  understand,  ignorant 
and  unsuspecting  in  the  toils  of  fate  :  not  even  rightly  aware 
what  goal  he  sought  or  ought  to  seek.  Not  until  the  storm  had 
broken  was  he  aware  of  its  approach,  and  then  he  was  bewildered 
by  it—perplexus,  as  the  chronicler  has  it.  The  impact  broke 
him,  instead  of  lending  him  fresh  impetus. 

By  his  own  behaviour  Otto  wantonly  squandered  the  attach 
ment  of  people  of  all  ranks,  certainly  in  the  South.  Towards 
the  princes  he  showed  himself  inopportunely  stern,  arrogant, 
unjust.  He  embittered  the  lower  clergy  by  the  favouritism 
which  awarded  rich  livings  to  Englishmen  and  Saxons  instead 
of  to  the  Swabian  candidates  ;  he  irritated  the  higher  ranks 
by  his  lack  of  courtesy,  addressing  them  all  as  shavelings  or 
priestlings.  In  short,  by  the  multiplication  of  almost  negligible 
trifles  he  unnecessarily  queered  his  own  pitch.  Even  when  his 
edicts  were  wise  and  just,  his  unhappy  touch  prevented  his 
winning  affection  by  his  righteousness.  His  excommunication 
was  hailed  with  malicious  delight  by  all  who  boasted  "a  different 
standard  of  manners."  "  A  burden  to  the  Italians,  a  worse 
burden  to  the  Swabians,  unpopular  amongst  his  own,"  such  was 
the  judgment  of  the  South  on  the  Welf  Emperor  whose  brusquerie 
was  a  symptom  of  self-distrust  rather  than  of  legitimate  pride. 
For  this  son  of  Anak  lacked  that  genuinely  royal  dignity  which 
enabled  Barbarossa  without  losing  prestige  to  kneel  before  the 
mightiest  of  his  own  vassals.  Otto's  feudal  pride  which  only 
force  could  bend  turned  all  too  easily  into  its  opposite.  A 
cruel  Nemesis  awaited  him.  He  was  barely  thirty-six  when  he 
died  a  gruesome  death  at  the  Harzburg  :  deposed,  dethroned,  he 
was  flung  full  length  on  the  ground  by  the  Abbot,  confessing  his 
sins,  while  the  reluctant  priests  beat  him  bloodily  to  death  with 
rods.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  first  and  last  Welf  Emperor. 

The  times  were  growing  too  intellectual  and  clearsighted  for 
a  mere  champion,  however  lion-hearted,  to  rule  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire.  The  ancient  myth  appointed  to  the  two  races 
their  two  tasks  with  a  merciless  exactitude  :  the  Welfs,  though 
mighty  and  great  their  Dukes,  for  ever  vassals  ;  the  Waiblings  for 
ever  Emperors.  For  there  was  room  in  the  Waibling  state  for 
giants  who  preserved  the  might  and  prowess  of  ancient  heroes, 


DOOM  OF  THE  WELFS  67 

but  never  in  a  Welf  state  would  there  be  mental  room  for  Waib- 
ling  brains.  The  relationship  had  held  since  Carolingian 
times,  even  since  the  Wanderings  of  the  Peoples.  Again  and 
yet  again  the  Welfs  had  tried  to  break  the  evil  spell,  again  and 
yet  again  had  met  the  inexorable  doom  :  the  pride  of  the 
rebellious  vassal  had  ended  in  ruin  and  a  lonely  death. 

A  breath  of  mystery  and  horror  surrounds  these  luckless 
Welfs,  like  the  atmosphere  of  northern  myth  :  Ethico,  one  of 
the  first  of  them,  vanished  full  of  sorrow  into  bleak  mountain 
fastnesses  when  his  son — unknown  to  the  father — had  fulfilled 
his  fate  and  done  homage  to  the  Waibling  emperor  of  the  Franks 
.  .  .  Henry  the  Proud  after  fighting  long  and  vainly  against  his 
Staufen  foe  died  suddenly  as  victory  lay  within  his  grasp.  .  .  . 
Henry  the  Lion  fell  and  was  banished  .  .  .  Otto,  the  only  Welf 
who  reigned  as  Emperor — not  by  any  means  the  greatest  of 
his  race — seemed  to  have  belied  the  fateful  prophecy,  seemed 
about  to  found  a  Welf  Empire  of  the  North — which  would 
assuredly  have  met  a  warm  welcome  from  the  Pope — and  paid 
the  penalty  of  his  trespass  into  the  Hohenstaufen  empire  with 
this  shameful,  grisly  death.  Perhaps  we  should  add  to  the 
series  that  uncrowned  founder  of  a  northern  kingdom,  the 
lonely  fallen  vassal  in  the  Saxon  forest,  Bismarck,  the  most 
sublime  of  all  these  giants,  who  stands  in  fate  so  near  the  Welfs. 
It  is  easy  to  understand  why  the  Church  took  the  Welfs  under 
her  wing — her  short  flirtation  with  the  Sicilian  boy  was  acci 
dental — she  wanted  as  her  "  Sword  "  a  docile  warrior-giant, 
not  an  intellectual  Emperor.  Danger  lurked  in  the  free, 
independent,  unclerical  mind  of  the  Hohenstaufen. 

It  was  the  famous  duel  between  Otto  and  Frederick — 
extreme  types  of  the  two  races — that  gave  Italy  the  two  party 
battle-cries  that  echo  for  centuries  through  her  history  :  Welf 
and  Waibling,  Guelf  and  Ghibelline.  It  was  no  chance  that 
allied  Guelfdom  and  Popedom.  For  in  the  thirteenth  century  the 
Ghibelline  spirit  stood  for  that  secular  and  intellectual  light  that 
often  bordered  on  heresy,  and  which,  even  when  it  found  room 
for  itself  within  the  Church,  was  yet  able  to  take  a  detached  view 
of  the  Church  from  outside  and  see  it  as  a  whole.  Boccaccio 
said  of  Dante  that  he  would  have  been  ill  able  to  create  his 
work  had  he  not  been  a  Ghibelline.  The  first  appearance  of  the 


68  GUELF  AND   GHIBELLINE  n 

two  cries  as  party  names  would  seem  to  have  been  in  Florence 
on  the  occasion  of  the  Amidei-Buondelmonti  wedding  in  1216 
when  the  family  feud  developed  into  party  strife.  The  Buon- 
delmonti  party  called  themselves  Guelfs,  as  supporters  of 
the  Emperor,  the  Amidei  dubbed  themselves  Ghibelline  after 
the  rival  King.  The  papal  and  imperial  element  had  not  yet 
entered  in  (at  that  moment  the  papal  would  have  been  the 
Ghibelline).  Later,  under  the  empire  of  Frederick,  Ghibelline 
became  synonymous  with  the  imperial,  and  Guelf  with  the 
papal  party. 

The  struggle  between  Welf  and  Hohenstaufen  was  felt  in  all 
directions  beyond  the  borders  of  Germany,  not  alone  in  Italy. 
England  and  France  were  intimately  involved  by  the  alliance 
of  Kaiser  Otto  with  King  John  and  of  Frederick  with  Philip 
Augustus.  For  these  two  western  powers  the  German  succession 
was  only  an  episode  in  their  everlasting  weary  quarrellings,  but 
for  Otto,  who  had  little  chance  of  winning  the  day  against 
Frederick  on  German  soil,  the  interference  of  these  powers 
offered  a  hope  of  success.  The  Welf  rightly  reckoned  that  any 
English  victory  over  France  would  at  least  seriously  damage  the 
Hohenstaufen's  uncertain  position  in  South  Germany  and  might 
even  completely  undermine  it.  A  simultaneous  English- Welf 
attack  on  France  was  therefore  planned.  Philip  Augustus's 
position  was  precarious.  In  the  spring  of  1214  the  English  king 
landed  at  La  Rochelle,  and  simultaneously  Otto,  in  alliance  with 
the  Duke  of  Brabant,  invaded  France  from  the  north-east. 

Frederick  had  waged  an  unsuccessful  campaign  against  Qued- 
linburg  in  the  preceding  year,  and  at  Easter  in  1214  he  availed 
himself  of  a  Diet  which  he  held  at  Coblenz  to  summon  the 
South  German  army  to  a  concerted  attack  on  the  lower  Rhine, 
and  thus,  by  diverting  Kaiser  Otto's  attention,  relieve  the 
pressure  on  his  French  ally.  But  fate  forestalled  him.  He 
had  no  need  to  take  a  hand  in  the  French-English- Welf 
campaign,  he  had  only  to  garner  the  fruits  of  a  French  victory. 
The  French  heir  apparent  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  on  King 
John  in  Poitou  and  Philip  Augustus  made  short  work  of  the 
hostile  coalition.  On  the  2yth  of  July,  1214,  the  memorable 
battle  of  Bouvines  was  fought  which  decided  the  fate  of  three 
countries. 


JULY  1214 


BATTLE  OF  BOUVINES 


69 


Victorious  France,  whose  oriflamme  was  the  rallying  point 
of  the  levies  from  the  various  towns,  kid  the  foundation  of  her 
internal  unity.  John's  defeat  furnished  the  opportunity  for 
the  English  barons  to  rise  against  the  King  and  wring  from  him 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BOUVINES,  1214 

the  great  charter  of  liberty,  the  "  Magna  Charta  "  of  1215. 
And  Germany  displayed  for  the  first  time  in  the  arena  of 
European  politics  her  complete  internal  disintegration.  The 
Empire,  for  one  short  brilliant  moment,  was  to  enjoy  unity 
under  this  great  Hohenstaufen,  who  received  from  the  hand  of 
France  the  golden  eagle  wrenched  from  the  defeated  Otto,  but 


70       THE  GOLDEN  BULL  OF  EGER       n 

the  clear-sighted  Philip  Augustus  had  not  failed  to  note — and 
repair — its  broken  wings.  "  From  this  time  forward  the  fame 
of  the  Germans  sank  ever  lower  amongst  foreigners  "  reports  a 
chronicler.  Kaiser  Otto  never  recovered  from  this  defeat : 
the  trifling  campaigns  which  Frederick  undertook  against  him, 
now  here,  now  there,  finally  in  alliance  with  the  king  of  Den 
mark,  are  without  interest  or  significance. 


Philip  Augustus  and  Frederick  II  were  not  the  only  victors 
of  Bouvines.  Pope  Innocent  made  a  third.  The  promises 
and  assurances  of  his  ward  matured  for  him,  now  that  Frederick 
had  the  power  to  redeem  them.  Innocent  had  not  lent  his 
potent  aid  gratis.  Six  months  after  Frederick's  arrival  in 
Germany,  as  he  celebrated  Whitsuntide  at  Eger,  he  had  sur 
rendered,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  numerous  princes  there 
assembled,  valuable  privileges  and  territories.  He  secured  to 
the  Pope  the  internal  Church  powers  he  sought,  he  handed  over 
the  disputed  domains  of  Central  Italy  which  Otto  had  conceded 
before  his  coronation.  For  Frederick  could  ill  refuse  to  his 
"  Benefactor  and  Protector  " — as  he  now  styled  him — what  his 
rival  predecessor  had  accorded.  The  weighty  thing  was  that 
the  famous  Golden  Bull  of  Eger,  which  the  German  Church 
delivered  to  the  Pope,  took  the  form — at  the  express  wish  of  the 
Curia — of  an  imperial  grant,  not  of  a  personal  promise.  The 
princes  as  a  body,  and  each  prince  individually,  had  to  counter 
sign  and  confirm  it.  For  the  personal  promises  of  one — though 
he  were  an  Emperor — gave  inadequate  security,  as  the  Pope  had 
learned  from  his  experience  with  Kaiser  Otto. 

The  papal  power  was  slowing  mounting  by  such  successes  to 
its  zenith.  Like  every  great  ruler  Innocent  III  craved  to  give 
himself  and  the  world  a  visible  sign  of  his  greatness.  No  more 
impressive  demonstration  could  have  been  devised  than  the 
great  Church  Council  which  he  convened  for  1215  at  the 
Lateran.  It  was  to  be  the  biggest  Council  that  ever  Pope  had 
held  since  the  Church  had  come  to  birth.  And  Innocent  saw 
with  satisfaction  representatives  of  the  whole  of  Christendom 
pouring  into  Rome  and  rallying  round  him,  the  Vicegerent  of 
the  one  true  God  :  71  archbishops  with  the  patriarchs  of 


JULY  1216         DEATH  OF  INNOCENT  III  71 

Jerusalem  and  Constantinople,  over  400  bishops,  800  abbots, 
and  the  envoys  of  unnumbered  princes  and  towns,  with  the 
ambassadors  of  almost  every  western  king.  Otto  the  Welf  had 
sent  his  messenger ;  Frederick  II  was  represented  by  the 
Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo  :  the  Council  was  to  decide  the 
question  of  the  German  succession.  On  the  whole  nothing 
could  be  expected  from  its  decision  but  the  deposition  of  the 
Welf  Emperor — a  decision  immediately  favourable  to  Frederick 
II.  But  a  precedent  fraught  with  omen  :  the  deposition  of  a 
Roman  Emperor  by  a  Church  Council. 

The  remaining  decisions  of  the  Lateran  Council  concerned 
matters  of  internal  ecclesiastical  discipline.  Pope  Innocent  did 
not  live  to  see  them  carried  out.  Within  a  few  months  of  this 
triumph,  in  July  1216,  he  died,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  in  Perugia. 
And  men  remembered  that  he  had  opened  the  Council  with  the 
prophetic  scriptural  words  :  "  With  desire  I  have  desired  to  eat 
this  passover  with  you  before  I  suffer."  Under  the  protection 
of  this  mighty  Pope  the  two  greatest  men  of  the  immediate 
future  had  been  reared  :  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Frederick  IL 


Before  the  Council  met  in  the  palace  of  the  Lateran  the 
cause  of  the  Hohenstaufen  had  triumphed,  and  Frederick  had 
performed  a  most  valuable  service  for  the  Church,  which  the 
Pope,  however,  sedulously  ignored.  The  Pope  had  devoted 
all  his  energies  during  the  last  year  of  his  life  to  the  promotion 
of  a  new  Crusade,  which  should  be  this  time  the  work  not  of  a 
secular  power  but  of  the  Church  Militant.  Innocent  had  even 
toyed  with  the  idea  of  placing  himself  as  the  verus  imperator 
at  its  head.  Encyclicals  had  been  despatched  to  the  whole 
Christian  world,  and  preachers  of  the  Cross  had  been  appointed 
for  each  diocese  to  fan  to  fresh  flame  the  fire  kindled  in  German 
bosoms  by  St.  Bernard.  Signs  from  heaven  accompanied  the 
steps  of  the  preachers  and  encouraged  the  waverers,  as  the 
Pope's  heralds  journeyed  to  towns  and  villages  and  hamlets. 
But  enthusiasm  flagged,  fanaticism  had  faded  to  lukewarmness, 
damped  not  a  little  by  the  fiasco  of  the  Children's  Crusade. 
Still,  a  few  of  the  princes,  like  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  had  taken 
the  Cross,  when  Frederick  II  in  the  spring  of  1215  was  preparing 


72  ENTRY  INTO  AIX  n 

for  the  campaign  to  Aix  and  to  Cologne.  For  when  he  had 
marched  along  the  lower  Rhine  after  Bouvines  he  had  not 
ventured  to  attack  Cologne  even  with  his  considerable  army,  and 
he  had  made  a  fruitless  attempt  on  Aix.  His  only  success  had 
been  in  winning  over  Otto's  ally,  the  Duke  of  Brabant.  So  in 
May  at  Andernach  he  decided  on  a  new  Rhine  campaign. 
But  in  July,  just  as  he  was  about  to  quit  Alsace,  the  situation  on 
the  lower  Rhine  suddenly  cleared  up.  The  citizens  of  Aix 
themselves  drove  out  the  governor,  and  they  now  invited  the 
Hohenstaufen  to  come  in  peace  and  permit  them  to  receive  him 
as  their  lawful  lord. 

So  in  the  last  days  of  July  1215  Frederick  made  his  triumphal 
entry  into  the  sacred  Roman  town,  not  with  the  clash  of  weapons 
but  with  all  the  pomp  of  a  Roman  emperor  coming  to  be 
crowned,  escorted  by  princes  and  nobles  in  gorgeous  array. 
Frederick  called  Aix  "  the  capital  and  seat  of  the  kingdom  of 
Germany,"  and  praised  it  beyond  all  other  towns,  "  because  in 
this  town  the  Roman  kings  are  sanctified  and  crowned  and  it 
shines  out  in  glory  second  only  to  Rome  herself."  No  German 
king  in  those  days  could  claim  his  full  rights  or  his  title  to  the 
imperial  crown  of  Rome  till  he  had  been  anointed  and  crowned 
in  Aix  and  had  taken  his  seat  on  the  throne  of  Charlemagne. 
Frederick,  indeed,  himself  reckoned  the  years  of  his  reign  from 
the  day  of  his  coronation  in  Aix.  Other  solemnities  took  place 
during  the  coronation  days.  Fifty  years  before,  in  1165, 
Barbarossa,  though  then  under  the  ban  of  the  Church,  had 
disinterred  the  bones  of  Charlemagne,  and  in  the  presence  of 
bishops  and  princes  had  had  them  consecrated  by  the — also 
banned — imperial  Anti-Pope  of  the  day  "  to  the  honour  and 
glory  of  Christ  and  the  strengthening  of  the  Roman  Empire." 
Barbarossa  hoped  by  thus  canonising  the  first  Christian  German 
Imperator  to  sanctify  also  the  sacrum  imperium  (in  Charle 
magne's  own  phrase)  of  the  said  empire  and  the  office  of  emperor 
itself,  just  as  he  had  previously  emphasised  the  biblical  sanctity 
of  kingship  by  transferring  the  relics  of  the  Three  Holy  Kings 
from  Milan  to  Cologne.  In  Barbarossa 's  time  the  solemn 
sequence  had  been  composed  in  honour  of  Charles  and  his 
capital,  whose  words  of  praise  rang,  full  alike  of  challenge  and 
of  promise,  in  the  ears  of  Barbarossa y$  son  : 


AET.  21       FREDERICK  TAKES  THE   CROSS  73 

Hie  est  Christi  miles  fortis, 
Hie  invictae  dux  cohortis, 

as  he  entered  the  great  cathedral  to  lay  to  rest  the  remains  of 
the  first  German  Emperor. 

The  people  of  Aix  had  wrought  a  magnificent  silver  shrine 
the  sides  of  which  were  adorned  with  figures  of  the  Emperors, 
like  images  of  the  apostles.  The  apostolic  duty  of  converting 
the  heathen  was  part  of  the  imperial  office.  Frederick  II  was 
represented  on  the  shrine,  which  was  to  be  closed  in  his  presence. 
The  day  after  his  coronation  the  young  King  flung  off  his  heavy 
robe,  climbed  the  scaffolding  which  bore  the  shrine  and  with 
his  own  hand  drove  the  first  nails  into  the  lid.  No  wonder  that 
Frederick's  mind  was  filled  in  those  days,  as  never  before  or 
after,  with  visions  of  Charlemagne,  Destroyer  of  the  Heathen, 
and  of  the  aged  Barbarossa,  his  grandfather,  who  lost  his  life 
on  a  Crusade.  He  solemnly  declared  that  it  appeared  to  him 
"  both  reasonable  and  seemly  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Great  and  Holy  Charles  and  of  his  other  ancestors.'1  The  deed 
had  in  fact  preceded  these  words,  for  immediately  on  receiving 
the  Diadem  with  which  Sigfrid,  Archbishop  of  Mainz,  had 
crowned  him,  Frederick  had  suddenly,  to  the  amazement  of 
the  onlookers,  taken  the  Cross,  and  by  fervent  prayers  and 
exhortations,  reinforced  by  promises  and  gifts,  had  eagerly 
recruited  the  knights  and  princes  for  the  new  Crusade.  Many 
of  the  princes  followed  the  King's  example.  Frederick  spent 
the  whole  of  the  next  day  from  early  morning  till  night  listening 
to  Crusade  sermons  in  the  cathedral,  and  persuaded  many  to  pin 
the  token  of  the  Cross  upon  their  shoulders. 

Did  people  hope  that  the  boy,  so  recently  compared  to  King 
David,  would  really  lead  the  hosts  to  David's  royal  city  of 
Jerusalem  ?  Frederick  himself  had  every  hope  of  it.  It  was 
an  almost  inspired  masterstroke  of  diplomacy  that  prompted 
the  young  King  to  set  himself  at  the  head  of  the  crusading 
movement.  Unwittingly  he  thus  took  the  leadership  and 
direction  of  the  Crusade  out  of  the  hands  of  the  papal  Imperator 
and  took  up  again  the  noblest  task  of  an  Emperor — by  common 
consent  the  imperial  prerogative — to  lead  the  knights  of 
Christendom  to  the  Holy  Land.  Pope  Innocent  was  most 
painfully  disturbed  by  this  inopportune  zeal  on  the  part  of  his 


74  THE  CRUSADER'S  VOW 

quondam  ward  and  made  no  single  allusion  to  Frederick's 
act.  This  wise  political  move  was,  however,  only  the  inevitable 
outcome  of  the  mental  attitude  of  the  man  and  the  king,  and  it 
would  be  cynical  to  let  its  shrewdness  blind  us  to  the  unique 
greatness  of  that  moment.  It  is  a  scene  that  lives  :  the  proud 
impetuous  boy  in  the  full  flush  of  his  amazing  triumph  and 
success,  immediately  after  the  Coronation  Mass,  when  he  has 
but  just  received  the  imperial  diadem,  dedicating  himself  in 
the  noble  enthusiasm  of  youth  to  the  service  of  God  and  of  the 
Empire  with  his  crusader's  vow.  Frederick  knew  and  felt  the 
act  as  a  sacrifice,  a  surrender  of  himself  to  his  ofGce  and  his 
calling :  "  With  pure  and  spotless  heart  he  had  not  only 
dedicated  his  body  and  his  powers  to  God,  but  offered  them  up 
in  the  devouring  flame,  as  it  were  a  holocaust."  Vow  and 
consecration  followed.  The  young  Hohenstaufen  is  now 
twenty-one  years  old.  With  his  coronation  and  his  sacrifice 
the  years  of  his  boyhood  had  ended,  the  Puer  Apuliae  is 
no  more. 


III.  EARLY  STATESMANSHIP 

Death   of   Otto Dawn   of  national   consciousness    in 

Germany Knight  and  Monk The  Cistercians 

The   Templars The  Teutonic  Order  :    Hermann   of 

Salza War   with   Denmark The    Golden    Bull    of 

Rimini,  1226 Pope  Honorius  III King  Henry- 
elected  King  of  the  Romans Diplomatic  victory  over 

the    Papacy Coronation    in    Rome  ;     ceremonial 

De  resignandis  privileges The  Sicilian  barons Diet 

of  Capua Count  of  Molise Deportation  of  people  of 

Celano Remodelling  of  the  Feudal  System Archi 
tecture Diet  of  Messina,  1221 Syracuse Mea 
sures  against  foreign  trade Creation  of  Sicilian  fleet 

Saracen     war Lucera University    of    Naples 

Crusading  disasters  ;  San  Germano Death  of  Con 
stance  of  Aragon,  1222 Marriage  with  Isabella  of 

Jerusalem,  1225 Birth  of  Conrad Berard  of  Palermo 

Lombard  League Feud  of  Cremona  and  Milan 

Franciscans    and   Dominicans Diet   of   Cremona 

prevented  by  Lombards,  1226 Leonardo  of  Pisa 


t.  Francis Death  of  Honorius  III Gregory  IX 


III.  EARLY  STATESMANSHIP 

A  SERIES  of  uneventful,  though  not  inactive,  years  followed  in 
Germany  the  exuberance  of  Frederick's  youthful  debut.  He 
had  solemnly  dedicated  himself  to  the  Empire  and  indicated 
thereby  the  direction  his  future  thought  and  activity  would  take. 
Anyone  who  was  looking  for  spectacular  effects,  however,  must 
have  been  disappointed  in  the  new  King's  methods.  It  would 
be  wearisome  and  purposeless  to  recount  in  detail  the  history 
of  the  next  few  years.  Squabbles  and  differences  with  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  with  a  certain  Egeno  of  Urach  about  some  ques 
tions  of  inheritance  arising  from  the  dying  out  of  the  Zahringen 
— these  and  similar  trifles — are  irrelevant  to  the  tasks  and  duties 
of  an  Emperor,  and  have,  as  purely  internal  German  affairs,  no 
interest  beyond  their  own  narrow  borders.  Even  the  Welf 
struggle,  which  had  at  one  point  been  a  matter  of  European 
importance  with  world  principles  at  stake,  had  sunk  to  the  level 
of  a  casual  feud,  since  Otto  IV  had  abandoned  Cologne  and 
the  lower  Rhine  and  retreated  into  his  Brunswick  domains. 
Frederick  attacked  him  again  in  the  summer  of  1217,  but  it  was 
scarcely  necessary,  for  no  one  now  seriously  questioned  the 
Hohenstaufen  rule.  Nevertheless  Otto's  death  at  the  Harzburg 
in  May  1218  cleared  up  the  general  situation  and  brought  a 
certain  feeling  of  relief  to  Frederick.  It  was  a  remarkable  co 
incidence  that — so  at  least  the  legend  runs — just  a  few  days 
before  the  death  of  the  Welf  Goliath,  the  Hohenstaufen  King 
stood  godfather  to  a  boy  who  was  destined  in  Germany's 
darkest  hour  to  rescue  the  remains  of  the  shattered  Empire  and 
to  restore  some  fraction  of  the  old  pomp  and  glory  to  his  ancient 
house  :  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg. 

The  only  events  of  these  days  were  insignificant  feuds  whose 
origin  and  name  are  alike  forgotten :  more  or  less  important 
diets  accompanying  the  King's  presence  in  various  parts  of  his 
dominions,  weddings,  awards,  gifts,  confirmations  of  title,  arbi 
trations — all  the  routine  attaching  to  the  daily  duty  of  a  king. 

77 


78  FREDERICK  AND  THE  PRINCES  m 

Frederick's  favourite  residence  in  those  days  was  in  Alsace, 
on  the  Rhine  at  Worms  or  Speyer.  He  had  the  body  of  the 
murdered  Philip  of  Swabia  brought  from  Bamberg  and  buried 
in  the  cathedral  of  Speyer  beside  the  Hohenstaufen  matron 
Beatrice,  Barbarossa's  consort.  His  other  favourite  German 
headquarters  was  Hagenau,  where  he  could  hunt  in  the  exten 
sive  forests  and  yet  slake  his  thirst  for  knowledge  in  the  rich 
library  of  ancient  manuscripts.  He  was  also  often  to  be  found 
in  Franconia  and  Swabia,  in  Wiirzburg  and  Nuremberg,  in 
Augsburg  and  Ulm,  and  business  took  him  now  and  then  to 
Thuringia,  Saxony  and  Lorraine,  so  that  he  acquired  a  wide 
knowledge  of  Germany. 

These  have  been  called  his  "  Wanderjahre  ";  their  impor 
tance  lies  less  in  what  he  achieved  than  in  the  goal  he  set  him 
self.  We  know  nothing  of  his  personal  self-education  in  those 
days.  He  was  fortunate  enough  not  to  feel  the  need  of  an 
amateurish  search  for  suitable  mental  food  that  drove  Napoleon, 
for  instance,  at  the  corresponding  age,  to  writing  philosophical 
essays.  He  was  perfectly  clear  in  his  own  mind  what  he  wanted 
— hesitation  indeed  never  haunted  him — and  we  can  accept  as 
correct  his  own  later  statement  that  from  his  earliest  youth  he 
had  kept  before  him  one  lofty  aim  :  to  devote  himself  unre 
servedly,  body  and  soul,  to  the  exaltation  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
He  therefore  directed  his  policy  solely  with  an  eye  to  the  Empire 
as  a  whole  :  a  whole  of  which  Germany  was  merely  one  im 
portant  constituent.  This  is  the  key  to  his  German  policy  : 
he  took  a  passive  line  towards  the  German  princes,  interfered  as 
little  as  possible,  and  surrendered  one  royal  right  after  another, 
looking  only  to  the  good  of  the  Empire.  The  princes,  for  the 
most  part,  were  supremely  indifferent  to  the  wider  imperial 
issues,  and  Frederick  II  sought  at  any  cost  to  secure  their 
loyalty  and  attach  them  to  himself  in  order  to  divert  at  least  a 
fraction  of  their  vigour  to  his  task. 

Frederick's  position  towards  the  princes  was  a  peculiarly 
delicate  one.  To  maintain  his  rights,  let  alone  seek  to  enlarge 
them,  that  is  :  to  attempt  to  rule  himself,  without  the  mediation 
of  the  princes  of  the  Empire,  could  only  have  been  achieved  in 
battle  against  them.  Never  would  they  have  voluntarily  con 
sented  to  any  curtailment  of  their  independence  or  of  the  rights 


GERMAN  POLICY  79 

they  had  won  during  the  long  wars  of  succession.  But  these 
were  the  very  men  who  had  summoned  Frederick  to  Germany, 
by  whose  aid  he  had  overcome  the  Welf.  Moreover,  the  most 
numerous  amongst  them,  as  well  as  the  most  powerful,  were 
spiritual  princes  who  had  given  him  their  help  as  the  protege 
of  the  Pope.  Any  step  of  Frederick  against  the  princes  would 
infallibly  embroil  him  with  the  Church,  the  other  power  to 
which  he  owed  his  elevation.  Such  measures  were  not  to  be 
thought  of ;  he  who  had  come  as  a  beggar  to  Germany  was  in 
no  position  to  exercise  compulsion  or  persuasion  on  its  princes. 
His  enfeebled  Swabian  dukedom  did  not  of  itself  offer  sufficient 
resources  to  embark  on  a  fight  against  the  whole  body  of 
German  princes.  Even  if  Frederick  had  wanted  to  confine  his 
activities  to  Germany,  and  to  build  up  a  strong,  national  German 
kingdom,  no  opportunity  for  this  was  offered  him.  This  par 
ticular  ambition  was  in  any  case  foreign  to  the  philosophy  of 
his  race  with  its  leaning  towards  the  universal.  Moreover,  he 
was  himself  a  Sicilian  as  well  as  a  Hohenstaufen. 

We  have  various  indications  that  Frederick's  one  instinct  was 
to  shelve  for  the  moment  the  miscellaneous  German  problems 
— which  finally  stirred  him  to  unconcealed  annoyance — even  at 
the  cost  of  surrendering  many  a  privilege.  By  the  indirect 
expedient  of  building  up  a  powerful  Roman  empire,  rather  than 
by  civil  war,  Frederick  hoped  to  strengthen  the  royal  power  in 
Germany. 

So  during  these  German  years  Frederick  systematically 
sought  out  and  turned  to  account  whatever  benefited  the 
Roman  Empire,  whatever  he  could  find  in  Germany  that  would 
be  valid  or  valuable  in  a  wider  world  and  not  only  within  the 
frontiers  of  Germany.  He  exploited  not  German  peculiarities 
but  German  world  forces,  and  these,  hi  addition  to  serving  the 
Empire,  brought  advantage  to  the  incoherent  loosely-knit  Ger 
many  herself.  The  only  way  to  consolidate  Germany  was  first 
to  extend  it  until  it  embraced  enough  material  to  weld  into  a 
compact  whole.  As  yet  no  German  spirit  existed,  but  only  a 
Roman  spirit  which  was  gradually  civilising  the  Germanic.  It 
was  not  common  German  tradition  which  bound  the  Nor 
therners  together,  but  Roman  form  and  culture.  The  German 
races  had  nothing  in  common  but  their  blood,  and  the  call 


8o  THE  HOHENSTAUFEN  AGE  m 

of  the  blood  was  rarely  vocal.  Just  now  and  then,  on  some 
auspicious  occasion,  in  solemn  moments  of  enthusiasm,  when 
they  assembled  for  crusade  or  pilgrimage,  they  felt  with  a  thrill 
of  pride  that  they — Saxons  and  Franks,  Swabians  and  Bavarians 
— were  one.  But  they  did  not  even  then  feel  "  German."  At 
most  they  felt  that  they  stood  together  as  heirs  of  the  Empire 
of  the  Caesars,  they  prided  themselves  on  being  descendants  of 
the  Trojans,  or  styled  themselves  "  Roman  "  citizens.  The 
word  "  German  "  is  reserved  for  our  use  to-day. 


Frederick  therefore  in  seeking  out  whatever  struck  him  as 
most "  Roman  "  in  Empire  and  Church  was  also  fostering  whatT 
ever  was  most  nearly  "  national."  Awakening  Germany  offered 
scope  enough  in  the  dawn  of  the  thirteenth  century  when  she 
welcomed  in  her  young  king,  the  Child  of  Apulia,  the  personi 
fication  of  her  own  youth.  For  in  that  wonderful  Hohen- 
staufen  age,  warmed  through  and  through  by  southern  light, 
Germany  was  experiencing  within  her  borders  for  the  first  time 
(and  for  the  only  time  in  any  such  many-sidedness)  a  real  blos 
soming  of  song  and  vision,  of  fairy  tale  and  epic,  of  painting, 
building  and  sculpture.  Despite  world  wars  and  political  tension 
she  was  displaying  that  cheerful  serenity,  that  emancipation  and 
freedom  which  breathes  from  the  creations  of  the  time — almost 
incredible  as  German  products.  The  existence  of  these  works 
is  the  justification  of  Nietzsche's  statement  made  at  a  time  when 
freedom  had  reached  its  nadir :  "  There  is  a  touch  of  something 
in  them  that  might  almost  be  Hellenic,  which  awakes  in  contact 
with  the  South."  This  fertilisation  by  the  South  did  not  neces 
sarily  entail  a  journey  thither.  The  spirit  can  modify  the 
climate,  and  by  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Roman 
Church  Germany  was  southernised  as  far  up  as  her  Baltic  coasts. 
Not  that  the  essentially  Germanic  was  surrendered  or  elimi 
nated.  These  southern  forces  absorbed,  without  excluding,  all 
that  was  most  characteristic,  as  the  thirteenth  century,  the  most 
Roman  century,  abundantly  proves.  For  all  the  Middle  High 
German  heroic  epics  took  their  final  form  in  the  Hohenstaufen 
period  :  the  Nibelungen,  Gudrun,  the  cycle  of  Dietrich  of  Bern, 
with  the  Rose  Garden  of  Worms,  Laurin,  the  Battle  of  Ravenna 


THE  GERMAN  SPIRIT  81 

and  Hugdietrich.  Further,  the  epics  of  Duke  Ernest  and  Ortnit, 
these  and  others  belong  to  this  period.  Side  by  side  with  the 
great  epic  monuments — echoes  of  the  Germanic  heroic  age — 
we  find  the  stirring  new  lyrics  of  the  courtly  Minnesanger, 
Hartmann  of  Aue,  Henry  of  Veldeke,  Gottfried  von  Strassburg, 
Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  and  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide, 
whose  voices  blended  with  the  solemn  Latin  hymns  of  the 
Christian  ritual.  The  chivalrous  epics  of  the  Minnesanger, 
the  Eneide,  Poor  Henry,  Tristan,  Parzival  show  the  complete 
blending  of  heroic  tale  and  Christian  spirit.  It  was  the  Roman 
Imperium  which  imposed  a  sure,  cultivated  touch  alike  on 
German  heroics  and  on  Christian  chivalry — the  like  of  which 
Germany  has  never  seen  again. 

We  recall  Bishop  Conrad  of  Hildesheim  writing  of  the  marvels 
of  South  Italy  :  "  We  do  not  need  to  go  beyond  the  borders  of 
our  own  German  Empire  to  see  all  that  the  Roman  poets  have 
been  at  such  pains  to  describe/' 

Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire 
the  German  felt  at  home,  and  on  a  sudden  the  Roman  poets 
made  a  direct  and  personal  appeal,  and  were  no  longer  only  the 
cultural  and  educational  stock-in-trade  of  the  Roman  Church. 
The  effective  assimilation  of  such  Roman  spoils  is  shown  by 
the  now  repeated  attempt  to  translate  a  Roman  poet  into 
German — the  first  since  Notker's  Vergil  in  Carolingian  times. 
Albert  of  Halberstadt  translated  Ovid — he  did  not  find  a  suc 
cessor  till  the  days  of  the  Humanists — and  proved  that  at  the 
time  an  interest  in  classical  literature  was  beginning  to  be  felt 
in  circles  not  conversant  with  classical  Latin,  probably  amongst 
those  knightly  laymen  in  the  entourage  of  the  Landgrave 
Hermann  of  Thuringia  at  whose  instance  the  translation  was 
undertaken.  The  Hohenstaufen  were  also  responsible  for  the 
introduction  of  Roman  Law,  the  most  vital  and  permanent 
invasion  of  the  Roman  spirit  into  secular  Germany. 

The  most  remarkable  manifestation  of  the  German-Roman- 
Antique  time — felt  to  be  "  most  strange  " — was  the  architecture 
of  Bamberg,  followed  by  Naumburg,  ih  which  for  the  first  time 
a  real  German  figure  was  portrayed.  The  surprising  and 
stimulating  thing  about  the  plastic  art  which  belongs  to  the 
later  days  of  Frederick,  the  Sicilian-Italian  Hohenstaufen,  is 


82  KNIGHT  AND  MONK  in 

this,  that  in  works  like  the  "  Horseman  "  of  Bamberg  or  Mag 
deburg  the  possibility  is  for  the  first  time  revealed — not  yet  in 
song  or  story, 'but  to  the  eye  in  chiselled  stone — of  a  work 
showing  a  German  subject  and  yet  making  a  world-wide  appeal. 
This  intermingling  of  the  music  and  motion  of  Germany  with 
(imperial  and  papal)  Rome  has  produced  as  by  a  miracle  an 
almost  Mediterranean  type,  restrained,  yet  withal  free  and 
unfettered,  a  type  hitherto  foreign  to  German  art,  for  which 
until  then  only  the  Italian  had  had  an  eye.  The  Bamberg 
master  worked  of  course  under  French  influence  and  the 
tradition  of  ancient  Roman  plastic  art,  but  while  this  fact  is 
not  without  importance  it  does  not  alter  the  certain  inference 
that  this  nobly  beautiful  and  chivalrous  human  type  must  have 
existed  in  the  Germany  of  the  day. 


Two  figures  of  aristocratic  life  gave  tone  to  the  whole  period 
and  gave  Germany  a  share  in  the  happenings  of  the  world  out 
side  :  knight  and  monk.  These  were  cosmopolitan  figures  and 
German  figures  both.  The  monk  exercised  so  dangerous  a 
monopoly  in  Germany  that  no  other  characteristic  type  was 
developed  on  at  all  an  equal  footing.  France  on  her  side,  since 
the  days  of  Erigena,  Ivo  and  Abelard,  in  the  schools  of  Paris, 
Chartres  and  Orleans,  produced  the  scholar  ;  Italy  by  the  com 
merce  of  the  coast  towns,  Pisa,  Venice  and  Genoa,  evolved  the 
merchant.  For  Germany  all  paths  into  the  distance  lay  open 
before  the  knight  and  the  monk,  the  two  visible  representatives 
of  the  two  great  powers :  Empire  and  Church.  Prince  and 
bishop  were  tied  to  their  domains,  but  knight  and  monk,  re 
joicing  in  greater  freedom  of  movement  and  more  varied  range 
of  activity,  mirrored  like  them,  on  a  smaller  scale  and  a  more 
modest  plane,  the  figures  of  Emperor  and  Pope. 

This  fact  successfully  solved  a  problem  which  had  never 
before  been  solved  in  German  history  :  for  the  first  time, 
throughout  all  the  many  and  diverse  provinces  of  Germany,  the 
aristocratic  youths  who  overflowed  the  monasteries  and  religious 
foundations  were  offered  a  career  which  would  be  valid  not  only 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  their  immediate  homeland  but  in 
the  wider  world  beyond.  It  was  the  only  time  in  history  that 


THE  CISTERCIANS  83 

the  German  became — in  the  best  sense  of  the  word — cosmo 
politan.  This  prepared  the  ground  for  a  great  period  of  plastic 
art  which  was,  alas,  abruptly  terminated  when  the  fall  of  the 
Empire  severed  German  knighthood  from  the  rest  of  the  world 
and  condemned  it  to  blunt  itself  in  bourgeois  stupidity  or  to 
seek  service  outside  Germany  in  foreign  pay. 

There  were  two  powers  which  Frederick  courted  during 
those  German  years,  and  courted  not  in  vain  :  a  monks'  and 
a  knights'  Order.  A  few  weeks  after  the  coronation  at  Aix 
his  close  association  with  the  Cistercians  was  remarked.  The 
Order  to  which  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  belonged,  in  which  at 
that  time  "  the  Church  of  Christ  had  broken  into  bloom,"  had 
not  in  fact  been  founded  by  St.  Bernard  himself,  but  the  com 
munity  owed  its  importance  to  his  zeal  and  fire.  Like  almost 
all  orders  of  the  Roman  Church  it  had  its  roots  in  the  need  to 
reform  abuses,  and  Bernard  had  emphasised  the  stern  asceticism 
and  discipline  of  the  Order,  but  these  were  balanced  in  the 
doctor  mellifluus  by  the  passion  of  a  great  love.  Hence  Dante 
chooses  Bernard  as  his  final  guide  to  the  Throne  of  God  : 

The  Queen  of  Heaven,  enthroned  above, 
Knowing  my  heart's  devotion,  will  not  fail, 
For  am  I  not  her  Bernard,  her  true  love  .  .  . 

He  was  the  first  to  breathe  into  the  Order  a  passionate  devotion 
to  the  Virgin,  just  at  the  time  the  outer  world  was  singing  the 
earliest  lyrics  of  the  troubadours.  And  he  was  the  first  also 
who  sanctified  "  the  work  of  the  chaste  earth  "  and  so  gave  a 
new  direction  to  monastic  ambition,  the  combination  of  an 
active  with  a  contemplative  life.  "  Free  from  earthly  disturb 
ance  and  earthly  broils  the  Order  enjoys  earthly  peace/'  wrote 
Frederick  once,  and  so  it  was.  The  Order  sought  out  the  re 
motest  and  quietest  valleys  for  its  settlements,  and  there  set 
up  its  monasteries  and  its  extensive  farm-steadings,  its  simple 
churches,  towerless  and  unadorned,  bearing  only,  instead  of 
other  decoration,  the  first  rose  blossoms  of  Burgundian  Gothic. 
Maulbronn  and  Ebrach  are  our  witnesses  for  these  early  days 
when  the  Grey  Monks  "  lived  amongst,  but  yet  above,  their 
fellow-men." 

The  obligation  to  till  the  soil  ensured  the  rapid  geographical 
extension  of  the  Order.    The  Cistercians  became  a  quiet,  steady 


84  ORGANISATION   OF  THE  ORDER  m 

pioneer  influence,  cultivating  the  ancient  tracts  and  opening 
up  new  ones,  especially  for  Germany.  It  was  they  who  first 
Christianised  and  colonised  Prussia.  The  whole  organisation 
of  their  monasteries  anticipated  growth.  There  was  never  to 
be  more  than  one  abbot  and  twelve  brothers,  with  twelve  lay 
brothers,  in  one  cloister.  If  the  numbers  grew  beyond  this, 
the  excess  hived  forth  to  seek  a  new  abiding  place.  This  self- 
sufficing  restriction  of  their  numbers  to  the  number  of  the 
apostles  was  the  origin  of  the  innumerable  daughter-establish 
ments  which  were  subordinate  to  the  mother-cloisters,  as  they 
in  turn  were  related — like  the  branches  of  a  genealogical  tree — 
to  the  parent  settlement  at  Citeaux.  Thus  the  cohesion  of  all 
the  monasteries  was  secured,  and  the  Cistercians  gradually  grew 
to  form  one  single  world-wide  institution  which  never  split 
asunder.  This  organisation  was  without  parallel,  for  with  the 
Benedictines  each  monastery  was  entirely  independent  of  the 
others. 

The  unity  and  the  monarchic  graduation  of  the  whole  Cis 
tercian  Order  were  still  further  developed.  Once  a  year  the 
Abbots  from  each  settlement  from  Syria  to  Sweden  assembled 
in  a  General  Chapter.  This  statesmanlike  assembly,  which  put 
the  resources  of  all  at  the  disposition  of  each,  breathed  the  same 
spirit  from  southern  Burgundy  to  Pomerania  and  Prussia,  as  the 
Cistercian  churches  in  the  north-east  of  Germany  (nearly  all  of 
which  date  from  the  thirteenth  century)  clearly  testify.  This 
centralisation  was  as  much  an  innovation  as  the  agriculture  and 
horticulture  which  the  monks  introduced  into  the  newly  opened 
districts,  in  improving  the  tillage  and  domesticating  wild  crops. 

These  brothers,  pushing  ever  forward,  colonising  the  valleys 
with  their  Virgin-led  hosts,  spreading  the  teaching  of  Christ 
and  ever  planting  daughter-settlements,  evoked  a  late  Christian 
reflex  of  the  ver  sacrum  of  earlier  times. 

The  Cistercian  Order,  with  its  landed  properties,  its  disciplined 
constitution,  its  immense  extension,  was  the  most  patrician 
of  the  monkish  orders  under  the  Hohenstaufen  Empire  and 
the  aristocratic  medieval  Church,  contrasting  with  the  plebeian 
Mendicant  Orders  who  were  just  then  emerging,  and  who  were 
really  at  home  only  in  the  towns.  The  wide  distribution  and 
the  monarchic  constitution  of  the  Cistercians  had  the  result 


FREDERICK  AND  THE  "GREY  MONKS       85 

that  they  were  directly  under  the  leaders  of  the  Christian  world  ; 
no  territorial  prince,  no  individual  bishop  appointed  or  in 
fluenced  the  governors  of  their  monasteries  ;  they  were  ruled 
directly,  in  spiritual  matters  by  the  Pope,  in  worldly  affairs  by 
the  Emperor  alone.  Earlier  Emperors  had  made  generous  gifts 
to  the  Cistercians,  but  none  to  the  same  extent  as  Frederick  II, 
especially  in  those  German  years  of  his.  The  tokens  of  favour 
with  which  he  honoured  the  Order  and  at  times  almost  over 
whelmed  it,  are  well-nigh  innumerable.  The  warmth  of  feeling, 
the  reverence,  which  the  records  show  he  felt  for  the  Order, 
"  the  shady  grove  of  Christ,"  exceed  all  that  any  other  com 
munity  can  boast,  and  till  his  dying  day  Frederick  loved  to 
consider  himself  intimately  bound  to  them. 

After  taking  the  Cross  Frederick  got  himself  received  into  a 
prayer-community  of  Cistercians,  and  his  curiously  humble 
petition  addressed  to  the  Abbot  of  this  powerful  Order  is  still 
reminiscent  of  his  crusading  mood.  The  pious  and  edifying 
style  of  this  letter — in  which  Frederick  pictures  himself  as  a 
sinner  in  the  weakness  of  the  flesh — served  its  purpose.  He 
was  received  into  the  community,  a  fact  of  which  in  later  years 
he  did  not  fail  to  take  advantage.  This  sort  of  thing  was 
of  course  a  regular  custom  of  the  Emperors,  and  Frederick  II 
followed  in  their  footsteps  the  more  readily  that  he  was  anxious 
to  secure  adherents  in  the  clerical  camp.  The  Cistercians  were 
to  act  as  "  Preservers  of  the  harmony  between  Emperor  and 
Pope/3  a  scheme  which  had  often  proved  fruitful  under  Bar- 
barossa  and  Otto  IV.  But  Frederick  had  yet  another  axe  to 
grind.  Their  experience  made  the  Cistercians  masters  of 
agriculture.  Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  himself  a  Cistercian 
monk,  proudly  records  that  the  lay  brothers  of  the  grey  brother 
hood  had  been  recommended  to  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne 
as  the  best  household  administrators.  Frederick  could  turn 
such  men  as  that  to  good  account.  He  loved  to  gather  round 
him  Cistercian  lay  brothers  trained  in  agriculture  and  cattle- 
breeding  and  set  them  to  organise  and  administer  his  imperial 
estates  in  Apulia  and  the  Capitanata.  He  used  others  as  archi 
tects  and  overseers  for  his  castles  and  pleasure  palaces,  while 
in  his  most  important  and  handsome  buildings  in  South  Italy 
Cistercian  builders  played  a  distinguished  part. 


86  CISTERCIAN  ARCHITECTURE  m 

We  have  written  evidence  of  the  Cistercians'  activities  as  the 
Emperor's  builders.  It  is  clear  from  a  statute  of  the  General 
Chapter  that  lay  brothers  and  monks  were  later  told  off  in  great 
numbers  for  the  Emperor's  service.  The  Pope  even  complained 
that  Frederick  was  using  too  many  of  them  for  his  building 
projects.  The  evidence  of  the  Apulian  castles  and  palaces 
themselves  is  plainer  still.  As  far  as  can  still  be  traced  they 
all  have  in  common  the  new  Gothic  style  of  the  Cistercians 
which  was  supplanting  more  and  more  the  native  Nornian- 
Byzantine  architecture.  Not  of  course  the  "  broken  forms  "  of 
later  Gothic,  but  the  principle  of  utilising  piers  and  buttresses 
to  denote  strength  and  striving — just  what  makes  the  magic  of 
the  transition  period.  The  late-Roman  forms  are  touched  and 
penetrated  by  the  young  Gothic  strength,  so  that  for  a  few 
decades  of  conflict  and  exuberant  wealth  the  two — both  fruit 
and  blossom — are  found  side  by  side.  It  was  in  such  a  "  ful 
ness  of  time  "  that  Frederick  was  destined  to  rule. 

People  have  designated  the  whole  Hohenstaufen  culture  of 
Germany  as  "  knightly,"  and  knightly  too  the  crude  early- 
Gothic  of  the  Cistercian  monasteries.  There  was  something 
of  the  knight  in  these  monks,  and  indeed  in  the  days  of  the 
knightly  orders  the  antithesis  between  monk  and  knight  was 
almost  obliterated.  The  epic  poet — by  a  slight  anachronism — 
makes  the  monk  Ilsan,  who  in  the  suite  of  Dietrich  of  Bern 
burst  so  devastatingly  into  the  Rose  Garden  of  Worms,  a 
Cistercian.  The  connection  between  the  Grey  Monks  and  the 
spiritual  knights  goes  back  in  fact  to  very  early  times.  People 
even  say  that  the  first  knightly  Order  of  the  West  was  founded 
by  Spanish  Cistercians  who  courageously  flew  to  arms  when 
Calatrava  was  threatened  by  the  Moors.  And  the  interplay  of 
the  two  types  of  Order  can  be  easily  explained,  for  the  spiritual 
knight,  like  the  monk,  loved  to  trace  his  origin  back  to  St. 
Bernard.  It  may  not  be  strictly  true  that — as  the  legend  will 
have  it — Bernard  himself  dictated  the  Rule  of  the  Templars  to 
the  knights  Hugo  of  Payens  and  Godfrey  of  St.  Omer,  but  the 
original  spirit  of  the  Templars  was  closely  akin  to  the  spirit 
of  romantic  devotion  and  stern  sobriety  which  animated  St. 
Bernard  and  his  Order.  It  was  Bernard  who,  in  the  time  of 
the  second  Crusade,  recruited  with  zeal  and  eloquence  for  the 


ST.   BERNARD  AND   THE  TEMPLARS  87 

Templars,  and  who  wrote  a  tract,  "  In  Praise  of  the  New 
Chivalry  of  Christ " :  "  These  warriors  are  gentler  than  lambs 
and  fiercer  than  lions,  wedding  the  mildness  of  the  monk  to  the 
valour  of  the  knight,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to  decide  which  to 
call  them  :  men  who  adorn  the  Temple  of  Solomon  with 
weapons  instead  of  gems,  with  shields  instead  of  crowns  of  gold, 
with  saddles  and  bridles  instead  of  candelabra  ;  eager  for  vic 
tory  not  for  fame  ;  for  battle  not  for  pomp  ;  who  abhor  useless 
speech,  unnecessary  action,  unmeasured  laughter,  gossip  and 
chatter  as  they  despise  all  vain  things  :  who  in  spite  of  their 
being  many  live  in  one  house  according  to  one  rule,  with  one 
soul  and  one  heart." 

St.  Bernard,  when  he  pointed  the  Templars  to  a  spiritual  life, 
as  he  had  the  Cistercians  to  an  active  life,  had  really  the  same, 
or  a  very  similar  picture  of  an  ideal  community  in  mind,  but 
while  he  recommended  to  the  monks  the  honourable  and  self- 
denying  service  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  the  Order  of  Templars 
was  dedicated  to  the  service  of  Christ  himself,  for  whom  the 
brothers  bore  in  common  their  strife  and  suffering ;  the  Saviour 
himself  was  the  spiritual  head  of  their  State. 

People  have  often  exalted  St.  Bernard  because  of  his  miracles. 
Not  the  least  of  these  was  the  foundation  of  the  first  knightly 
Order.  What  a  revolution  was  there !  The  restless ,  vacillating 
secular  knight  errant,  who  flew  from  adventure  to  adventure, 
or  sacrificed  himself  in  the  service  of  his  lady-love,  leading  his 
own  individual  life  and  entirely  destructive  to  the  firm  fabric 
of  the  State,  was  thus  induced  to  fit  himself  into  the  strict  bonds 
of  the  Order,  to  give  a  social  value,  instead  of  a  personal  value, 
to  his  battles,  to  seek  the  inspiration  of  his  noblest  deeds  not 
from  his  mistress  but  from  God  himself,  under  whose  law  and 
in  whose  service  the  Order  fought. 

For  the  first  time  in  post- Christian  days  warriors  and  men 
of  the  vita  activa,  not  merely  monks,  banded  themselves  to 
gether  for  an  idea,  and  for  a  spiritual  Lord,  and  assimilated 
themselves  to  each  other.  Uniformitas  was  the  principle,  the 
final  keynote  of  the  German  knightly  orders,  emphasised  again 
and  again,  and  extending  far  beyond  the  mere  question  of  dress 
— the  mantle  with  the  cross.  The  Templar,  serving  like  the 
monks  a  common  master,  evolved  that  virile,  knightly,  rigorous 


88  THE  TEUTONIC  ORDER  m 

constitution  which  later  statesmen  inevitably  took  as  their 
model,  developing  it  each  in  his  own  way  for  his  own  material 
advantage  and  placing  himself  in  the  place  of  the  transcendental 
Master.  One  of  such  earthly  state  knighthoods  is  the  Teutonic 
Order,  founded  a  bare  century  after  the  Templars,  which 
devoted  its  powers  solely  to  the  terrestrial  state. 

The  feeling  for  spiritual  knighthood  was  almost  extinct  in 
the  East,  when  at  the  turn  of  the  twelfth-thirteenth  century  in 
Acre  the  nursing  community  of  the  German  Knights  of  St. 
Mary  bound  themselves  into  a  third  spiritual  Order  beside  the 
Templars.  The  Templars  were  mainly  French,  and  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  were  largely  English  and  Italian.  Pope  Innocent  III 
gave  to  the  Teutonic  Knights  the  Rule  of  the  Templars,  whom 
they  were  to  emulate  in  everything  spiritual  and  knightly  as 
they  were  to  emulate  the  Knights  of  St.  John  in  care  for  the 
poor  and  the  sick.  The  Order  was  to  be  strictly  national ;  only 
knights  of  German  birth  were  to  enter  it. 

The  story  of  the  new  Order  is  much  tamer  than  that  of  the 
Templars.  Its  origin,  lacking  the  blessing  of  St.  Bernard,  lacks 
fire  and  inevitability  ;  its  battles  lack  the  glamour  of  the  distant 
East ;  its  end  the  mystery  of  early  death  which  always  over 
takes  the  heroes  of  myth.  The  German  Knights  never  enjoyed 
such  lavish  wealth,  their  temptations  were  not  so  great,  they 
never  sank  into  the  same  corruption,  but  never  did  they  inspire 
tale  or  legend  with  the  glory  and  mystery  that  surround  the 
heroes  of  the  Temple,  the  secret  guardians  of  the  Grail.  The 
history  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  however,  is  all  the  more  real 
because  it  was  neither  born  in  myth  nor  buried  in  mystery, 
and  because  its  battles  were  fought  on  familiar  fields  near 
home.  When  Frederick  II  came  to  Germany  the  Teutonic 
Order  was  still  an  insignificant  body.  Henry  VI  had  turned 
his  attention  to  them  while  he  was  planning  the  Crusade,  but, 
in  spite  of  many  benefactions,  the  confusion  that  followed 
his  death  hampered  this  purely  German  movement  in  its 
development. 

The  Church  and  older  rivals  looked  at  it  with  no  friendly 
eye,  and  its  real  prosperity  began  with  Frederick  II.  After  he 
had  taken  his  crusading  vow  a  definite  opportunity  presented 
itself  for  the  employment  of  the  Teutonic  Knights,  and  Frederick 


FREDERICK  AND  THE  TEUTONIC  KNIGHTS    89 

at  once  got  into  touch  with  them.  Numerous  gifts  in  this  and 
the  ensuing  years  bear  witness  to  Frederick's  determination  to 
strengthen  the  Order  by  every  means  in  his  power.  He  even 
granted  its  members  privileges  which  encroached  on  his  own 
imperial  rights,  or  which  robbed  him  of  considerable  royal 
revenues.  He  was  here  even  more  open-handed  than  towards 
the  princes.  He  had  at  first  primarily  the  Crusade  in  view,  but 
beyond  the  needs  of  the  moment  Frederick  sought  to  enlist 
their  enthusiasm  and  their  strength  for  other  tasks.  He  created 
out  of  them  a  little  corps  d* elite,  free  from  feudal  fetters  and 
extraneous  influences  whether  of  temporal  or  spiritual  lords, 
independent,  reliable,  unconditionally  loyal  to  himself — a  small 
body,  but  one  immediately  at  the  service  of  the  Empire  as 
sword  and  weapon,  and  in  spiritual  matters  subject  to  the  Pope 
alone.  To  increase  the  authority  of  the  Order  in  Church  affairs 
Frederick  applied  personally  to  the  Pope,  with  the  result  that 
the  notaries  in  the  papal  Chancery  were  busy  night  and  day  pre 
paring  nothing  but  charters  for  the — hitherto  sorely  neglected — 
Order  of  Teutonic  Knights. 

In  other  ways,  too,  Frederick  always  showed  a  great  affection 
for  the  Teutonic  Knights.  He  encouraged  and  assisted  young 
noblemen  like  the  three  Hohenlohe  brothers  who  were  seeking 
admission  to  the  Order,  just  as  later  he  did  his  best  to  dissuade 
young  noblemen  from  joining  the  Mendicant  Orders.  In  the 
early  days  especially,  when  he  wanted  probity  and  trustworthi 
ness,  he  turned  to  the  Teutonic  Knights :  whether  to  oversee 
the  building  of  his  ships  or  to  carry  important  despatches.  In 
the  Holy  Land  he  hardly  employed  any  others,  and  in  later 
years  he  entrusted  the  administration  of  Alsace  to  Berthold  of 
Tannenrode,  one  of  the  brethren,  and  even  placed  the  German 
regent  for  a  while  to  a  large  extent  under  the  influence  of  the 
Teutonic  Knights,  so  that  a  chronicler  was  not  unjustified 
in  exclaiming  that  the  whole  Empire  is  ruled  according  to  the 
counsels  of  the  Order.  He  was  overstating  the  case  of  course, 
but  it  is  remarkable  how  much  attention  Frederick  devoted  to 
attaching  the  Order  to  himself.  One  of  the  first  privileges 
accorded  to  them  was  that  the  Grand  Master  of  the  day,  who 
ever  he  might  be,  when  attending  court,  should  form  part  of 
the  royal  household  and  belong  to  ihefamilia,  while  his  escort 


90  HERMANN   OF  SALZA  m 

also  should  enjoy  the  hospitality  of  the  court.  Further,  two 
brethren  of  the  Order  were  to  be  in  permanent  attendance  on 
the  royal  person.  The  Spanish  king  Alfonso  VIII  had  shown 
similar  favours  to  the  Order  of  Calatrava,  but  this  only  goes  to 
show  that  these  knightly  orders,  in  proportion  as  they  became 
national  institutions,  tended  to  become  "  courtly."  It  is  com 
mon  knowledge  that  the  knightly  orders  of  the  late  Middle 
Ages,  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  were  purely  court 
affairs,  and  preserved  an  aristocratic  form  of  life  that  had 
perished  elsewhere. 

Frederick  liked  to  attribute  to  the  earlier  Hohenstaufen, 
indeed  to  Barbarossa  himself,  the  founding  of  the  Teutonic 
Order,  so  as  to  lend  age  and  dignity  to  the  institution.  He  also 
liked  to  talk  of  it  as  his  own  creation.  It  was  in  fact  the  work 
of  his  own  hands,  his  and  the  first  great  Grand  Master's: 
Hermann  of  Salza.  For  over  twenty  years  Hermann  of  Salza 
was  always  to  be  met  in  Frederick's  court  and  camp,  his  most 
trusted  counsellor,  his  most  valued  intimate,  not  in  virtue  of 
his  office  as  Master,  but  on  account  of  personal  qualities  which 
made  him  practically  indispensable. 

It  seems  probable  that  Hermann  of  Salza  was  a  Thuringian 
and  there  is  something  Thuringian  in  his  whole  personality. 
He  was  dignified  and  thoughtful  by  nature,  and  he  possessed 
in  every  department  of  life  that  manliness,  righteousness  and 
good  faith  which  distinguished  the  Order  that  he  ruled.  His 
faithfulness  had  become  proverbial ;  it  was  with  him  no  passive 
virtue  but — as  from  the  dawn  of  time  you  find  it  only  in 
Germans — a  positive  driving  force.  There  is  something  almost 
tragic  in  this  great  man's  fate.  For  Hermann  of  Salza  had  two 
masters  ;  he  had  sworn  an  oath  of  fealty  to  both  Pope  and 
Emperor,  and  every  conflict  between  them  exposed  him  to  an 
intolerable  strain.  So  we  see  him,  bent  on  keeping  faith  with 
both,  flying  hither  and  thither  from  court  to  Curia,  and  from 
Curia  to  court,  again  and  again  during  those  years  of  incessant 
quarrelling  seeking  to  keep  or  to  restore  the  peace.  He  once 
described  his  life  work  as  "  to  strive  for  the  honour  of  Church 
and  Empire,"  and  when  the  breach  between  the  two  powers 
became  final  and  complete,  life  became  for  him  impossible. 
On  Palm  Sunday  1239  Frederick  II  was  excommunicated  for 


1226  WAR  WITH  DENMARK  91 

ever,  and  on  the  same  day  the  great  Grand  Master,  Hermann 
of  Salza,  breathed  his  last. 


Amongst  Frederick's  courtiers  the  distinctly  older  Master 
represented  at  all  times  the  calm,  practical  wisdom  which 
more  than  once  deterred  the  hot-headed  young  monarch  from 
wantonly  provoking  his  foes.  Hermann  of  Salza 's  long  experi 
ence  had  made  him  acquainted  with  the  state  of  affairs  in  the 
East  no  less  than  in  Italy,  hi  the  papal  Curia  no  less  than  in  the 
German  court,  and  this  experience  combined  with  most  un 
usual  diplomatic  and  political  skill  gave  him  a  unique  value  in 
every  branch  of  imperial  policy.  The  collaboration  of  Frederick 
with  the  Grand  Master,  whom  he  met  for  the  first  time  in  the 
Nuremberg  court  of  1216,  had  most  significance  for  north-east 
Germany. 

Frederick  had  been — to  quote  a  Livonian  chronicler — "  so 
deeply  preoccupied  with  the  varied  and  lofty  duties  of  the 
Empire  "  that,  truth  to  tell,  he  had  felt  scant  interest  in  the 
affairs  of  north-east  Germany.  With  Hermann  of  Salza  it  was 
different.  The  politics  of  his  Order  had  a  very  lively  concern 
with  the  north-east,  and  so  it  came  about  that  all  important 
matters  concerning  regions  round  the  Baltic  Sea  from  Denmark 
to  Livonia  passed  through  his  hands  or  were  confirmed  by 
him. 

Waldemar,  King  of  the  Danes,  was  a  man  of  some  impor 
tance  ;  he  had  extended  his  rule — at  the  expense  of  the  Empire 
— along  the  Baltic  towards  Livonia  and  Esthonia,  as  far  as  the 
mouth  of  the  Dvina.  Finally  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  a 
vassal  of  the  Empire,  and  the  envoy  whom  Frederick  sent  to 
treat  with  him  was  Hermann  of  Salza.  He  concluded  peace 
with  the  Danish  king,  and  in  1226 — probably  at  the  Grand 
Master's  instance — Frederick  created  Liibeck,  the  most  im 
portant  port  on  the  Baltic,  an  imperial  town,  thus  putting  an 
end  to  all  Danish  rights  over  the  Elbe  country  and  to  all  claims 
of  the  Roman  Curia  which  stood  behind  Denmark.  Hermann 
of  Salza  called  the  Emperor's  attention  to  Prussia  also,  where 
the  Roman  Curia  with  the  aid  of  the  Cistercians  had  been 
founding  colonies  and  missions. 


GOLDEN  BULL  OF    RIMINI 


in 


We  may  here  anticipate  the  events  of  the  ensuing  year.  In 
the  winter  of  1225-26  Conrad  of  Masovia,  Duke  of  Poland, 
finding  himself  unable  to  repulse  the  Prussian  heathen,  applied 
to  the  Teutonic  Knights  for  help,  and  provisionally  gave  a  verbal 
promise — not  yet  confirmed  in  writing — to  hand  over  his  terri 
tories  of  Kulm  to  the  Order  in  return  for  their  services.  This 
offer  came  at  an  opportune  moment,  for  the  Order  had  just 
been  unsuccessful  in  a  somewhat  similar  enterprise  in  the 
Burzen  country  of  Hungary. 


30 


Scale  of  Mies 
o      so     100          200 


THE  BIRTH  OF  PRUSSIA 
1226 

With  wisdom  and  foresight  and  a  fortunate  appreciation  of 
the  whole  situation  the  Grand  Master  took  up  the  scheme, 
talked  it  over  with  Kaiser  Frederick,  who  at  once  gave  it  firm 
and  final  shape  by  granting  weighty  privileges  to  the  under 
taking.  So  thoroughly  had  they  thought  matters  out  that  the 
memorable  Golden  Bull  of  Rimini  of  1226  lays  down  the  future 
tasks  and  aims  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  draws  up  the  constitution 
of  the  future  State  in  a  scheme  complete  down  to  minutest 
details.  All  this  is  in  order  before  negotiations  have  begun, 
before  an  agreement  has  been  reached  with  the  Polish  Duke, 


FOUNDATIONS  OF  PRUSSIA  93 

before  a  single  Teutonic  knight  has  set  foot  or  eye  upon  the  land 
of  Kulm.  This  great  charter  that  founded  the  Prussian  State 
under  the  Order  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  has  justly  been  called 
a  "  plan  of  campaign,"  for  the  territories  granted  by  it  to  the 
Order  had  still  to  be  won,  and  the  Order  therefore  knew  for 
years  ahead  just  where  its  duty  lay.  This  Charter  indeed 
secured  the  future  of  the  Teutonic  Order  :  it  was  so  compre 
hensive  that  whatever  the  Order  did  was  done  under  the  special 
aegis  of  the  Emperor  and  was  covered  by  imperial  privilege. 
It  is  expressly  laid  down  in  this  document  that  "  all  gifts  and 
conquests  are  to  be  the  free  property  of  the  Order,  which  is  to 
exercise  full  territorial  rights  and  be  responsible  to  none.  The 
Grand  Master  is  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  that  pertain  to  a 
prince  of  the  Empire,  including  all  royal  privileges,  and  the 
Order  shall  be  hi  Prussia  free  from  all  imperial  taxes,  burdens 
and  services."  Thus  Frederick  permitted  the  Order  to  found 
an  autonomous  State,  owning  no  territorial  master  save  the 
Order  itself,  "to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  monarchy  of  the 
Empire  "  as  the  Charter  says.  This  position  of  the  Order  was 
assured  not  only  by  earlier  privileges  granted  under  the  im 
mediate  protection  of  the  Empire,  but  by  a  most  remarkable 
attitude  taken  up  by  Frederick. 

Since  the  days  of  Charlemagne  the  warfare  against  the 
heathen  had  been  one  of  the  tasks  of  a  Roman  Emperor,  and 
Charlemagne  had  demonstrated  that  it  must  be  waged  in  two 
directions :  first,  against  Islam,  as  in  his  Spanish  campaign,  and, 
secondly,  against  the  heathen  of  eastern  Europe  as  in  his  Saxon 
wars.  The  Crusades  had  concentrated  attention  on  the  war 
with  Islam,  but  the  other  task  had  lost  its  full  importance  after 
the  time  of  Barbarossa  but  was  not  yet  quite  forgotten. 
Frederick  II  revived  this  East  European  mission. 

The  Empire  had  been  chosen  by  God  to  preach  the  gospel. 
This  was  Frederick's  conviction,  frequently  reiterated  ;  he 
found  room  to  incorporate  it  in  the  Charter  of  the  Order: 
"  For  this  end  has  God  uplifted  our  Empire  above  the  kingdoms 
of  the  earth,  and  extended  the  limits  of  our  power  beyond  the 
various  zones,  that  our  care  may  be  to  glorify  his  name  and 
diligently  to  spread  his  faith  among  the  peoples,  for  he  hath 
chosen  the  Roman  Empire  for  the  preaching  of  his  gospel :  let 


94  CONQUEST  AND   CONVERSION  m 

us  therefore  bend  our  minds  to  the  conquest,  no  less  than  the 
conversion,  of  the  heathen  peoples.  ..." 

These  sentences  contain  an  unmistakable  challenge  to  the 
Pope.  For  the  Church,  with  the  help  of  the  Cistercians,  had 
already  begun  to  christianise  Prussia,  and  there  was  a  very  real 
danger  that  Prussia  might  become  a  feudal  appanage  of  the 
Roman  Curia  as  Sicily  had  done,  though  it  was  the  Normans 
who  had  won  it  from  the  infidel.  The  Pope  indeed  had  signal 
ised  his  intentions,  styling  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  as 
"  emancipation/'  since  the  new  converts  were  to  "  owe  obed 
ience  to  none  save  Christ  and  the  Roman  Church  " — not, 
therefore,  to  the  Empire.  As  a  counter-move  Frederick  now 
came  on  the  scene  with  his  theory  of  an  imperial  mission  and 
spoke  expressly  of  "  conquest J>  as  the  goal — indicating  an 
intention  of  ruling  the  heathen  peoples.  He  incorporated  the 
land  belonging  to  the  Teutonic  Order  in  the  "  monarchy  of 
the  Empire,"  and  supported  this  line  of  action  by  reference 
to  an  old  royal  right.  Heathen  land  was  lordless  land  and 
thus  belonged,  not  to  the  conqueror,  but  to  the  ruler,  to 
the  Emperor  who,  like  the  Pope,  was  here  the  vicegerent 
of  Christ.  Thus  Frederick  planned  to  save  Prussia  for  the 
Empire. 

The  importance  of  this  plantation  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  in 
Prussia  needs  no  emphasis.  The  spiritual  Order  had  thereby 
acquired,  as  it  were,  a  physical  body  ;  it  had  exchanged  land 
less  ubiquity  for  territorial  possession,  and  it  quickly  metamor 
phosed  itself  into  a  real  state  which  preserved  the  standards 
and  ideals  of  chivalry  through  days  when  these  elsewhere  were 
being  degraded  or  urbanised.  It  is  highly  characteristic  of 
Frederick  that  he  thus  founded  the  Prussian  State  more  or  less 
fortuitously.  We  shall  observe  again  and  again,  what  we  here 
note  for  the  first  time,  that  his  hand  possessed  some  magic,  as 
people  later  contended,  that  brought  life  into  whatever  he  hap 
pened  even  accidentally  to  touch.  Things  forthwith  assumed 
an  importance  he  could  not  possibly  have  foreseen,  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  slight  effort  he  had  expended.  The  Charter 
of  the  Order,  the  Golden  Bull  of  Rimini,  which  was  drawn  up 
more  or  less  casually  in  a  busy  moment  when  the  Emperor  was 
occupied  with  innumerable  more  important  questions,  is  a 


FREDERICK  AND  THE   TOWNS  95 

proof  of  his  happy  touch.  The  godfather  of  the  Hapsburg  was 
the  godfather  also  of  Prussia. 

The  Order  of  the  Cistercians  and  the  Order  of  the  Teutonic 
Knights  were  the  two  most  weighty  allies  that  Frederick  won 
during  his  German  years  ;  nothing  else  approaches  them  in 
importance.  The  power  of  the  German  towns  was  still  slight ; 
moreover,  the  princely  towns  and  the  episcopal  towns  were 
wholly  outside  his  influence,  and  privileges  which  he  granted 
now  and  then  to  one  or  another — Cambrai  and  Basel  for  in 
stance — might  have  to  be  revoked  if  the  imperial  princes  so 
decided.  For  the  body  of  princes  were  swift  to  resent  any 
encroachment  and  acted  together  as  one  man  to  resist  any 
interference  with  their  rights.  Only  the  Swabian  towns  and 
those  immediately  under  the  Empire  were  under  Frederick's 
care,  and  here  he  bestirred  himself  to  improve  communications, 
to  secure  safe  convoy  for  the  merchants  throughout  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  to  protect  the  highways  against  robbers,  measures 
which  were  much  appreciated. 

Apart  from  what  he  actually  did  for  them,  Frederick  contrived 
to  inspire  his  towns  with  the  faith  that  he  had  their  interests 
peculiarly  at  heart,  and  he  strengthened  this  belief  by  gifts  and 
privileges.  He  turned  villages  into  towns,  presented  towns 
with  market-places,  gathered  scattered  rights  and  privileges 
into  one  charter  which  formed  a  code  of  justice  for  the  town. 
Later,  when  the  days  of  tribulation  came,  it  was  the  towns 
who  rallied  to  the  cause  of  the  Hohenstaufen  and  of  the 
Empire  against  the  princes. 

The  laborious  methods  of  natural  cultivation  practised  in 
Germany  made  it  an  unsuitable  sphere  for  the  wonderful  ex 
periments  in  state  agriculture  which  Frederick  later  made  so 
brilliant  a  success  in  Sicily,  and  the  German  feudal  system 
permitted  no  direct  interference  in  administration.  Frederick's 
strength  was  frittered  away  in  handling  all  the  various  minor 
internal  affairs  of  Germany  without  any  visible  advantage  to 
the  whole,  and  soon  after  his  coronation  at  Aix  he  seems  to  have 
aimed  at  evolving  some  scheme  for  delegating  minor  German 
business  to  others,  retaining  the  decision  only  in  major  matters. 
"  Wherever  the  Roman  Empire  and  some  of  the  princes  meet — 
there  is  Germany  "  became  the  dictum,  showing  that  the  whole 


96  HONORIUS  III  m 

Imperium — not  only  the  countries  north  of  the  Alps — could  be 
German  through  the  German  Imperator. 

Many  adjustments  were  gradually  made  to  organise  a  sub 
sidiary  government  for  internal  German  affairs  so  as  to  set  the 
Emperor  free  for  larger  issues.  Frederick  never  hustled.  All 
his  big  undertakings  can  be  traced  back  through  years  of  quiet 
preparation,  and  he  never  sought  to  conceal  what  he  was  aiming 
at.  What  he  did,  he  did  corampublico,  and  he  always  announced 
beforehand  what  his  intentions  were.  Yet  his  actions  always 
contained  an  element  of  suddenness  and  surprise,  either  because 
no  one  had  taken  him  seriously,  or  because  he  carried  out  his 
intention  at  a  moment  when  people  had  ceased  to  expect  it. 
His  first  great  diplomatic  victory  over  the  Church  exemplifies 
this. 

Honorius  III  had  been  since  1216  the  occupant  of  the  papal 
throne.  Whoever  had  succeeded  Innocent  III  would  neces 
sarily  have  appeared  something  of  a  pigmy  by  comparison; 
certainly  Honorius  did.  He  was  a  jurist,  primarily  an  adminis 
trative  official.  Cencio  Savelli  had  been,  before  his  elevation, 
the  Pope's  Chamberlain,  and  had  edited  the  famous  "liber 
censuum"  the  tax-book  of  the  Roman  Church.  Later,  when  the 
battle  between  the  Emperor  and  Pope  had  become  an  economic 
one,  the  fact  that  the  Church  could  take  the  field  as  a  first-class 
financial  power  was  due  in  no  small  measure  to  Honorius. 
For  the  rest  he  was  old  and  frail,  and  inclined  therefore  to  be 
placable  and  gentle  rather  than  bellicose,  though  he  asserted 
on  occasion  the  lofty  claims  which  were  nowadays  part  and 
parcel  of  the  Papacy.  If  the  peace  of  the  world  were  to  depend 
on  a  balance  between  these  two  great  forces  Honorius  was  the 
very  best  make-weight  for  Frederick,  and  for  a  good  ten  years 
the  two  held  the  balance  fairly  even.  The  most  absorbing 
affair  which  in  those  days  engrossed  the  two  heads  of  Christen 
dom  was  unquestionably  the  Crusade,  and  Honorius  regarded 
the  recapture  of  Jerusalem  as  the  loftiest  and  most  personal 
ambition  of  his  pontificate. 

Frederick's  assumption  of  the  Cross  had  at  first  awakened 
little  enthusiasm  in  Rome.  Innocent,  who  had  been  planning 
to  march  into  the  Holy  Land  at  the  head  of  the  peoples,  com 
pletely  ignored  Frederick's  action,  and  without  consulting  his 


AN  ABORTIVE  CRUSADE  97 

youthful  rival  fixed  the  day  of  the  start  of  the  Crusaders  for 
ist  July,  1217— a  date  which  completely  ruled  Frederick  out, 
for  Otto  IV  was  still  alive  and  the  Hohenstaufen  could  not 
possibly  leave  Germany. 

Honorius  III  seemed  at  first  oblivious  of  Frederick's  existence 
as  a  Crusader,  and  a  legate  of  the  Pope's  directed  the  arrange 
ments  for  the  Crusade  as  an  exclusively  papal  affair.  The  first 
rendezvous  of  the  warriors  was  not  to  be  the  Holy  Land  but 
Egypt'  by  the  conquest  of  which  it  was  hoped  to  engineer  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem.  The  whole  undertaking  was  badly  organised 
and  sorely  mismanaged.  Damietta  fell  at  the  first  onslaught, 
but  an  ill-advised  penetration  into  the  interior  brought  the 
entire  crusading  army  into  the  greatest  danger.  When  the 
Crusaders  began  to  feel  the  pinch  they  spontaneously  turned 
for  help  to  Kaiser  Frederick,  and  the  Roman  Curia  suddenly 
bethought  itself  that  he  too  was  a  Crusader.  Pope  Honorius 
took  up  the  general  cry  and  painted  in  the  most  glowing  colours 
the  opportunity  that  now  opened  for  Frederick  to  fulfil  his  vow, 
and  addressed  him  prophetically  as  "  the  victorious  king  before 
whose  countenance  the  heathen  fly  and  who  in  fighting  God's 
battles  wins  his  own  eternal  salvation." 

Frederick,  however,  had  not  awaited  the  summons  from  the 
Pope.  He  had  already  declared  himself  ready  to  promote  the 
cause  of  the  Crusade  in  Germany,  and  to  arrange  the  date  of 
departure  at  the  Diet  he  was  immediately  about  to  hold.  He 
requested  Honorius  kindly  to  excommunicate  dilatory  Cru 
saders,  for  if  any  delay  occurred  it  would  be  due  to  the  Roman 
Curia  and  not  to  him.  Further,  would  the  Pope  be  so  good 
as  to  take  the  Empire  under  his  protection  during  Frederick's 
absence,  and  with  it  the  imperial  regent  whom  he  was  about 
to  appoint. 

In  the  days  of  Innocent,  Frederick  had  almost  always  styled 
himself  "  King  by  the  Grace  of  God  and  of  the  Pope."  He 
dropped  the  phrase  in  writing  to  Honorius  ;  it  no  longer  fitted 
the  facts.  He  adopted  in  other  ways  also  an  entirely  new  tone 
towards  the  Curia  ;  the  note  though  perfectly  courteous  had  in 
it  a  ring  of  decision  that  must  have  quickened  many  an  ear  in 
Rome.  The  Pope's  need,  however,  was  great.  In  spite  of 
reinforcements  the  position  of  the  Crusaders  before 


98  THE  SICILIAN  QUESTION  m 

grew  daily  more  critical,  and  Pope  Honorius's  one  anxiety  was 
to  send  Frederick  to  their  assistance  with  all  speed.  Francis  of 
Assisi  had  accompanied  the  forces  to  preach  Christianity  to  the 
Egyptian  Sultan.  Before  finally  setting  out  on  the  Crusade 
the  Staufen  was  to  receive  the  imperial  crown  from  the  hands 
of  the  Pope  in  Rome.  And  Honorius  impatiently  awaited  the 
moment.  Though  Frederick  was  no  less  eager,  circumstances 
compelled  him  to  postpone  his  Roman  journey  and  with  it  his 
Crusade:  from  the  Feast  of  St.  John  in  1219  the  date  was 
changed  to  Michaelmas,  and  then  to  March  1220,  then  to  May, 
and  finally  adjourned  sine  die.  The  vow  could  not  be  wholly 
cancelled  without  a  dispensation  from  the  Pope. 

What  was  detaining  Frederick  in  Germany  ?  Apart  from 
trifles  he  had  much  to  arrange  before  he  could  leave  Germany. 
First,  it  was  imperative  to  come  to  some  understanding  with  the 
Pope  on  the  "  Sicilian  question  " ;  secondly,  to  arrange  for  the 
administration  during  his  absence ;  thirdly,  to  secure  the  elec 
tion  of  his  son  Henry  as  King  of  the  Romans.  In  defiance  of 
the  Pope's  impatience  Frederick  made  his  Roman  journey  and 
his  Crusade  contingent  on  these  questions. 

Pope  Innocent  III  had  strenuously  sought  to  guard  against 
the  danger  of  a  union  of  the  Empire  and  Sicily,  and  in  pursuance 
of  this  policy  had  demanded  securities  :  Frederick's  son  Henry- 
had  been  crowned  King  of  Sicily  at  the  express  request  of 
Innocent.  In  several  documents  Frederick  had  recognised  the 
Church's  feudal  rights  over  Sicily,  had  solemnly  undertaken  not 
to  unite  the  kingdom  with  the  Empire,  had  promised,  on  the  day 
of  his  coronation  as  Emperor,  to  waive  his  rights  over  Sicily 
in  favour  of  his  son.  During  King  Henry's  minority  a  regent 
jointly  appointed  by  Pope  and  Emperor  would  rule  the  south 
Italian  kingdom. 

The  day  of  the  Crusade  and  of  the  imperial  coronation  was 
drawing  on,  and  therewith  the  day  on  which  Frederick  must 
formally  renounce  all  claims  to  the  government  of  Sicily  .  .  . 
but  the  Emperor,  who  had  very  definite  views  about  his  here 
ditary  kingdom,  made  no  attempt  to  disguise  from  the  Pope 
that  while  recognising  his  own  earlier  renunciation  of  Sicily  as 
valid  he  intended  to  take  over  the  regency  himself.  The  Curia 
was  anything  but  satisfied.  Frederick  must  renew  all  his  earlier 


FREDERICK'S  HEIR  99 

promises — this  he  did  willingly  enough.  But  he  did  not  give 
up  his  intention  of  ruling  Sicily.  His  hereditary  kingdom  was 
going  to  mean  for  him  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  his  Im- 
perium.  He  must  achieve  his  goal  by  an  indirect  route,  and 
the  Curia  in  its  excessive  foresight  had  pointed  out  the  way 
when  it  had  demanded  the  coronation  of  his  infant  son  as  King 
of  Sicily. 

The  other  important  matter  that  Frederick  had  to  arrange 
was  the  administration  of  Germany  during  his  absence.  A 
complicated  system  was  elaborated,  but  it  was  soon  perfectly 
clear  what  Frederick  had  in  mind  and  was  determined  to 
accomplish.  Immediately  after  his  coronation  in  Aix  he  had, 
most  naturally,  sent  for  his  Queen,  Constance,  and  his  little  son 
Henry  to  join  him  in  Germany.  In  1217  he  installed  the  boy, 
who  was  already  Bang  of  Sicily,  as  Duke  of  Swabia;  in  1219 
he  entrusted  to  him  the  regency  over  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy, 
and  since  then  he  had  been  busily  winning  over  the  German 
princes  to  the  idea  of  electing  Henry  King  of  the  Romans. 
There  was  nothing  unprecedented  in  all  this,  and  the  dangers 
of  a  Crusade  to  which  he  was  now  about  to  expose  himself  gave 
a  sufficient  colour  to  Frederick's  desire.  He  wished  during  his 
own  lifetime  to  secure  the  succession  to  his  house,  as  many 
an  Emperor  before  him  had  done.  Technically,  however, 
Frederick  was  not  yet  Emperor,  and  difficulties  confronted  him 
on  every  side.  The  important  thing  was  first  to  get  the  princes 
to  agree  to  his  plan,  and  his  immediate  efforts  were  directed  to 
that  end. 

Negotiations  were  being  carried  on  at  the  turn  of  the  year 
1219-20  :  first  about  the  Crusade,  then  about  the  Roman 
journey,  thirdly  about  the  Sicilian  question,  fourthly  about  the 
German  regency,  fifthly  about  the  election  of  the  infant  Staufen, 
negotiations  that  were  all  interdependent  and  ought  all  to  be 
concluded  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  For  matters  were 
nearing  a  crisis ;  the  Pope  urged  Frederick  to  hasten  his  de 
parture  and  began  to  show  ill-humour  over  his  procrastinations, 
while  the  longer  the  negotiations  were  drawn  out  the  more 
hopelessly  the  skein  became  entangled.  All  possibility  of  a 
solution  seemed  past  when  Frederick  finally  succeeded  with  one 
stroke  in  cutting  all  the  knots.  By  weighty  concessions  and  a 


too  HENRY,  KING   OF  THE  ROMANS  m 

fresh  abandonment  of  many  royal  prerogatives  he  purchased 
the  acquiescence  of  the  princes,  and  at  the  farewell  Diet  which 
he  held  in  Frankfurt  on  his  departure  for  Rome  in  the  spring 
of  1 220  the  Sicilian  King  Henry  was  elected  King  of  the 
Romans.  Frederick  had  won  the  game.  The  Hohenstaufen 
dynasty  was  established,  the  regency  arranged  for,  and  the 
Sicilian  question  solved  exactly  as  he  had  planned.  Sicily  had 
of  course  not  been  legally  incorporated  in  the  Empire,  the  feudal 
overlordship  of  the  Church  over  Sicily  still  stood,  but  that  per 
sonal  union  of  the  two  crowns  which  Frederick  had  had  to 
renounce  on  his  coronation  as  Emperor  became  suddenly  an 
accomplished  fact,  when  Henry,  long  since  the  crowned  King 
of  Sicily,  was  elected  King  of  the  Romans  by  the  German 
princes.  The  personal  union  had  come  to  life  again  without 
any  breach  of  all  the  treaties  with  the  Pope,  for  they  were  all 
made  in  the  name  of  Frederick  II,  and  contained  not  a  syllable 
about  Henry.  All  the  rights  and  powers  which  Frederick  was 
debarred  by  treaty  and  agreement  from  claiming  for  himself  he 
had  now  passed  on  boldly  to  his  son.  The  one  flaw  in  the 
treaties  had  been  exploited.  For  even  if  the  Curia  had  insisted 
on  Henry  taking  the  reins  himself — at  eight  years  old — his 
father's  "  advisership  "  could  not  be  prevented,  which  meant 
that  Frederick  was  himself  the  de  facto  ruler  of  the  two  realms 
of  Sicily  and  Germany.  In  short,  from  the  papal  point  of  view, 
there  would  have  been  a  perfectly  futile  insistence  on  mere 
appearances  if  they  had  attempted  to  exclude  Frederick  from 
Sicily. 

The  Roman  Curia,  though  gravely  annoyed,  at  once  recog 
nised  the  real  state  of  affairs,  and  finally  had  to  accept  the  fact 
that  the  cherished  parchments  which  Frederick  had  so  recently 
confirmed,  and  even  added  to,  had  become  so  much  waste 
paper.  Frederick  meantime  had  won  his  first  great  victory  over 
curial  diplomacy.  He  had  succeeded  in  uniting  Sicily  and  the 
Empire — in  however  roundabout  a  way.  That  union,  to  avoid 
which  Pope  Innocent  had  literally  set  the  whole  world  in  motion, 
had  exalted  and  had  debased  the  Welf,  was  now  restored; 
the  States  of  the  Church  were  again  shut  in  on  north  and  south. 
The  only  difference  was  that  Henry  VI  had  never  acknowledged 
Sicily's  feudal  dependence  on  Rome,  which  Frederick  II  for  the 


FREDERICK'S  DIPLOMACY  101 

moment  at  least  upheld,  and  once  more  confirmed  in  writing. 
Nothing  now  stood  in  Frederick's  way,  and  a  few  months  later 
he  set  out  for  Rome. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  characteristic  gifts  of  Frederick  to  win 
a  whole  series  of  positions  with  one  skilful  move.  He  raised 
it  to  a  high  art.  His  taking  of  the  Cross  at  Aix  was  prophetic, 
he  now  gave  his  first  serious  demonstration  of  this  typical  pro 
cedure.  Apart  from  the  advantages  already  mentioned,  King 
Henry's  election  gave  Frederick  just  the  opportunity  he  wanted 
to  set  up  at  the  court  of  the  young  King  of  the  Romans  a  sub 
ordinate  government  which  could  deal  with  all  the  minor 
questions  of  German  internal  administration.  This  was 
arranged  provisionally  with  a  view  to  the  Crusade  and  was 
afterwards  made  permanent,  so  that  henceforth  Germany  was 
ruled  by  King  Henry  while  the  Emperor  himself  had  his  head 
quarters  in  Italy,  the  centre  of  the  world.  All  this  followed 
from  the  one  well-judged  manoeuvre. 

The  taking  of  the  Cross  in  Aix  had  had  far-reaching  conse 
quences  in  many  directions,  but  it  had  been  the  outcome  of 
an  almost  delirious  enthusiasm  and  it  had  nothing  of  the  usual 
transparency  of  the  air  of  Frederick  IFs  court,  in  which  men 
far  superior  to  their  spiritual  opponents  played  a  subtle  game 
with  gentle  irony.  The  election  of  the  Sicilian  king  was  more 
typical  and  showed  the  unstudied  ease  with  which  Frederick 
met  even  the  most  complicated  situations. 

Frederick  kept  this  light  and  happy  touch  in  similar  delicate 
situations  for  years  to  come,  and  in  spite  of  occasional  ruthless- 
ness,  of  occasional  severe  violence,  he  succeeded  on  the  whole 
with  a  minimum  of  actual  force.  To  sever  Gordian  knots  with 
the  sword  was  not  his  way — nor  did  he  think  it  his  mission ; 
his  great  skill  lay  in  allowing  the  loose  threads  to  twist  them 
selves  into  a  seemingly  inextricable  tangle,  and  then  at  the 
decisive  moment  with  firm  hand  and  unerring  eye  to  seize  the 
whole  and  secure  it  in  a  knot  which  only  Alexander  could  have 
cut  in  two.  And  in  his  day  there  was  no  Alexander. 

In  this  connection  Frederick's  first  victory  over  the  Curia  may 
serve  as  something  more  than  a  sample,  though  he  had  not  yet 
reached  the  heights  of  later  years.  The  Roman  Curia  had  seen 
plainly  enough  what  he  was  aiming  at.  He  had  made  no  secret 


loz  FREDERICK'S  PERSONALITY  in 

of  the  fact  that  he  would  have  liked  to  retain  Sicily.  The  Curia 
knew  that  Frederick's  son  was  to  be  chosen  King  in  Germany 
and  had  at  once  perceived  all  that  this  implied.  None  the  less 
they  were  entangled  in  Frederick's  skilful  web  and  were  not 
able  to  extricate  themselves. 

Frederick  was  able  to  preserve  throughout  an  air  of  childlike 
innocence,  for  it  was  not  he  but  the  princes  who  were  respon 
sible  for  this  election  of  King  Henry.  The  better  to  keep  up 
this  convenient  fiction  the  election  was  arranged  to  take  place 
in  Frankfurt  at  a  moment  when  Frederick  happened  to  be 
absent,  so  that  he  was  able  to  maintain  with  perfect  truth  that 
everything  had  taken  place  "  without  his  knowledge  and  actually 
during  his  absence."  The  Curia  had  probably  foreseen  the 
issue,  but  had  to  confess  that  this  German  royal  election  was 
none  of  her  business.  In  the  background  Honorius  had  done 
his  best  with  the  help  of  the  spiritual  princes  to  prevent  the 
election,  and  this  accounted  for  the  initial  opposition  Frederick 
had  met  with.  The  Pope  could  not  plausibly  complain  that 
there  had  been  any  breach  of  previous  agreements  ;  he  could 
only  hope  that  the  threatened  fate  might  in  some  way  be  averted 
after  all. 

Fate  itself  seemed  to  walk  the  earth  incarnate  in  this  Hohen- 
staufen,  not  sinister  or  menacing  but  smiling,  innocently  playful, 
with  buoyant  dancing  step.  In  later  years  this  fateful  quality 
assumed  terrifying  proportions,  the  smile  became  a  cynical 
witticism,  the  dance  a  dance  of  death.  An  atmosphere  of 
magic  played  round  this  Hohenstaufen,  some  wholly-German 
Germanic  emanation  which  Napoleon  for  instance  con 
spicuously  lacked,  an  immeasurably  dangerous  emanation,  as 
of  a  Mephisto  free  of  horn  and  cloven  hoof,  who  moves  among 
men  disguised  as  a  golden-haired  Apulian  boy,  winning  his 
bloodless  victories  with  weapons  stolen  from  the  Gods.  Already 
without  effort  of  his  own  the  Puer  Apuliae  had  played  Nemesis 
to  a  giant  like  Innocent  III,  till  the  most  mighty  opponent  of  a 
Hohenstaufen  dynasty  became  so  mysteriously  entangled  in  the 
coils  of  fate  that  he  had  no  option  but  to  elevate  to  the  throne 
of  the  Roman  Empire  the  Sicilian  king  whom  he  had  failed 
to  crush. 

It  rounds  off  the  picture  of  Frederick's  German  years  that 


SURRENDER  OF  PREROGATIVES  103 

he  paid  for  his  victory  over  the  Curia  and  for  his  Sicilian  inheri 
tance  with  a  number  of  royal  prerogatives  and  rights  which  he 
lightheartedly  abandoned  to  the  German  princes.  The  spiritual 
princes  had  at  first  stood  out  against  the  election  of  Henry,  but 
when  Frederick  offered  them  the  free  testamentary  disposal  of 
their  wealth,  rights  of  custom  and  coinage  in  the  bishops'  lands, 
even  the  free  disposal  of  the  feudal  fiefs  in  their  domains ;  when, 
finally,  he  limited  in  their  favour  his  own  freedom  by  promising 
that  henceforth  the  ban  of  the  Empire  should  automatically 
follow  the  ban  of  the  Church,  they  could  resist  no  longer. 
For  such  a  bait  they  were  ready  to  throw  over  the  Pope  and  his 
Sicilian  policy.  The  royal  rights  were  already  subject  to  many 
exceptional  grants  of  privilege,  so  that  Frederick's  actual  sur 
renders  were  not  so  very  serious.  The  gravity  of  the  "  Con 
stitution  in  favour  of  the  spiritual  princes  "  was,  that  what  had 
been  the  exception  now  became  the  rule.  Frederick  has  often 
been  reproached  on  account  of  these  concessions,  but  the  pos 
session  of  Sicily  weighed  more  with  him,  and  most  rightly,  than 
sundry  royal  prerogatives. 

It  might  with  equal  or  greater  justice  be  cast  in  the  princes' 
teeth  that  their  support  for  any  cause,  however  great,  could  only 
be  won  by  bribes,  and  that  they  for  the  sake  of  a  brewing  tax 
would  follow  their  Emperor  or  betray  him. 


Frederick  II  could  not  play  the  statesman  amid  such  con 
ditions  ;  he  needed  raw  material  to  work  with  and  great  foes 
to  fight ;  perhaps  he  was  not  equal  to  these  hucksterings.  All 
thought  for  princely  greed  and  princely  bickering  he  thankfully 
handed  over  to  the  subordinate  government  which  he  set  up, 
and  which  during  the  minority  of  King  Henry  was  in  the  first 
place  entrusted  to  Archbishop  Engelbert  of  Cologne,  who  was 
to  be  Germany's  Gubernator.  To  himself  he  drew  all  the  virile 
manhood  of  Germany. 

A  topical  poem  of  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide's  sketches 
the  position  of  the  day  with  bitter  irony  and  acumen.  The 
princes'  delay  in  electing  Henry  was  holding  up  Frederick's 
departure  for  Rome  and  for  the  Holy  Land.  To  influence  the 
election  in  the  direction  of  Frederick's  wishes  Walther  offers 


104      FREDERICK  AND   THE  MINNESANGER       m 

the  princes  a  piece  of  advice  ;  they  are  at  all  times  eager  enough 
"  to  be  rid  of  the  king";  he  shows  how,  by  merely  electing 
Henry,  they  will  be  able  to  despatch  him  "  a  thousand  miles 
and  more  away  to  Trani : " 

Ye  foes  !    Just  let  him  have  his  way  and  go, 

Perhaps  he  thus  will  never  vex  you  more  ! 

If  he  dies  there — which  Heaven  forfend — you  score  ; 

If  he  return  to  us,  his  friends,  the  more 

We  praise  the  fate  that  doth  our  lord  restore. 

My  plan  will  profit  both  the  friend  and  foe. 

Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  was  in  close  touch  with  Frederick, 
and  the  verses  were  intended  to  assist  his  plans.  The  poet  at 
length  received  "  his  fief,"  for  which  he  had  so  long  and  vainly 
petitioned  Kaiser  Otto.  Thus  Frederick  attached  the  Minne- 
sanger  to  his  cause  ;  the  best  that  Germany  had  was  his.  On 
the  whole,  however,  it  was  time  for  him  to  quit  the  North.  The 
same  year  found  him  in  Sicily  displaying  his  prowess  and  adding 
a  second  more  brilliant  success  to  his  first. 

In  August  1 220  he  started  out  with  a  smallish  force  from 
the  Lechfeld  at  Augsburg,  the  usual  rallying  point  for  armies 
marching  to  Italy,  He  was  accompanied  by  Queen  Constance 
and  a  number  of  princes,  chiefly  those  who  like  their  King  wore 
the  Crusaders'  Cross.  Slowly  he  marched  southwards,  follow 
ing  the  Brenner  Road  that  had  seen  so  many  German  Emperors 
march  to  Rome,  past  Innsbruck,  Bozen,  Trent — where  eight 
years  before  as  an  adventurer  he  had  turned  aside  into  the 
pathless  mountain  tracts — and  on  to  Verona. 

He  did  not  enter  the  town,  but  camped  outside  in  tents  during 
those  September  days,  beside  the  Lake  of  Garda,  with  his  court. 
The  first  letter  that  he  wrote  on  Italian  soil  was  addressed  to 
Pope  Honorius,  thanking  him  for  all  his  kindness,  and  informing 
him  that  the  -writer  had,  for  the  good  of  his  soul,  submitted  to 
the  penances  prescribed  by  the  Church  and  been  freed  from 
the  ban  which  might  have  fallen  on  him  as  a  dilatory  Crusader. 
He  had  acted  thus,  he  hastened  to  add,  not  because  he  felt  him 
self  at  fault,  but  solely  to  testify  his  reverence  for  Pope  and 
Church.  He  sent  in  advance  his  Court  Chancellor  and  the 
Archbishop  Conrad  of  Metz  as  royal  legates  to  see  that  all  was 
quiet  in  imperial  Italy,  a  country  always  easily  roused. 


i2ao  THE  MARCH  TO   ROME  105 

The  towns  of  Lombardy  had  all  recognised  Frederick  II, 
even  his  hereditary  enemy  Milan.  Nevertheless,  the  country 
was  seething  with  excitement,  and  people  were  just  waiting  in 
momentary  quiet  to  see  which  of  the  parties  in  upper  Italy 
Frederick  would  elect  to  join.  A  reputation  for  extraordinary 
vigour,  courage  and  shrewdness  had  preceded  the  King,  spread 
during  the  recent  years  by  the  songs  of  the  troubadours,  as  they 
travelled  from  court  to  court  of  the  north  Italian  nobility. 
They  seem  to  have  been  a  little  disappointed  when  they  saw 
their  future  Emperor,  for  in  spite  of  his  six  and  twenty  years 
he  still  struck  them  as  too  boyish  looking. 

Frederick  II  most  scrupulously  avoided  taking  sides  amongst 
the  towns,  and  even  carried  this  reserve  so  far  that  on  the  whole 
journey  to  Rome  he  never  entered  any  town  but  always  camped 
outside.  The  only  exception  he  made  was  in  favour  of  Bologna, 
famous  for  its  Roman  Law,  and  his  retinue  was  presently  in 
creased  by  the  addition  of  the  famous  lawyer  Roffredo  of  Bene- 
vento,  who  had  formerly  been  a  teacher  of  law  at  Bologna  and 
was  now  posted  in  Arezzo. 

It  was  remarked  that  while  Frederick,  as  was  the  Emperor's 
custom  on  entering  Italy,  confirmed  in  their  rights  all  the  Italian 
towns,  he  only  confirmed  such  freedoms  and  privileges  as  they 
enjoyed  vis-d-vis  the  Empire,  and  no  allusion  was  made  to 
Sicily.  The  Pope  had  not  yet  made  an  authoritative  pro 
nouncement  about  the  crown  of  Sicily  ;  this  served  as  a  wel 
come  and  valid  excuse  for  Frederick  II's  careful  reservation. 
The  truth  was,  however,  that  he  was  anxious  not  to  part  with 
any  of  the  privileges  pertaining  to  his  hereditary  kingdom.  The 
Genoese  were  most  bitterly  disappointed  over  this,  for  their 
envoys  had  hastened  with  high  hopes  to  the  royal  camp  at 
Modena.  Genoa,  the  town  that  had  so  warmly  espoused 
Frederick's  cause  on  his  journey  to  Germany,  and  had  boasted 
herself  his  "  Gate  of  Empire  "  (Genoa — Janua),  had  been  hoping 
for  favoured  treatment  in  respect  of  Sicily.  Frederick,  how 
ever,  confirmed  only  her  imperial  rights,  and  announced  that  in 
no  circumstances  would  Sicilian  concessions  be  made  prior  to 
his  arrival  in  the  kingdom.  What  he  was  planning  soon  became 
apparent. 

Frederick  had  announced  his  approach  to  the  Pope  in  the 


106  FREDERICK  AND  PROVIDENCE  m 

early  days  of  October,  sending  as  ambassador — for  the  first  time 
—the  Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  Hermann  of  Salza. 
Travelling  by  the  Via  Flaminia  across  the  Apennines,  the  King 
followed  at  his  leisure,  and  a  month  later  when  he  drew  near 
Rome  he  received  a  counter-embassy  from  the  Pope,  who  on 
the  eve  of  Frederick's  coronation  as  Emperor  was  anxious 
to  receive  final  assurances:  that  the  Imperium  as  such  had 
no  claims  at  all  on  Sicily,  that  Sicily  was  exclusively  the 
hereditary  possession  of  the  Empress-Mother  Constance, 
that  Frederick  must  instal  no  foreign  officials  in  Sicily  and 
must  employ  a  separate  royal  seal.  All  this  suited  Frederick 
admirably.  So  long  as  Sicily  was  his,  he  was  supremely 
indifferent  as  to  the  precise  legal  phraseology  under  which 
he  possessed  it.  A  far  weightier  point  was  that  the  Curia  by 
this  agreement  showed  itself  officially  reconciled  to  the  per 
sonal  union.  A  few  other  points  in  connection  with  the 
Crusade  were  agreed  on,  and,  finally,  the  date  of  the  corona 
tion  was  fixed  for  the  22nd  of  November,  the  last  Sunday 
before  Advent. 

The  early  days  of  his  success  were  far  behind,  yet  Frederick 
constantly  recalled  them  to  the  world's  remembrance.  Pro 
vidence  had  preserved  him  through  all  the  perils  of  his  boyhood 
that  the  tempests  of  the  storm-tossed  Empire  might  obey  him. 
He  early  conceived  his  personal  fate  to  be  under  the  immediate 
law  of  a  higher  power,  a  point  of  view  which  later  became  of 
immense  importance.  Earlier  emperors  had  sought  to  base  the 
immediacy  of  their  imperial  office  under  God  on  theories  and 
doctrines  of  law — always  disputed  by  the  Popes  from  Gregory 
VII  onwards.  Frederick  seldom  troubled  to  seek  legal  proofs. 
With  far  greater  effect  he  simply  pointed  to  his  own  personal 
good  fortune,  which  marked  him  in  the  sight  of  all  the  world 
as  one  chosen  by  the  providence  of  God.  It  is  true  this  did  not 
demonstrate  the  immediate  derivation  from  God  of  the  imperial 
power  in  general,  but  all  the  more  cogently  that  of  the  present 
Emperor — which  was  vastly  more  to  the  point.  For  thus  every 
glorification  of  the  Emperor's  office  became  a  glorification  of 
himself,  and  the  general  mission  of  the  Empire  became  a  personal 
mission  of  just  this  particular  Emperor,  or,  to  use  the  phrase 
which  Frederick  himself  minted,  "  our  unconquerable  will 


NOV.  1220  CORONATION  IN  ROME  107 

became  fused  in  the  imperial  dignity."  Person  and  office  began 
to  merge  in  one. 

Frederick's  assumption  of  the  imperial  dignity  with  all  the 
ancient  ceremonial  pomp  was  to  be  the  closing  scene  of  the 
first  act,  the  climax  of  these  years  of  earliest  successes.  On 
the  great  day  Frederick  rode  with  the  Queen  Constance  from 
the  Monte  Mario  down  into  Rome  along  the  ancient  coronation 
way,  the  Via  Triumphalis.  Halting  at  a  little  bridge  outside 
the  town  the  future  Emperor  had  to  confirm  the  Roman  people 
in  their  lawful  rights,  and  thereupon  he  received  at  the  Porta 
Collina,  near  the  Baths  of  Diocletian,  the  homage  of  the  clergy 
of  the  city,  who  escorted  him  in  solemn  procession  with  censers 
and  crucifixes  to  the  Church  of  St.  Peter.  Chamberlains  scat 
tering  largesse  paced  ahead,  and  the praefectus  urbi  bearing  the 
sword.  In  the  space  before  St.  Peter's  the  escort  was  changed : 
Roman  Senators  now  strode  on  the  King's  right  hand  to  take 
his  horse  at  the  steps  of  the  church.  Meanwhile  the  Pope  had 
likewise  issued  in  solemn  procession  from  the  Sacristy  of  St. 
Peter  and  on  the  topmost  stair  awaited  in  state  the  arrival  of 
the  King.  On  his  right  were  the  cardinals — bishops  or  priests 
— on  his  left  the  cardinal-deacons,  the  remaining  clergy  on  a 
lower  stair.  The  King  with  his  retinue  drew  near.  With 
reverence  Frederick  kissed  the  Holy  Father's  feet  and  brought 
him  golden  tribute  as  the  vicegerent  of  Christ.  Pope  Honorius 
received  him  graciously  with  kiss  and  embrace ;  the  King  rose 
again,  and  the  Pope,  with  the  King  on  his  right  hand,  moved 
towards  the  Chapel  of  Santa  Maria  in  Turribus.  Here  Frede 
rick  was  to  take  the  oath :  to  be  the  defender  and  protector 
of  Pope  and  Church  in  every  hour  of  weal  or  woe.  While  the 
Pope  proceeded  to  the  altar  to  pray  and  then  took  his  seat  the 
King  remained  behind  to  be  received  into  the  brotherhood  of 
the  Canons  of  St.  Peter. 

In  earlier  days  it  had  been  the  custom  to  receive  the  King  at 
his  coronation  into  Holy  Orders,  and  dress  him  in  a  priest's 
robes.  They  made  him  a  cleric  of  the  Roman  Church,  for  the 
standpoint  was  that  in  spiritual  things  the  Emperor  "  could  not 
be  quite  a  layman."  The  course  of  history  had  found  ex 
pression  in  a  change  in  the  coronation  ceremonial ;  with  the 
growing  power  of  an  imperial  Papacy  the  priestly  prerogatives 


io8  THE  CEREMONIAL  m 

of  the  Emperor  were  very  considerably  weakened  though  not 
quite  eliminated. 

The  Emperor  no  longer  .received  a  bishop's  ring,  he  was  no 
longer  anointed  on  the  head  but  only  on  the  arm  and  between 
the  shoulder  blades  ;  no  longer  was  chrism  used  for  his  anoint 
ing,  simple  consecrated  oil  was  considered  good  enough  ;  in 
stead  of  the  consecration  as  bishop  there  was  substituted  this 
reception  into  the  brotherhood  of  the  Canons  of  St.  Peter. 
The  ritual  of  prayer  and  litany  remained  nevertheless  very 
similar  to  a  bishop's.  Clad  in  the  imperial  vestments  Frederick 
now  entered  St.  Peter's  through  the  silver  gate,  where  cardinals 
met  him  with  blessing  and  prayer.  He  halted  to  do  reverence 
at  Peter's  tomb  and  in  front  of  the  tomb  of  St.  Maurice  he  was 
anointed  by  a  cardinal.  Not  till  this  was  accomplished  did  he 
advance  to  the  altar  of  Peter  to  make  confession  and  receive 
from  the  Pope  the  kiss  of  peace.  Then  with  his  retinue  he 
sought  his  appointed  place.  The  Pope  rehearsed  the  prayer, 
adding  a  special  intercession  for  the  King,  whereupon  Frede 
rick  approached  the  Pope  to  receive  the  insignia.  The  Pope 
crowned  him  with  mitre  and  with  crown,  and  thereupon  handed 
him  the  sword  which  Frederick  was  lustily  to  brandish  three 
times  to  show  that  he  was  now  a  miles  Beati  Petri,  after  which 
he  received  sceptre  and  imperial  orb.  The  choir  now  burst 
into  song:  "To  Frederick  ever  glorious,  of  the  Romans  the 
unconquered  Emperor,  be  Life  and  Victory  !  "  The  corona 
tion  of  Queen  Constance  was  completed  in  corresponding  style. 
High  Mass  followed,  in  which  the  Emperor,  laying  aside  crown 
and  mantle,  ministered  as  subdeacon  to  the  Pope.  Then  he  and 
the  Empress  received  the  communion  at  the  Pope's  hands  and 
finally  the  papal  kiss  of  peace.  The  Pope  then  pronounced  the 
blessing  and  with  the  Emperor  quitted  St.  Peter's  to  mount  his 
horse  outside  the  cathedral.  Frederick  held  the  Pope's  stirrup 
and  led  him  a  few  paces  forward  before  mounting  his  own  white 
horse.  At  Santa  Maria  Transpadina  Pope  and  Emperor  parted 
after  exchanging  one  more  embrace,  and  Frederick  returned  to 
his  camp  at  Monte  Mario. 

At  his  coronation  Emperor  Frederick  had  once  more  taken 
the  Cross — from  the  hand  of  Cardinal  Hugo  of  Ostia,  later 
Pope  Gregory  IX — and  had  promised  to  proceed  to  the  Holy 


RETURN  TO  SICILY  109 

Land  in  August  1221.  Further,  he  issued  a  number  of  new 
laws  :  first  and  foremost  an  edict  against  heretics,  and  another 
which  laid  down  the  indissoluble  connection  between  the  ban 
of  the  Church  and  the  ban  of  the  Empire.  Bologna  was  the  only 
one  of  the  Italian  towns  which  he  had  visited  on  his  journey 
south  ;  he  now  commanded  the  doctors  and  students  of  the 
"  Holy  Laws  "  to  enter  his  new  coronation  laws  in  the  codices 
of  Roman  Law  and  to  incorporate  them  for  ever  in  their  teach 
ing.  The  coronation  laws  were  in  fact  embodied  in  the  Corpus, 
following  immediately  on  the  laws  of  Barbarossa ;  Frederick  and 
his  grandfather  being  the  only  two  German  Emperors  whose 
names  are  immortalised  in  Roman  Law. 

All  the  coronation  solemnities  and  festivities  went  off  without 
disturbance — a  very  rare  phenomenon.  For  there  was  usually 
serious  friction  between  the  imperial  troops  and  the  citizens  of 
Rome.  Barbarossa  had  had  to  be  crowned  in  secret,  and  pitched 
battles  had  accompanied  the  coronation  of  Otto  IV,  for  both 
of  them  had  refused  the  usual  largesse  to  the  Romans.  A 
similar  parsimony  would  have  been  wholly  out.  of  character 
in  Frederick's  case.  Moreover,  he  considered  himself  as  the 
chosen  of  the  Romans  despatched  by  them  to  Germany  to  seek 
his  imperium.  He  had  not  less  pride  or  independence  than  his 
predecessors,  but  he  scorned  to  raise  a  protest  against  stirrup- 
ceremonies  or  coronation  gifts  or  mere  material  costs.  He 
reserved  his  fighting  powers  for  larger  issues. 


Immediately  after  the  coronation  Frederick  turned  to  Sicily. 
He  felt  the  lure  of  Sicily  partly  because  it  was  his  home,  but 
even  more  because  it  offered  to  his  hand  the  raw  material  for 
his  statesmanship.  Here  he  could  fashion  what  he  would. 
Germany  had  denied  him  all  opportunity.  Every  step  he  took 
in  Germany  had  in  one  way  or  another  to  be  accommodated  to 
the  princes'  wishes  ;  he  could  not  stir  a  finger  in  any  direction 
without  coming  up  against  some  constitutional  obstacle.  The 
feudal  system  excluded  all  immediacy  of  the  overlord.  These 
formalities  and  obstacles  were  deep-rooted  in  the  customs  of 
centuries ;  they  could  not  be  altered  without  immense  revolu 
tions.  So  Frederick  could  draw  on  the  strength  of  Germany 


no  SICILIAN   CHAOS  m 

only  in  a  very  limited  degree  ;  her  constitution,  though  any 
thing  but  perfected,  was  too  set  and  well  established.  She 
could  serve  him  only  to  the  same  extent  and  in  the  same  manner 
as  she  had  served  innumerable  Emperors  before  him,  but  it 
would  be  far  too  great  a  risk  to  depend  on  her  alone  for  support 
in  any  far-reaching  measure. 

Conditions  in  Sicily  were  more  favourable.  The  Norman 
kings  had  only  held  Sicily  for  two  or  three  generations. 
Frederick's  grandfather,  King  Roger  II,  had  wrought  indeed 
with  great  intensity  and  a  wisdom  and  statesmanship  amount 
ing  to  genius,  but  all  that  he  had  built  up  had  been  shattered 
beyond  recognition  in  nearly  thirty  years  of  uninterrupted  war 
and  strife.  During  Frederick's  childhood  it  had  been  the  scene 
of  anarchy  and  confusion.  After  his  long  absence  Frederick 
found  now  the  same  picture  of  woeful  ruin  and  neglect  that  he 
had  left  behind  him.  Chaos  reigned  in  Sicily,  but  chaos  preg 
nant  with  possibilities  of  every  kind.  Everything  was  in  move 
ment,  and  for  decades  all  the  various  forces  of  the  known  world 
had  tossed  and  tumbled  there.  The  real  statesman  can  only 
reach  his  full  stature  in  fluid  circumstances — all  great  men  have 
needed  revolutions — and  this  very  chaos  offered  the  most 
favourable  possible  conditions  without  the  fear  of  organised 
opposition.  Another  point:  for  an  Emperor  who  wished 
effectively  to  play  the  Roman  Imperator,  Sicily,  from  her 
geographical  position,  offered  the  required  basis  of  power. 
The  three  great  Hohenstaufen  Emperors  all  turned  persistently 
to  Sicily  precisely  because  they  knew  exactly  what  Sicily  had 
to  offer  that  Germany  denied.  In  the  time  of  the  Crusaders 
Sicily  was  in  fact  the  "  port  and  navel  of  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world,"  just  as  Spain  was  to  be  in  the  age  of  discovery. 
As  Charles  V  was  one  day  to  take  Holland  for  his  northern  base 
and  make  Germany  an  Atlantic  state,  the  Hohenstaufen  was 
now  to  create  a  Mediterranean  state  including  Swabia  and 
south  Germany. 

Frederick's  personal  affection  for  Sicily  is  undeniable  and  in 
the  given  conditions  was  pure  advantage.  But  he  loved  it.  also 
because  he  needed  it.  It  is  characteristic  that  this  affection  was 
not  chiefly  directed  to  the  luxuriant  half-tropical  Palermo, 
which  he  never  visited  in  the  latest  years  at  all,  but  Apulia, 


STIMULUS  TO  CREATIVE  ART  in 

Campania  and  the  Capitanata,  the  provinces  marching  with  the 
States  of  the  Church,  and  the  territories  nearest  to  Roma  caput 
mundi. 

The  data  in  North  and  South  were  radically  different ;  so 
was  Frederick's  method  of  approach.  In  Germany  Frederick 
had  set  free  all  the  cosmopolitan  forces  he  could,  to  fuse  Ger 
many  into  the  Roman  Empire.  In  Sicily,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  was  cosmopolitanism  enough  and  to  spare,  and  no  fear  of 
stagnation.  Sicily  was  more  likely  to  tear  herself  to  pieces  from 
over-vitality,  and  Frederick  had  to  tame  and  bind  those  very 
forces  which  he  had  sought  to  loose  in  Germany.  Thus  ulti 
mately  the  two  kingdoms  would  be  drawn  together  and  each 
would  in  its  own  way  be  "  romanised."  The  sensitive  and 
educative  statesmanship  of  Frederick  was  so  successful  that 
Germany  in  his  day  gave  birth  to  a  plastic  art  and — for  the  first 
time  since  the  days  of  her  tyrants — song  was  heard  again  in 
Sicily.  In  both  cases  these  periods  of  artistic  creation  were 
the  product  of  incomparably  daring,  almost  foolhardy,  experi 
ments  which  none  but  a  master,  and  he  for  a  limited  period, 
could  have  dared  to  try. 

The  Sicilians  had  been  anticipating  the  Emperor's  arrival  with 
justifiable  anxiety  ;  for  almost  all  had  at  one  time  or  another 
betrayed  the  boy  king.  A  number  of  the  Sicilian  barons 
appeared  already  at  the  coronation  in  Rome  to  do  homage  to 
Frederick  and  draw,  as  far  as  possible,  a  veil  over  the  past. 
Frederick  had  carefully  and  thoughtfully  planned  every  step 
beforehand,  and  had  even  begun  his  preparations  during  his 
years  in  Germany.  They  well  might  have  divined  from  one 
straw  or  another  how  the  wind  was  blowing.  One  of  the 
usurpers,  Count  Rainer  of  Manente,  who  was  reputed  to  have 
on  one  occasion  attempted  Frederick's  life,  had  rashly  entered 
Germany  and  approached  the  King  without  a  safe  conduct. 
Frederick  secured  his  person.  It  is  true  that,  at  the  Pope's 
request,  he  ultimately  released  his  prisoner,  but  the  Count  was 
made  disgorge  the  entire  crown  property  which  he  had  appro 
priated  and  which  his  relations  with  the  help  of  bandit  allies 
sought  to  retain.  The  fact  also  that  on  his  march  through 
Upper  Italy  Frederick  granted  no  privileges  relating  to  Sicily, 
indicated  well-defined  plans.  His  first  aim  was  to  bring  to- 


ii2  THE  LAW  OF  PRIVILEGES  m 

gether  again  all  the  crown  property  which  had  been  scattered 
and  squandered  by  each  temporary  wielder  of  power.  His 
second  to  eradicate  all  the  little  nests  of  secondary  powers 
dotted  over  his  kingdom  and  so  to  establish  a  central  govern 
ment  once  more.  With  all  his  fiery  lust  for  action  (which  Pope 
Honorius  mentions,  more  in  blame  than  praise)  Frederick  II 
set  himself  to  his  task. 

The  Roman  Curia  had  seen  Frederick's  happy  faculty  for 
solving  many  difficult  issues  by  one  well-judged  move.  This, 
however,  was  in  the  diplomatic  sphere  and  might  have  indicated 
merely  a  skill  in  casuistry.  Frederick  was  now  in  the  thick  of 
real  life.  One  single  simple  law,  almost  ludicrously  simple, 
brought  in  a  moment  to  a  standstill  all  the  hurly-burly  of  strife 
and  disaffection  in  Sicily,  precisely  in  the  way  most  useful 
to  Frederick  personally.  The  last  legitimate  Norman  king, 
William  II,  had  died  in  1 189,  and  for  the  succeeding  thirty  years 
sheer  confusion  had  prevailed.  Royal  prerogatives  and  rights, 
crown  lands  and  fiefs  had  been  recklessly  squandered,  aban 
doned,  given  away,  some  by  Henry  VI,  with  the  full  intention 
of  ultimately  recovering  them,  some  by  the  many  fleeting 
regents  of  Frederick's  youth,  till  the  Crown  was  completely 
impoverished  and  had  lost  all  power.  The  evil  of  these  thirty 
years  must  be  undone.  The  strong  position  which  the  Norman 
Kings  had  upheld  was  largely  grounded  on  the  extensive  crown 
domains ;  the  Demanium  must  be  restored  to  the  ruler.  By 
a  law  which  he  had  long  before  excogitated  "  de  resignandis 
privileges  "  Frederick  declared  to  be  null  and  void  all  grants, 
gifts,  donations,  privileges,  confirmation  of  titles  and  the  like 
of  the  last  thirty  years.  Every  man  must  bring  his  documents, 
except  those  relating  to  purely  private  property,  within  the 
next  few  months  and  table  them  in  the  imperial  chancery. 
Here  they  would  be  examined  and,  if  it  seemed  desirable, 
renewed. 

Every  possessor  therefore  of  crown  lands,  crown  fiefs,  royal 
grants,  tolls,  privileges  and  what  not,  was  suddenly  reduced  to 
beggary,  and  at  the  Emperor's  option  would  retain  or  forfeit 
his  possession.  We  cannot  speak  with  certainty  about  the  dis 
tribution  of  such  property,  as  the  vital  Chancery  records  have 
been  destroyed  ;  but  we  know  that  nobles  and  monasteries  and 


CONCEPTION  OF  "JUSTICE"  113 

towns,  and  even  numerous  simple  citizens  (as  farmers  of  petty 
taxes  or  holders  of  certain  privileges  perhaps),  were  hit  by  this 
enactment.  The  decisive  consideration  for  the  cancellation  of 
privileges  was,  broadly,  whether  the  Emperor  needed  the  castle, 
the  land,  the  tax  or  the  special  prerogative  at  the  moment  for 
the  construction  of  his  state,  or  whether  he  did  not.  If  wanted 
by  the  Emperor,  the  property  whose  titles  had  been  submitted 
to  the  inquisitorial  eyes  of  the  imperial  court  was  simply  con 
fiscated,  otherwise  the  holder  received  his  diploma  back  again, 
new-issued  and  with  an  added  formula  by  which  the  Emperor 
reserved  the  right  to  recall  the  new  title  at  any  time. 

A  further  advantage  had  been  secured  by  the  imperial 
Chancery — an  exact  knowledge  of  all  grants  of  every  kind  and 
their  distribution,  by  which  the  Crown  could  at  any  moment 
lay  hands  on  anything  it  wanted.  Further,  the  Emperor  could 
at  his  own  good  pleasure  cancel  at  least  the  special  separate 
privileges  of  any  disaffected  persons  or  powers.  Further  yet, 
the  Crown — that  is  the  King  and  State,  for  no  separation  of  the 
two  was  dreamt  of — regained  possession  of  its  extremely  ex 
tensive  property,  and,  finally,  the  Emperor  was  provided  with  a 
legal  backing  for  the  measures  he  directed  against  the  various 
petty  powers.  This  was  a  characteristic  device  of  Frederick's. 
He  took  the  stage  not  as  a  conqueror,  but  as  a  fulfiller  of  the 
law.  He  was  quick  to  point  this  out  and  warn  all  against 
putting  their  trust  in  illegal  evasions  ;  these  would  be  valueless, 
for  he  had  come  to  place  justice  on  her  throne  once  more  and 
let  her  light  shine  again  under  his  rule. 

"  Justice  "  for  Frederick  meant  no  rigid  code,  but  the  rights 
of  a  living  state  determined  by  the  ever-changing  necessities  of 
the  hour.  In  defiance  of  well-known  medieval  theories  justice 
thus  became  a  living  thing,  moving,  progressive,  capable  of 
development  and  change — as  we  shall  expound  more  fully 
later.  From  this  chameleon  justice  sprang  the  Emperor's  legal 
"  Machiavellianism  "  in  the  service  of  the  state  (not  of  the 
prince)  which  made  its  abrupt  appearance  in  the  first  applica 
tion  of  the  Law  of  Privileges  which  in  the  manifold  ramifications 
of  its  operations  was  the  basis  on  which  the  whole  new  order 
in  Sicily  was  founded. 

A  considerable  number  of  the  Sicilian  barons  had  attended 


ii4  BORDER  FORTRESS  in 

the  coronation  in  Rome.  The  most  powerful  of  them  all, 
Thomas  of  Celano,  Count  of  Molise,  who  alone  could  put  some 
1400  knights  and  esquires  in  the  field,  had  sent  his  son  to  meet 
Frederick  to  do  him  homage  and  to  enlist  his  favour.  Like 
most  of  the  other  nobles  the  Count  of  Molise  had  played  the 
traitor,  and  his  father  had  been  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of 
Kaiser  Otto.  In  spite  of  the  weighty  advocacy  of  the  Pope  and 
of  Cardinal  Thomas  of  Capua,  Frederick  refused  to  accept  the 
proffered  submission.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Frederick  cherished  any  special  ill-will  towards  this  particular 
count.  He  was  determined  to  subdue  the  entire  body  of  con 
tinental  nobles,  and  he  was  exactly  obeying  that  first  and  simplest 
mle — which  Machiavelli  later  preached  as  a  doctrine — by  boldly 
declaring  war  against  the  most  powerful  and  playing  off  the 
lesser  barons  against  him.  When  the  big  man  was  disposed  of 
by  their  help  he  would  find  it  an  easy  matter  to  rid  himself  of 
the  small  ones  in  their  turn.  Frederick  accepted  the  homage 
of  the  minor  nobles  in  Rome ;  at  least  he  immediately  found 
a  means  of  utilising  Counts  Roger  of  Aquila,  Jacob  of  San 
Severino,  Richard  of  Ajello,  Richard  of  Celano  and  many 
another.  On  the  ground  of  the  Law  of  Privileges  which  he  was 
just  about  to  promulgate,  and  other  orders  which  he  issued 
immediately  after  the  coronation,  he  commanded  them  to  hand 
over  certain  castles  which  they  possessed.  For  it  was  all- 
important  to  be  in  control  of  fortified  positions  in  the  kingdom. 
It  was  a  happy  chance  that  the  barons  had  been  witnesses  of 
the  coronation  ceremonies  and  the  entente  between  Emperor 
and  Pope ;  overcome  by  all  they  had  seen,  they  obeyed  him 
without  protest.  The  Emperor  cared  nothing  for  individuals, 
only  for  the  cause.  The  Abbot  of  Monte  Cassino,  who  had  also 
come  to  the  coronation  in  Rome,  had  always  been  loyal  and 
submissive  ;  nevertheless  he  had  to  surrender,  under  the  same 
law,  not  only  certain  revenues,  but  also,  most  surely  against  his 
will,  two  important  border  fortresses,  Rocca  d'Evandro  and 
Atina.  These  with  three  more  castles,  Suessa,  Teano  and 
Mondragone  (which  Count  Roger  of  Aquila  was  compelled  to 
hand  over),  covered  Frederick's  entrance  into  the  kingdom  and 
secured  the  road  to  Capua.  Frederick  crossed  the  border  at 
Monte  Cassino  in  December  1220. 


DEC.  1220  DIET  OF  CAPUA  115 

These  first  castles  were  chosen  for  confiscation  solely  on 
account  of  their  strategic  importance.  They  were  the  same 
positions  which  the  Romans  had  fortified  of  old  against  the 
Samnites.  The  same  considerations  applied  to  Sora  and 
Cajazzo,  which  he  next  seized.  These  castles  would  strengthen 
his  front  towards  the  South-East.  His  first  immediate  goal 
was  Capua. 

Thus  before  he  had  entered  his  kingdom  he  had  firm  ground 
under  his  feet.  There  were  a  few  entirely  trustworthy  families 
of  the  royal  nobility  on  whose  strength  he  could  rely :  the 
Cicali,  the  Eboli,  above  all  the  lords  of  Aquino.  Immediately 
on  entering  Sicily  Frederick  created  Landulf  of  Aquino  Justi- 
ciar  of  the  Terra  Laboris,  roughly  the  modern  Campania  ; 
while  another,  the  elder  Thomas  of  Aquino,  he  named  Chief 
Justice  of  the  same  district  and  of  Apulia  and  created  him 
Count  of  Acerra.  He  had,  further,  at  his  disposal  the  fighting 
forces  of  the  erstwhile  traitor  barons  mentioned  above,  who  had 
now  done  homage.  Relying  solely  on  the  barons,  Frederick 
set  out  to  fight  the  barons.  He  had  brought  very  few  troops 
with  him  from  Germany  to  Italy  and  most  of  these  were  cru 
saders,  so  he  entered  Sicily  almost  without  an  army,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  accompanied  by  Roffredo  of  Benevento,  some 
time  professor  of  law  in  Bologna.  Frederick  was  anxious  to 
conquer  his  country  with  the  forces  of  the  country  itself. 

In  December  1220  he  held  a  great  Diet  in  Capua  and  promul 
gated  a  number  of  laws.  The  most  important  was  the  Law  of 
Privileges ;  another,  also  directed  against  the  barons,  was 
closely  allied :  all  castles  and  fortified  places  erected  by  vassals 
in  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  years  were  to  be  surrendered  to 
the  crown  or,  alternatively,  razed  to  the  ground.  The  right  of 
fortification  was  a  royal  prerogative,  and  from  time  immemorial 
vassals  had  therefore  been  forbidden  to  build  castles  even  on 
their  own  land.  So  the  new  law  was  only  the  re-assertion  of 
an  ancient  royal  right.  The  Diet  of  Capua  created  the  legal 
basis  for  Frederick's  future  procedure,  for  which  the  struggle 
with  the  barons,  the  resumption  of  crown  lands  and  castles, 
formed  only  the  lever  de  rideau.  The  Emperor  did  not  even 
conduct  these  operations  in  person.  If  the  surrender  was 
peaceful  the  two  ad  hoc  officials  were  sufficient ;  if  resistance 


n6  THE  SICILIAN  BARONS  in 

was  offered  the  submissive  barons  were  delegated  to  break  it. 
Thomas  of  Aquino,  for  instance,  was  presently  put  in  command 
of  the  campaign  against  the  Count  of  Molise.  Frederick 
thus  kept  his  hands  free  for  other  work  :  for  many  things  were 
happening  simultaneously. 

We  must  now  follow  in  detail  the  two  years'  campaign  for 
the  reduction  of  the  continental  barons.  Within  a  few  months 
the  Emperor  was  in  possession  of  quite  a  number  of  fortresses 
in  the  north  of  the  kingdom.  The  Count  of  Ajello  surrendered 
the  castle  from  which  he  took  his  name.  The  Rocca  d'Arce,  a 
border  fortress  against  the  States  of  the  Church,  was  quickly 
conquered  by  Roger  of  Aquila.  Diepold  of  Schweinspeunt's 
brother  surrendered  the  castles  of  Cajazzo  and  Allifae,  and 
Diepold  himself,  whom  Frederick  had  for  years  held  prisoner 
as  hostage  for  these  castles,  was  finally  released  and  ostensibly 
received  into  the  Teutonic  Order.  The  county  of  Sora  with 
its  castle  of  Sorella  was  attached  ;  it  had  been  at  one  time 
pledged  to  Pope  Innocent  III  and  by  him  handed  over  to  his 
brother  Richard.  During  the  next  few  years  a  whole  series  of 
further  fortresses  were  conquered,  destroyed  or  newly  fortified, 
amongst  them  Naples,  Gaeta,  Aversa,  Foggia.  The  Alsatians 
had  coined  a  phrase  about  the  Hohenstaufen,  Duke  Frederick, 
"  He  always  has  a  castle  tied  to  his  horse's  tail,"  and  this  would 
equally  be  applicable  to  his  later  namesake. 

The  spring  of  1221  saw  the  beginning  of  the  campaign 
against  the  Count  of  Molise.  He  had  entrenched  himself  in 
two  almost  impregnable  Abruzzi  fortresses,  Bojano  and  Rocca- 
mandolfi,  and  was  beleaguered  by  the  imperial  generals.  Bojano 
was  taken  by  assault.  Roccamandolfi  was  forced  to  surrender ; 
the  count  himself  escaped  to  a  third  stronghold,  Ovindoli, 
whose  resistance  was  not  lightly  overcome.  After  lasting  the 
better  part  of  two  years  the  campaign  was  finally  ended  by  a 
treaty  under  which  Ovindoli  was  surrendered.  The  Count 
went  into  banishment ;  his  personal  possessions  in  Molise  were 
for  the  present  secured  to  him,  or  rather  to  his  countess. 
Before  long,  however,  a  pretext  was  made  that  he  had  broken 
the  treaty ;  he  failed  to  obey  the  summons  to  appear  before 
the  imperial  court,  and  Frederick  confiscated  the  entire  Molise 
property,  as  he  had  doubtless  all  along  intended  to  do.  Celano 


THE  MOLISE  CAMPAIGN  117 

was  the  most  important  town  in  the  Count's  domains  ;  on 
account  of  a  treacherous  attack  on  a  detachment  of  imperial 
troops  it  was  razed  to  the  ground  and  the  inhabitants  scattered. 
Later  they  were  re-assembled  and  deported  to  Sicily,  where 
Frederick  had  a  scheme  for  utilising  them.  Years  afterwards 
they  were  permitted  to  return  home  and  rebuild  Celano  under 
the  name  of  Caesarea.  Thus  the  home  town  of  Thomas  of 
Celano,  the  Franciscan,  suffered  in  some  degree  a  dies  irae  in 
his  lifetime. 

That,  however,  was  the  end  of  the  Molise  campaign,  and  the 
most  powerful  of  the  continental  barons  had  now  been  over 
come,  but  the  action  against  the  body  of  feudal  lords  as  a  whole 
was  not  yet  completed.  Frederick  had  not  the  smallest  in 
tention  of  remaining  so  dependent  on  the  smaller  barons  as  he 
had  been  during  these  years.  They  also  must  be  crushed. 
Frederick  seized  the  first  convenient  opportunity  after  the 
Molise  campaign.  The  Counts  Roger  of  Aquila,  Jacob  of  San 
Severino  and  some  others  had  been  summoned  to  war  against 
the  Saracens  ;  some  had  not  appeared  at  all,  some  had  come 
with  scanty  forces.  The  Emperor  ordered  their  arrest  and  the 
confiscation  of  their  lands.  On  the  Pope's  intervention  he 
released  the  prisoners  but  sent  them  into  exile.  They  followed 
the  Count  of  Molise  to  Rome. 

This  blow  was  the  last.  The  resistance  of  the  feudal  nobility 
was  at  an  end,  except  for  a  few  trifling  episodes,  for  the  duration 
of  Frederick's  rule — the  moral  of  which  is  that  stern  and  ruth 
less  measures  are  also  the  most  humane  if  the  person  who 
employs  them  is  sure  of  his  aim.  Plato  saw  no  alternative  line 
of  conduct  for  a  "  Tyrant  "  who  is  of  necessity  compelled  to 
"  purge  the  State  "  by  slaying  and  exiling.  It  is  disconcerting 
to  see  with  what  prophetic  insight  Emperor  Frederick  obeyed 
the  rules  of  Machiavelli,  who  demands  under  all  circumstances 
that  the  earliest  allies  must  be  got  rid  of,  otherwise  they  will 
later  prove  the  most  dangerous  opponents,  for  they  will  allow 
themselves  liberties  towards  their  master  and  their  demands  on 
his  gratitude  will  be  insatiable.  Machiaveili's  counsels  would 
have  struck  a  more  sympathetic  chord  in  Frederick  than  the 
actual  advice  of  his  contemporary,  Thomas  of  Gaeta.  This 
old  Sicilian  official,  who  had  been  entrusted  with  numerous 


ii8     FREDERICK  AND  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM  in 

missions  to  the  papal  court,  shared  in  many  things  the  point  of 
view  of  Rome.    He  was  horrified  at  the  new  state  of  affairs  and 
advised  the  Emperor  "  rather  to  build  churches  and  cloisters  " 
—an  occupation  which  offered  Frederick  no  attractions— "  than 
to  fortify  hills  and  crown  the  mountain  heights  with  castles. 
Better  to  win  men's  hearts  than  their  bodies,  for  the  love  of  his 
subject  is  the  only  impregnable  bulwark  of  a  king."    Frederick 
did  not  take  this  greatly  to  heart.    He  displayed  a  wonderful 
lust  for  building,  but  during  his  whole  life  built  only  one  single 
insignificant  little  church — and  that  with  extreme  reluctance. 
The  power  of  the  great  nobles  had  thus  been  broken  and,  like 
other  statesmen,  Frederick  found  it  convenient  to  enlist  in  his 
service  the  minor  nobility — taking  care  for  the  most  part  not 
unduly  to  enrich  them.    All  his  actions  in  these  matters  are 
part  and  parcel  of  his  strong  dislike  of  the  feudal  system  on 
principle,  for  it  made  the  direct  action  of  the  overlord  prac 
tically  impossible.    The  most  powerful  fief-holders  had  now 
been  forcibly  eliminated,  but  the  legislation  of  the  Diet  of 
Capua  had  prepared  the  way  for  a  complete  re-modelling  of  the 
whole  feudal  fabric.    The  fighting  forces  of  the  nobility  were 
to  be  greatly  increased  and  put  immediately  at  the  ruler's  dis 
position.    Frederick  was  not  driven  to  "  inventing  "  new  laws. 
He  called  to  mind  certain  ancient  Norman  laws  and  gave  them 
wider  application  and  a  definite  direction.    He  first  recalled  as 
many  feudal  grants  as  possible  and  did  not  again  renew  them. 
All  vassals  were  forbidden  to  marry  without  the  Emperor's 
special  permission  ;  children  of  a  fief-holder  could  only  inherit 
their  father's  fief  with  the  Emperor's  consent.    These  two 
laws  of  marriage  and  inheritance  were  rigidly  enforced.    This 
hastened  the  reversion  of  fiefs  to  the  Crown.    All  vassals  were 
to  re-assert  any  rights  that  had  been  filched  from  them  during 
the  years  of  chaos,  just  as  the  Emperor  himself  was  doing,  to 
avoid  the  sub-division  of  the  fief.    This  measure  was  not  con 
ceived  in  the  interests  of  the  fief-holder  himself,  but  in  the 
interest  of  the  Crown,  in  case  of  reversion.   For  the  same  reason 
all  arbitrary  creation  of  under-fiefs  on  tenure  without  express 
permission  was  most  sternly  forbidden,  because  a  fief  was 
greatly  weakened  by  a  train  of  under-vassals,  and  if  the  main 
fief  fell  again  to  the  Crown  a  host  of  duties  towards  the  under- 


CREATION  OF  A  STATE  119 

vassals  arose.  Moreover,  any  independence  of  the  subject,  such 
as  was  implied  by  the  sub-division  of  fiefs,  was  contrary  to 
Kaiser  Frederick's  principles  of  government. 

The  new  feudal  order  in  short  laid  down  :  that  with  reference 
to  fiefs  and  their  distribution  no  alteration  was  to  be  made  in 
the  status  quo  as  existing  at  the  death  of  the  last  Norman  king 
— no  marriage,  no  inheritance,  no  sub-letting  without  ex 
press  permission  from  the  Emperor.  What  had  been  an  inde 
pendent,  living,  moving,  fluid  form  of  life  became  in  a  moment 
petrified  by  one  single  edict  into  rigid  permanence.  Hence 
forth  modifications  could  emanate  from  the  Emperor  alone,  and 
he  was  put  in  a  position  from  which  he  could  review  the  whole 
detailed  situation  and  exert  his  direct  influence  through  the 
most  distant  ramifications  of  the  system.  Every  independent, 
natural  development  was  checked  and — what  entirely  suited 
Frederick's  whole  conception — every  impulse,  every  activity 
must  derive  from  him  personally  and  have  its  source  in  his 
imperial  will. 

The  loosely-knit  framework  of  a  feudal  kingdom,  held  to 
gether  by  land-tenure  alone,  was  to  be  succeeded  by  the  firm 
architecture  of  a  state  :  neither  land  nor  fief  would  in  future 
bind  the  noble  to  his  lord — these  now  imposed  duties  on  him, 
without  entailing  corresponding  rights,  nothing  but  personal 
service.  Thus  matters  henceforth  remained.  The  possession 
of  a  fief  gave  the  nobleman  no  weight,  only  his  personal  service 
rendered  directly  to  the  King,  either  as  warrior  or,  what  Frede 
rick  valued  more,  as  official.  This  paved  the  way  to  the 
foundation  of  a  "  Court  Nobility,"  such  as  developed  later 
under  absolutism. 

Another  measure  ran  parallel  with  this  state-organisation  of 
the  nobles  and  the  knights.  Frederick  II  was  the  first  to  place 
castles  and  fortresses  under  the  immediate  administration  of  the 
Crown  and  State,  which  was  in  effect  to  transform  knightly 
castles  into  national  strongholds.  Over  two  hundred  of  these 
national  towers,  castles  and  fortresses  date  back  to  Frederick's 
time.  This  entailed  the  creation  of  a  new  government  depart 
ment  of  "  national  defence,"  which  was  made  responsible  for 
the  administration,  construction  and  upkeep  of  the  fortresses, 
for  the  supervision  of  the  necessary  staff",  the  payment  of  the 


120  NATIONAL  STRONGHOLDS  m 

garrison  and  the  like.  The  castles  carried  naturally  no  garrison 
in  times  of  peace — a  custom  never  known  elsewhere — or  at  most 
a  chltelain  and  a  couple  of  men-at-arms.  In  time  of  war  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  neighbouring  fief-holders  and  districts,  who 
were  also  normally  drawn  on  for  construction  and  repair,  to 
man  the  forts  at  command  and  to  bear  the  costs  of  so  doing. 
A  type  of  national  defence  was  thus  organised,  based  on  the  old 
but  considerably  simplified  feudal  substructure.  This  was  a 
unique  creation  for  the  period,  especially  because  it  was  the 
unified  product  of  systematic  thought. 

Attention  should  here  be  drawn  to  a  very  important  impli 
cation  of  this  transformation  of  knightly  castles  into  state 
fortresses  :  an  entirely  new  style  of  architecture  was  evolved 
for  the  new  imperial  castles  that  soon  began  to  spring  up. 
These  were  no  residential  castles,  as  were  otherwise  the  norm, 
in  which  the  knight  lived  with  his  wife  and  family  ;  these  were 
state  strongholds  which  served  as  men's  quarters  only.  They 
could  therefore  be  built,  as  were  the  Roman  castra,  according 
to  one  single  uniform  ground  plan  with  slight  variations — 
representing  the  last  word  in  simplicity,  economy  and  rectangu- 
larity  :  a  stone  square  or  rectangle  with  a  tower  at  each  of  its 
four  corners  similar  to  the  well-known  specimen  in  Naples, 
Certain  sportive  variations,  especially  in  the  interior  and  in  the 
ornamentation  and  artistic  accessories,  are  of  course  distinguish 
able  ;  many  modifications  also  due  to  the  site ;  but  the  same 
principle  underlay  them  all  and  the  pure  form  may  be  seen  in 
plains  and  on  the  coast.  People  have  justifiably  seen  in  these 
Sicilian  castles  of  Frederick  II  the  prototype  of  the  Prussian 
strongholds  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  which  show  the  same  stark 
simplicity  of  plan.  The  conditions  of  the  early  Prussian  state 
under  the  Order  corresponded  in  many  particulars  to  the 
Hohenstaufen  state  in  Sicily.  The  Prussian  castles  housed  no 
family  life  but  served  only  as  soldiers'  barracks  and  arsenals. 
Both  entirely  lacked  any  element  of  the  "  picturesque  "  ;  they 
are  characterised  by  massiveness  and  stern  straight  lines,  by 
their  utilitarian  plan  and  the  mathematically  simple  form.  In 
the  interior  there  might  be  groined  vaults  or  cloisters  with 
pointed  arches  :  Gothic  windows  and  Gothic  portals  would  also 
not  be  lacking ;  but  the  outside,  with  flat  roofs  and  squat  towers, 


1221  DIET  OF  MESSINA  121 

showed  nothing  but  right  angles — gigantic  stone  blocks  and 
cubes. 


The  arrival  of  the  Emperor  had  been  anticipated  with  some 
anxiety  ;  after  a  few  months  Frederick  II  was  feared.  "  In  the 
kingdom  all  bowed  the  neck  before  the  Emperor,"  announces 
the  chronicler.  After  the  Diet  of  Capua,  followed  by  a  short 
stay  in  Apulia  and  Calabria,  Frederick  crossed  in  May  1221  to 
the  island  of  Sicily,  leaving  his  generals  and  the  loyal  barons  to 
prosecute  the  Molise  campaign.  He  held  a  new  Diet  in  Messina 
and  issued  new  laws,  not  in  brief  judicial  form  but  in  a  style 
which  later  he  made  his  own.  The  law  was  accompanied  by  a 
statement  of  the  causes  that  led  up  to  it  and  the  needs  it  was 
designed  to  meet.  The  Assizes  of  Capua  had  sketched  out  the 
ground  plan  and  the  primary  organisation  of  the  Sicilian  state, 
the  edicts  of  Messina  regulated  the  affairs  of  subjects  who  were 
outside  the  feudal  framework.  Frederick  sharply  divided  them 
off  from  his  own  citizens .  There  were  laws  dealing  with  players 
and  blasphemers,  with  Jews  and  whores  and  wandering  min 
strels.  These  constituted  a  potential  danger,  and  Frederick  II 
set  limits  to  their  activities.  Players  were  wont  to  curse  and 
blaspheme.  It  was  most  unsuitable  for  them  to  keep  company 
with  clerics,  since  it  was  the  churchman's  duty  to  "  uphold  the 
standard  of  right  living  in  conduct  and  in  speech/'  The  Jews 
were  to  stitch  the  yellow  patch  on  their  clothing  and  to  let  their 
beards  grow  ...  in  imitation  of  the  Lateran  edict  of  1215 
against  Muslims.  Without  such  distinctive  marks  "  the  duties 
and  the  practices  of  the  Christian  faith  will  be  confused." 
Whores  might  not  live  in  the  town  or  frequent  the  bath  with 
respectable  women,  "for  one  sick  sheep  infects  the  herd." 
Players  and  wandering  minstrels  should  be  outlaws  "  if  they 
dare  to  disturb  the  Emperor's  peace  with  ribald  songs."  So 
the  Emperor  strove  to  separate  out  his  own,  according  to  the 
precept  of  the  Church. 

The  necessity  to  cleanse  his  land  of  foreign  powers  decided 
the  next  blow  that  Frederick  struck  on  the  island.  On  the 
ground  of  the  Law  of  Privileges  he  withdrew  their  prerogatives 
from  foreign  sea-powers  and  hunted  them  from  the  ports  of 


122         FREDERICK  AND  THE   SEA  TOWNS          m 

Sicily.  Amalfi  and  Pisa,  Genoa  and  Venice  had  formerly  acquired 
numerous  trading  rights  in  the  fertile  island.  Sicily  was  not 
only  as  of  old  one  of  the  great  "granaries"  from  which  the 
merchant  could  fetch  his  corn  and  perhaps  sugar  too,  and  dates, 
hemp  and  flax,  silk  and  wool.  The  harbours  of  Sicily  were  also 
important  as  dockyards  and  ports  of  call  for  sailors  of  the 
Levant,  who  on  their  outward  or  homeward  voyage  could  sell 
their  Eastern  wares  or  exchange  them  for  Sicilian  corn.  Since 
being  sacked  by  the  Normans  in  1135  Amalfi  had  lost  her  share 
of  world  trade.  Venice  made  use  of  the  harbour  of  Brindisi — 
the  island  of  Sicily  lay  off  her  direct  route  to  the  East — so  it 
was  Genoa  and  Pisa  who  were  chiefly  interested  in  Sicilian 
commerce.  The  geographical  contiguity  of  the  two  mighty 
north  Italian  republics  destined  them  to  be  rivals,  and  rivals 
they  were  in  every  sphere ;  at  home,  in  the  Ligurian  Sea,  in 
Sardinia  and  Corsica,  in  Provence,  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  also 
in  Sicily.  In  Sicily  they  enjoyed  almost  identical  privileges ; 
each  had  a  special  quarter  in  all  important  harbours,  a  consulate, 
a  warehouse — the  "  fondaco  "  taken  over  from  the  Arabs — and 
the  enjoyment  of  free  trade,  which  exonerated  their  merchants 
from  the  payment  of  taxes,  duties,  dues,  levies,  etc. 

In  political  matters  the  rivalry  of  the  two  towns  had  resulted 
in  the  Genoese  allying  themselves  with  their  neighbours  the 
Lombards  as  anti-Emperor,  while  the  Pisans  were  correspond 
ingly  pro-Emperor.  Pisa  had  always  placed  her  fleet  at  the 
Emperor's  disposal.  In  Frederick's  youth,  therefore,  Pisa  had 
supported  Kaiser  Otto,  while  Genoa  had  had  leanings  towards 
the  young  King  of  Sicily.  By  this  connection  with  the  Sicilian 
king  the  Genoese  had  gained  ascendancy  in  the  island,  and  in 
those  early  years  had  helped  the  young  king  against  Pisa. 
When  Otto  IV  came  to  grief,  and  Pisan  politics  with  him,  the 
predominance  of  Genoa  in  Sicily  seemed  assured. 

An  episode  that  took  place  during  the  fighting  in  Frederick's 
youth  will  illustrate  the  conduct  of  the  sea-towns.  Warlike 
Pisan  merchants  or  seamen — corsairs  at  any  rate — had  taken 
advantage  of  the  confusion  prevailing  in  the  kingdom  to 
make  themselves  masters  of  Syracuse  and  had  driven  out  bishop 
and  people.  Syracuse  became  a  pirate  fortress  under  the  pro 
tection  of  Pisa,  who  used  it  as  a  base,  at  the  same  time  that  she 


SYRACUSE  123 

officially  disclaimed  all  responsibility  for  what  happened  there. 
In  the  summer  of  1204  a  body  of  homeward-bound  Genoese 
chanced  to  meet  in  Crete  others  returning  from  Alexandria,  so 
that  a  very  considerable  Genoese  merchant  fleet  was  accidentally 
assembled  there.  They  took  counsel  together  and  decided  to 
take  Syracuse  from  the  Pisans.  The  far-famed  Genoese  cor 
sair,  Alaman  da  Costa,  who  had  just  captured  a  Pisan  ship  laden 
with  arms,  was  the  originator  of  this  scheme.  He  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  Genoese  fleet.  They  sailed  for  Syracuse,  via 
Malta,  which  was  then  a  Genoese  dependency,  received  the 
reinforcement  of  several  war-galleys,  attacked  Syracuse,  and  in 
eight  days  were  masters  of  the  town.  Alaman  da  Costa  was 
their  lord  and  signed  all  documents  as  "  by  the  grace  of  God, 
of  the  king,  and  of  the  town  of  Genoa,  Count  of  Syracuse  and 
Officer  of  the  King."  He  proceeded  to  enlarge  his  Syracuse 
domain  and  to  assert  his  influence  in  Sicilian  politics.  This 
Sicilian  Corsair-Tyrant  was  subject  to  the  mother-city  of  Genoa, 
who  could  raise  certain  other  claims  to  Syracuse,  based  on  a 
grant  of  Barbarossa's.  So  Genoa  held  Malta,  Syracuse  and 
Crete,  the  most  important  bases  on  the  route  to  the  East. 

Genoa  had  thus  built  her  nest  in  Sicily.  Frederick  had 
the  kindliest  feelings  towards  the  Genoese,  and  was  not  un 
mindful  that  they  had  stood  by  him  on  his  march  to  Germany. 
But  there  was  no  place  in  his  new  state  either  for  a  Genoese 
dukedom  of  Syracuse,  or  for  preferential  treatment  of  foreign 
commerce,  be  it  Genoese  or  Pisan.  Pisa  was  now  in  many 
respects  better  off,  for  Frederick  treated  the  two  rival  sea-towns 
exactly  alike.  Pisans  and  Genoese  had  done  him  homage  on 
the  death  of  Kaiser  Otto,  and  he  had  confirmed  both  parties  in 
their  imperial,  while  cancelling  their  Sicilian,  rights  and  privi 
leges.  The  Pisans,  having  a  much  smaller  stake  in  Sicily,  were 
well  content,  and  preserved  their  traditionally  loyal  attitude, 
remaining  faithful  to  Frederick  throughout  his  whole  reign,  as 
they  had  once  been  faithful  to  the  Welf.  The  Genoese,  how 
ever,  once  the  most  highly-favoured  sea-power  in  Sicily,  were 
extraordinarily  hard  hit. 

Frederick  II  set  at  once  to  work.  Count  Alaman  da  Costa 
and  his  Genoese  were  driven  out  of  Syracuse,  a  palace  in 
Palermo  which  Genoa  had  used  as  a  warehouse  was  confiscated 


124  CREATION  OF  A  FLEET  m 

under  the  Law  of  Privileges,  and  similar  events  took  place 
in  Messina,  Trapani  and  elsewhere.  The  Sicilian  admiral, 
William  Porcus,  was  by  birth  a  Genoese  ;  he  prudently  saved 
himself  by  flight.  The  Law  of  Privileges,  which  cancelled  all 
advantages,  bore  heavily  enough  on  the  Genoese,  but  they  were 
still  more  severely  hit  by  a  law  of  the  Capua  Assizes  which 
forbade  all  favours  to  foreigners  at  the  expense  of  the  native 
population,  such  as  freedom  from  taxes  and  dues.  All  this  was 
most  painful  to  Genoa,  who  naturally  accused  Frederick  of  crass 
ingratitude.  Frederick,  however,  could  not  imperil  the  struc 
ture  of  his  state  at  the  dictates  of  private  gratitude,  and  he  had 
to  resign  himself  to  the  ever-growing  ill-humour  of  the  Genoese, 
which  ultimately,  in  spite  of  his  repeated  efforts  to  placate  them, 
developed  into  open  hostility.  The  needs  of  Sicily  came  first : 
the  state  revenues  from  duties  and  harbour  dues  necessarily 
sank  to  a  minimum  when  the  most  important  commercial  towns 
were  untaxed.  How  considerable  these  losses  to  the  state  had 
been  in  the  past  is  best  proved  by  a  Genoese  writer,  who  com 
plains  in  his  chronicle  that  the  Sicilian  taxes  on  goods  amount 
now  to  10  per  cent,  and  over. 

Frederick  had  broken  the  power  of  the  feudal  barons  on 
the  Italian  continent,  and  set  up  a  definite  counter-force  in  his 
national  defence ;  he  now  took  corresponding  measures  in 
maritime  affairs.  The  banishment  of  the  foreign  sea-powers 
made  some  new  creation  absolutely  imperative  :  he  must  him 
self  create  a  Sicilian  fleet.  Here  again  he  utilised  his  Law  of 
Privileges  :  previous  exemptions  were  cancelled  and  an  old 
Norman  ordinance  again  enforced,  which  laid  on  certain  dis 
tricts  the  obligation  to  furnish  seamen,  and  on  the  barons  the 
duty  of  supplying  wood  for  shipbuilding.  The  Emperor  erected 
state  wharves  and  shipyards  without  delay  ;  but  in  any  circum 
stances  the  building  of  ships  takes  time,  so  he  created  his  first 
fleet  chiefly  by  hire  and  by  purchase.  His  methods  were  not 
a  little  inconsiderate  :  ship  masters  from  the  Italian  coast-towns 
or  other  merchant  seamen  who  happened  to  call  at  Sicilian  ports 
were  invited  to  hire  or  sell  their  vessels  voluntarily  ;  failing  this 
the  ships  were  taken  by  force.  The  Venetians  warned  their 
captains  who  were  touching  in  Apulia  against  such  sales,  and 
prosecuted  those  who  sold.  War  galleys  as  well  as  merchant 


FREDERICK  AND  FOREIGNERS  125 

ships  were  thus  commandeered — since  merchantmen  need  war 
ships  for  their  protection — and  the  Emperor  also  set  about 
building  galleys  for  himself. 

Frederick  must  have  strained  every  nerve  over  his  shipbuild 
ing,  for  by  izzi  two  considerable  squadrons  sailed  to  Egypt  to 
help  the  crusading  army,  and  his  intention  was  to  have  fifty 
transports  and  one  hundred  galleys  ready  for  sea  by  1225. 
Gradually  he  created  a  strong  merchant  fleet  and  a  powerful 
fleet  of  war,  which  did  him  valiant  service  in  his  Italian  cam 
paigns  and  brought  him  many  a  welcome  victory. 

It  was  of  course  at  first  a  purely  Sicilian  fleet  and  was  not  to 
become  an  imperial  fleet  for  some  time  to  come.  From  the 
beginning  it  flew  the  banner  of  the  Hohenstaufens — the  imperial 
Roman  eagle  on  a  golden  field.  In  Frederick's  day,  for  the 
first  time  in  history,  a  German- Roman  imperial  fleet  sailed  the 
Tyrrhenian,  Aegean  and  Ionian  Seas,  and  for  the  first  time  mer 
chants  traded  to  Syria,  Egypt  and  Tunis  under  imperial  eagles. 
One  of  these  ships  was  styled  Aquila,  another  went  by  the  name 
of  "  the  half  world,"  Nisfu'd  Dunya.  The  like  was  not  seen 
again  for  three  hundred  years,  till  the  time  of  Charles  V. 
Frederick  gave  his  new  fleet  a  new  admiral,  Count  Henry  of 
Malta,  like  his  runaway  predecessor  a  Genoese  by  birth.  He 
had  been  a  daring  pirate  and  was  likely  to  prove  dangerous  ;  the 
Emperor  forestalled  his  possible  hostility  by  this  appointment. 

Simultaneously  with  all  this  Frederick  began  to  take  over  the 
island  castles  and  put  them  under  the  Crown,  and  to  establish 
a  coastguard  service  both  as  a  protection  against  hostile  ships 
and  in  preparation  for  the  future  war  against  the  Saracens, 
which  he  was  not  yet  ready  to  attempt.  The  purging  of  Sicily 
from  the  foreigner  had  increased  the  unity  of  that  country  ;  the 
re-creation  of  the  fleet  had  extended  its  authority.  The  new 
independence  from  foreign  commerce  and  foreign  shipping 
secured  through  the  fleet  made  possible  a  new  economic  policy. 
With  great  versatility  and  clearsightedness  Frederick  immediately 
began  to  foster  an  active  Sicilian  trade  which  had  no  longer  to 
compete  against  the  crushing  privileges  of  foreign  powers.  The 
full  development  of  Kaiser  Frederick's  much  admired  and 
wonderfully  organised  policy  is  not  attained  till  later,  but 
even  in  these  early  days  it  is  possible  to  recognise  in  various 


126  TRADE  in 

occurrences  Frederick's  passionate  and  indefatigable  pursuit  of 
unity  and  the  uncompromising  forcefulness  and  directness  of 
his  methods. 

In  spite  of  the  rigid  enforcement  of  the  Law  of  Privileges, 
which  took  cognisance  of  the  last  thirty  years,  the  Pisans  and 
Genoese  still  enjoyed  many  privileges  and  prerogatives  dating 
from  earlier  times,  so  that  the  Sicilians  were  still  handicapped 
in  trade  competition  with  them.  Frederick  might  have  rectified 
this  by  conferring  on  his  own  subjects  corresponding  rights  and 
favours,  and  thus  putting  them  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
foreigner.  This  expedient,  however,  would  have  stultified  his 
entire  policy,  which  had  suppressed  most  of  the  privileges  of 
the  harbour  towns.  Foreign  commerce  had  suffered  somewhat 
by  Frederick's  forcible  purchase  of  ships  belonging  to  the  sea- 
powers — particularly  because  he  thus  withdrew  for  his  own  use 
tonnage  from  the  foreign  corn  trade.  He  now  drove  them 
from  the  field  without  infringing  their  ancient  Norman  charters. 
The  Emperor,  at  a  later  date,  contrived  to  divert  to  his  own 
coffers  the  enormous  profits  which  accrued  to  the  foreign  sea- 
states  from  the  purchase  of  relatively  cheap  Sicilian  corn,  by 
conveying  the  corn  himself  to  the  foreign  markets  in  his  state 
ships  and  selling  it  there  himself  at  the  high  local  prices.  In 
these  early  years,  however,  while  the  imperial  fleet  was  still  in 
the  making,  and,  moreover,  subject  to  heavy  claims  on  it  in 
connection  with  the  Crusade,  the  Emperor  devised  another 
scheme  for  preventing  excessive  gains  by  foreign  profiteers. 

In  1224  he  for  a  time  forbade  all  export  of  corn,  foodstuffs 
and  cattle.  The  commercial  powers  might  only  purchase  their 
corn  direct  from  the  Crown,  and  Frederick  took  care  to  fix  the 
price  so  high  that  the  old  privileges  were  of  no  avail,  while  the 
Crown  benefited  most  handsomely.  The  immediate  result  in 
Sicily  itself  was  such  a  fall  in  food  prices  that  the  producers 
scarcely  recovered  their  costs .  The  Emperor  immediately  seized 
this  opportunity  of  making  large  purchases  for  the  Crown.  This 
had  been  a  bye-product — pleasant  or  unpleasant — of  the  em 
bargo  ;  it  had  not  been  the  motive  of  the  imperial  measure, 
which  was  directed  in  the  first  place  against  the  ancient  privi 
leges.  Private  trade  (which,  however,  recorded  the  very  next 
year  considerable  shipments  to  Venice)  was  inevitably  injured 


TAXATION  127 

by  this  arbitrary  interference,  a  fact  which  will  not  greatly  have 
disturbed  the  Emperor.  For  his  emergency  measure  was  neces 
sary  at  the  time  unless  the  greatest  gains  were  to  be  lost  to  the 
country,  and  the  individual  was  not,  in  any  case,  in  a  position 
to  reap  them. 

The  sea-powers  were  driven  out,  their  warehouses  abolished, 
and  the  supervision  of  the  Sicilian  harbours  became  possible. 
The  Emperor  did  not  fail  to  avail  himself  of  the  fact.  In  order 
to  attract  as  large  a  supply  of  food  into  the  island  as  possible 
during  the  Saracen  war  Frederick  granted  in  1222  complete 
freedom  from  import  duties  in  Palermo.  By  the  opening  of 
this  one  port  (together  with  the  closing  of  the  others,  which  we 
may  assume)  Frederick  once  more  attracted  trade  and  directed 
it  to  the  very  point  which  was  most  advantageous  for  his  mili 
tary  operations.  This  proved  most  successful ;  the  feeding  of 
the  army  was  assured. 

Similar  autocratic  measures  are  observable  in  other  depart 
ments,  though  we  have  not  always  the  clue  to  their  interpre 
tation.  The  export  of  the  precious  metals  was  sternly  for 
bidden,  and  all  payments  to  foreigners  had  to  be  made  in  the 
coarse  newly-coined  silver  "  imperials/'  which  became  legal 
tender.  Frederick  guaranteed  that  this  currency  would  be 
maintained  and  he  watched  carefully  over  it.  Numerous  fairs 
were  abolished,  which  indicates  an  attempt  to  centralise  trade, 
for  the  local  fair  frittered  it  away  and  brought  advantage  only 
to  a  few  great  folk.  For  the  first  time  in  1223  Frederick  began 
to  impose  a  direct  tax  which  was  repeated  every  three,  two  or 
one  years  according  to  need,  but  in  his  later  days  became  a 
regular  annual  tax.  These  "  collections,"  which  were  originally 
an  extra-ordinary  source  of  revenue,  were  thus  conducted :  the 
Emperor  named  the  total  sum  required,  and  probably  also  dic 
tated  how  it  was  to  be  distributed  over  the  separate  provinces  ; 
the  further  sub-division  was  then  left  to  the  provincial  governors, 
the  justiciarSy  who  with  the  tax-collectors  were  responsible  for 
actually  getting  the  money  in.  Only  when  taken  in  conjunction 
with  the  Emperor's  later  measures  do  these  scattered  individual 
ordinances  give  a  complete  picture  of  his  economic  policy. 
Even  by  themselves,  however,  they  show  a  definite  tendency :  to 
seek  a  state  unity  even  in  commercial  affairs,  and  to  institute 


Ill 


128  SARACEN  CAMPAIGNS 

as  far  as  possible  a  state  trading-monopoly  with  the  outside 
world. 


The  Saracen  war  has  several  times  been  mentioned.  Frede 
rick  began  it  in  1222,  his  second  Sicilian  year.  It  was  not 
his  task  to  combat  an  independent  Muslim  amirate  dating  from 
the  days  of  the  Aghlabites,  who  had  from  Tunis  conquered 
Sicily  in  the  ninth  century  as  heirs,  in  the  second  degree,  of  the 
Phoenicians.  That  had  already  been  done  by  the  Normans. 
He  had  to  fight  the  scattered  remnants  of  originally  independent 
Saracens  who  still  maintained  themselves  in  the  inaccessible 
highlands  of  the  interior.  They  were  strengthened  by 
numerous  fugitives  from  Palermo,  who  with  a  few  of  their  big 
men  had  escaped  a  bloody  massacre  which  the  Christians  of  the 
capital  had  indulged  in  in  1 190.  Runaway  Saracen  serfs  joined 
them,  perhaps  some  clansmen  also  from  Africa  ;  be  that  as  it 
may,  they  constituted  a  very  considerable  power,  which  for 
decades  had  owned  allegiance  to  none,  and  had  gradually  got 
the  whole  centre  of  the  island  into  their  power. 

In  the  days  of  Pope  Innocent's  guardianship  these  Saracens, 
like  the  continental  knights  and  the  corsairs  of  the  coasts,  had 
been  redoubtable  foes  and  much-coveted  allies.  They  had 
been  uniformly  hostile  to  Frederick,  the  Pope's  ward,  and  in 
various  ways  had  more  than  once  sought  his  life.  Just  as  the 
Genoese  had  established  themselves  in  Syracuse,  the  Saracens 
had  made  themselves  a  base  at  Girgenti,  probably  in  order  to 
maintain  their  communications  with  Africa.  They  had  also 
taken  the  bishop  prisoner  and  driven  out  a  portion  of  the  popu 
lation,  and  had  finally  pursued  their  robber-raids  northwards 
almost  to  the  coast  as  far  as  Monreale  just  south  of  Palermo. 
A  struggle  with  them  was  inevitable,  for  the  Emperor's  writ  ran 
only  round  a  narrow  strip  of  coast. 

The  campaign  developed  into  a  weary  and  expensive  petty 
war  against  these  enemies  in  their  mountain  fastnesses.  The 
details  are  little  known.  At  the  very  outset,  in  the  first  summer, 
the  chief  Saracen  fortress  Yato  had  been  besieged  and  even 
temporarily  occupied.  The  Amir,  Ibn  Abbad,  had  abandoned 
all  hope  of  victory  and  had  set  out  with  his  sons  to  go  to 


SUBJUGATION  OF  SARACENS  129 

Frederick  and  sue  for  peace.  The  Emperor  was  in  the  highest 
degree  incensed  against  Ibn  Abbad — who  had  maltreated  some 
imperial  messengers.  So  enraged  was  he  that  a  scene  followed 
which  recalls  the  passionate  outburst  of  the  seven-year-old 
Frederick.  Ibn  Abbad  entered  the  imperial  tent  and  flung 
himself  at  the  Emperor's  feet ;  on  the  instant  Frederick  plunged 
his  spur  into  the  Amir  and  tore  his  side  open.  Frederick  had 
him  removed  from  the  tent  and  a  week  later  hanged  him  and 
his  sons  as  rebels.  Two  merchants  from  Marseilles  who  hap 
pened  to  be  captured  at  the  same  time  as  the  Amir  shared  his 
fate.  Ten  years  before  they  had  hawked  boys  and  girls  of  the 
Children's  Crusade  in  the  slave  markets  of  Tunis  and  Cairo, 
and  had  now  been  just  in  the  act  of  betraying  Frederick  to 
the  Amir. 

After  this  initial  success  the  Emperor  spent  the  winter  in 
continental  Sicily.  But  the  garrison  he  had  sent  to  Yato  was 
betrayed  and  massacred  by  the  Muslims  to  the  last  man,  and 
the  Admiral,  Henry  of  Malta,  who  had  been  left  in  charge  of 
the  island  had  been  powerless  to  prevent  another  rally  of  the 
Saracens.  The  Admiral's  excuse  that  his  forces  had  been  too 
small  to  risk  an  attack  was  rejected.  He  fell  into  disfavour  and 
forfeited  Malta.  Later  Frederick  restored  him  again  to  favour 
and  gave  back  his  possessions — all  but  the  fortress  of  Malta. 
Frederick  had  to  re-open  the  Saracen  war  next  summer,  for  its 
continuation  was  imperative.  By  a  raid  on  the  islands  of  North 
Africa,  in  which  the  fleet  was  employed  for  the  first  time  as  a 
fighting  force,  Frederick  sought  to  sever  communication  with 
Africa  and  establish  the  imperial  authority  there.  In  spite  of 
this  and  further  successes  the  Emperor  was  compelled  for  many 
years  to  come  to  keep  imperial  troops  in  the  island,  and  the  war 
flared  up  again  from  time  to  time,  but  the  outbreaks  were  always 
of  short  duration. 

Such  is,  in  brief,  the  tale  of  the  subjugation  of  the  Saracens 
of  Sicily,  of  which  all  the  chroniclers  speak  with  admiration. 
The  most  amazing  thing  is  Frederick's  method  of  dealing  with 
the  situation.  After  the  second  campaign  the  Emperor  decided 
to  remove  as  many  Saracens  as  possible  from  the  island.  They 
gave  no  peace  in  the  mountains  of  Sicily ;  he  transplanted 
them  to  the  plains  of  Apulia.  Some  16,000  Muslims,  in  the 


130  FOUNDATION  OF  LUCERA  m 

beginning  mostly  agricultural  serfs — all  Muslims  were  in  any 
case  slaves  of  the  king,  servi,  just  as  were  the  Jews — were 
gradually  transferred  to  Lucera,  which  was  transformed  into  a 
military  colony.  The  town  thus  resumed  its  original  function  : 
for  in  the  oldest  Roman  times  Lucera  had  been  a  military  colony. 
It  lay  in  the  Capitanata  near  Monte  Gargano  and  Foggia,  the 
favourite  dwelling-place  of  Kaiser  Frederick  in  later  days. 
During  Hohenstaufen  times  it  had  sunk  into  a  half-depopulated 
town  of  the  demanium.  Frederick  soon  strengthened  Lucera 
with  a  large  imperial  fortress,  and  here  the  Muslims  lived 
entirely  amongst  their  own  kind.  They  had  their  own  chief, 
the  Qa'id,  with  their  own  Shaikhs  and  Faqihs.  Thus  there  grew 
up  in  the  heart  of  the  oldest  Christian  country  near  the  frontier 
of  the  papal  patrimonium  a  genuine  Muhammadan  town  with 
all  its  characteristic  mosques  and  minarets,  visible  afar  across 
the  levels  of  Apulia.  The  duty  of  the  new  inhabitants  was  to 
cultivate  the  neglected  land,  and  they  proved  remunerative 
citizens  also  through  the  special  taxes  imposed  on  Muslims  :  a 
poll-tax,  jizya,  for  toleration  of  their  faith,  and  the  terragium, 
for  enjoyment  of  the  soil.  Frederick  transported  to  Lucera 
all  the  Saracen  serfs  on  whom  he  could  lay  hands,  whether  they 
had  fought  against  him  or  not,  and  the  landowners  of  the  island 
were  thus  robbed  of  labour.  To  replace  this  the  Emperor  sent 
them  the  exiled  citizens  of  Celano,  and  later  some  people  from 
Lombardy,  but  these  probably  did  not  suffice  to  make  up 
the  deficiency.  The  Emperor,  however,  needed  labour  for  his 
extensive  domains  more  than  anyone  else  could.  Moreover,  he 
had  another  and  far  more  important  use  for  his  Lucera  colonists. 
These  peaceful  agriculturists  could  leap  in  a  moment  to  their 
home-made  arms,  bows  and  arrows,  and  take  the  field  as  an 
ever-ready  military  force.  They  could  serve  as  light  infantry 
or,  with  no  change  of  weapons,  as  light-armed  cavalry,  drawing 
their  excellent  horses  from  their  own  studs.  It  was  an  extra 
ordinarily  dangerous  troop,  obeying  the  Emperor  alone,  un 
heeding  the  Pope  or  his  ban,  whom  Frederick  thus  collected 
round  him.  He  succeeded  in  an  incredibly  short  time  in 
changing  the  savage  hate  of  the  conquered  into  that  fanatical 
devotion  which  the  Oriental  is  ready  to  bestow  on  the  master 
who  protects  him,  the  lord  of  whom  he  is  the  slave.  In  later 


TOLERATION  OF  MUSLIMS  131 

years  Frederick  never  felt  so  safe  as  among  his  Saracens,  and  it 
was  a  Saracen  bodyguard  who  permanently  watched  over  this 
German  emperor  or — as  they  called  him  in  Lucera — this 
11  Sultan."  There  were  always  numerous  Saracen  servants  in 
Frederick's  household,  while  in  the  imperial  quarters  in  Lucera, 
the  notorious  "  harem/'  the  industrious  Saracen  maidens  had 
to  weave  and  work  for  their  master. 

It  is  impossible  to  withhold  admiration  from  the  wisdom  with 
which  Frederick — still  scarcely  thirty — knew  how  to  tackle  all 
the  forces  of  opposition,  and  liberate  their  hidden  strength  for 
the  benefit  of  the  state.  No  material  came  amiss  to  his  hand. 
He  had  in  him  more  than  a  little  of  an  Eastern  despot,  hence 
this  idea  of  transplanting  the  Saracens,  cutting  them  adrift  from 
all  connection  with  their  past,  demonstrating  to  them  that 
they  were  wholly  dependent  on  their  master  for  weal  or  woe. 
Finally,  taking  advantage  of  their  resignation,  their  natural  joy 
in  servitude,  he  cultivated  in  them  systematically  a  fanatical 
devotion  to  his  person .  This  is  the  constantly  recurring  principle 
in  the  East,  which  reached  its  culmination  in  the  Janissaries  of 
the  Osmanli  Sultans. 

It  can  easily  be  surmised  that  this  Muslim  colony  in  the 
middle  of  a  Christian  country  was  a  rock  of  offence  to  the 
Church — a  matter  of  complete  indifference  to  Frederick.  For 
he  had  in  his  Saracens  what  no  other  western  monarch  of 
the  day  could  boast :  a  standing  army,  a  body  of  men  ever 
ready  for  action,  unreservedly  devoted  to  him  as  the  protector 
of  their  faith.  This  was  the  tie  which  bound  the  Saracens  to 
Frederick  II.  Exiles  as  they  were  in  a  foreign  land,  they  found 
protection  for  their  faith  in  him  alone.  Frederick  was  careful 
not  to  loose  the  bond.  The  last  thing  he  desired  was  their 
conversion  to  Christianity.  Only  for  a  very  short  time,  at  a 
moment  of  acute  tension  in  his  relations  with  the  Pope,  did 
he,  most  reluctantly,  give  permission  to  a  few  Dominicans  to 
undertake  a  mission  in  Lucera.  It  was  scarcely  necessary, 
he  added,  for  a  few  of  them  were  already  converts.  The  con 
version  of  the  Muslims  had  another  disadvantage  from  his 
point  of  view — he  lost  the  poll-tax.  Muhammad's  own  hordes 
of  Arabs  had,  for  the  same  good  reason,  looked  on  it  with  no 
great  enthusiasm  when  the  conquered  embraced  Islam.  The 


132  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE  m 

whole  idea  of  a  poll-tax  on  unbelievers  was  an  inheritance  which 
Sicily  owed  to  the  Saracens. 

The  deportation  of  the  Saracens  had  as  a  consequence  the 
purging  of  Sicily  from  "  heathen  and  heathen  households,"  as 
a  chronicler  expressly  remarks.  Frederick  was  the  first  who, 
by  this  weeding  out  of  the  Muhammadans,  made  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily  almost  uniformly  Christian — with  the  exception  of  a 
few  Jews.  The  Greeks  counted  only  as  schismatics.  This 
cleared  the  way  for  a  new  development :  the  conceptions  of 
purity  of  faith  and  purity  of  race,  topics  on  which  Frederick 
later  found  remarkable  things  to  say.  His  Saracen  war  was  the 
end  of  the  struggle  with  Islam  on  Italian  soil.  The  only  spot 
in  Europe  in  which  the  faith  of  Muhammad  still  flourished  was 
Spain. 


In  less  than  three  years  Frederick  II  had  thus  converted  the 
Sicilian  chaos  into  some  semblance  of  a  state.  His  methods 
and  his  weapons  had  varied  with  the  adversary ;  more  un 
scrupulous  than  the  shifty  barons,  politically  more  far-sighted 
than  the  coast  towns,  or  at  least  fully  their  equal.  The  goal 
was  always  the  same  :  the  abolition  of  unjust  privilege  in  favour 
of  national  unity.  Here  for  the  first  time  we  note  the  uncom 
promising  directness  of  Frederick's  action  ;  he  always  chose 
the  shortest  road  through  the  jungle  ;  the  immediate  practical 
need  of  the  state  was  his  guide  and  over-rode  all  moral,  senti 
mental  or  other  considerations  whatsoever. 

A  highly  important  institution  owed  its  foundations  to  state 
necessity.  The  rough  work  was  hardly  complete  when 
Frederick  issued,  in  the  spring  of  1224,  the  edict  that  called 
the  University  of  Naples  into  being.  At  the  Diet  of  Capua  the 
Emperor  had  most  sternly  forbidden  lay  or  clerical  nobles  to 
administer  justice  themselves  or  empower  others  to  do  so.  It 
was  the  Emperor's  business,  and  his  alone,  to  set  up  justices  and 
courts  of  law.  The  justices'  business  was  to  provide  them 
selves  with  such  legal  knowledge  as  was  necessary  for  the  ad 
ministration  of  the  law.  The  University  of  Naples  was  now 
created  to  supply  them  with  such  knowledge. 
The  Emperor  stated  most  explicitly  in  the  charter  of  the 


1224  UNIVERSITY  OF  NAPLES  133 

university  that  its  first  function  was  to  train  shrewd  and  intelli 
gent  men  for  the  imperial  service  ;  men  to  whom  the  practice 
of  the  law  could  be  entrusted  throughout  the  kingdom.  It  was 
not  Frederick's  way  to  do  things  by  halves  ;  he  established  not 
only  a  Law  School  in  Naples  but  a  studium  generate  which 
embraced  every  sort  of  intellectual  training,  including  medi 
cine,  on  the  model  of  the  adjacent  Salerno.  Naples  thus 
became  the  first  utilitarian  State  University,  distinguished  from 
all  existing  high  schools  and  Church  universities  by  the  fact 
that  teaching  was  to  be  carried  out  not  for  the  sake  of  know 
ledge  merely  but  for  the  advantage  of  the  state,  that  it  was  to 
be  a  nursery  for  imperial  officials  and  not  for  priests.  There 
had  hitherto  been  no  demand  for  such  a  school :  counts  and 
bishops  had  sufficed  to  supervise  the  country,  of  whom  we 
may  state  Barbarossa's  two  paladins  to  be  characteristic  types  : 
Otto  of  Wittelsbach  and  Archbishop  Reginald  of  DasseL 
Frederick  IFs  state  was  the  first  to  feel  the  need  of  enlisting 
intellectual,  well-educated  laymen,  skilled  in  the  law,  to  under 
take  the  administration.  Alongside  Church  universities  and 
town  universities  there  now  springs  up  this  university  whose 
teachers  are  appointed  and  paid  by  the  state.  Clearly  the  new 
university  was  founded  with  one  fighting  front  towards  the 
Church  and  one  towards  Bologna.  Frederick  had  from  of  old 
great  respect  and  affection  for  Bologna  and  had  no  wish  to 
injure  it  by  competition,  but  he  was  anxious  to  protect  his 
budding  officials  from  the  rebellious,  free-thinking  atmosphere 
of  the  north  Italian  communes,  for  which  he  had  less  than  no 
sympathy.  So  Naples  was  to  educate  and  train  men  who 
would  be  not  only  intellectually  equal  to  Church  and  commune, 
but  who  should  embody  the  exactly  opposite  spirit  to  that 
animating  the  two  powers  who  were  ultimately  to  prove 
Frederick's  deadly  enemies,  and  who  even  thus  early  were 
causing  him  uneasiness. 

Apart  from  these  larger  issues  the  foundation  of  this  univer 
sity  was  justified  by  domestic  considerations.  Frederick  was 
determined  forcibly  to  win  control  over  men's  minds  and  bring 
them  within  the  unity  of  the  state.  The  charter  states  that  the 
courses  of  general  study  shall  be  so  organised  that  those 
who  hunger  and  thirst  after  wisdom  may  find  what  they 


134  AMENITIES   OF  NAPLES  in 

seek  within  the  kingdom  itself,  and  need  not  be  forced  to  leave 
the  country  to  pursue  their  studies  abroad.  The  scholars  will 
be  released  from  long  journeyings  and  free  to  study  under  their 
parents'  eyes.  Frederick  forthwith  ordained — to  make  it  clear 
to  students  that  they  had  in  no  wise  the  option  of  accepting  or 
rejecting  the  Emperor's  benevolence — that  in  future  no  Sicilian 
subject  might  attend  any  university  other  than  that  of  Naples, 
and  those  Sicilians  at  present  studying  elsewhere  must  transfer 
their  work  to  Naples  before  a  certain  date.  The  first  object 
of  this  ordinance  was  to  ensure  for  the  newly-founded  univer 
sity,  which  had  behind  it  no  long  and  gradual  development, 
the  greatest  possible  number  of  students.  To  the  same  end 
Frederick  sought  to  entice  foreigners  to  Naples  by  every  means 
in  his  power.  All  inhabitants  of  the  Roman  Empire  were 
permitted  to  study  at  the  Emperor's  university  which  he  had 
founded  in  "pleasant  Naples";  lodgings,  security,  money 
advances,  cheap  living  conditions,  everything  had  been  pro 
vided  for  ;  the  country  had  abundant  supplies  of  corn  and  wine, 
meat  and  fish.  A  highly-qualified  teaching  staff  was  assembled 
in  Naples,  for  the  Emperor  had  appointed  his  judge,  Roifredo 
of  Benevento,  and  several  other  eminent  men,  professors  at  the 
new  university.  All  other  universities  being  out  of  bounds  for 
his  subjects,  Frederick's  new  creation  at  once  enjoyed  a  mono 
poly;  no  one  in  the  kingdom  might  undertake  to  teach  any 
subject  taught  at  the  university.  Any  existing  schools  of  this 
sort  were  closed. 

A  further  consideration  underlies  all  these  arrangements. 
However  much  the  Emperor  rejoiced  in  the  "joy  of  the  road  " 
that  possessed  the  wandering  scholars  in  the  Empire,  he  had 
no  sympathy  or  patience  with  it  in  his  kingdom.  Wandering 
knights,  wandering  scholars,  and  even  wandering  singers  "  who 
with  ribald  songs  disturb  the  Emperor's  peace  "  had  no  legiti 
mate  place  in  his  concentrated,  severely-organised  society.  As 
far  therefore  as  lay  in  his  power  he  cut  their  wanderings 
short,  unless  they  were  directly  employed  in  his  own  service. 
Frederick's  intention  was,  by  his  university,  to  retain  in  the 
country  the  best  brains  it  possessed,  to  educate  them  in  his  own 
spirit,  free  from  outside  distractions,  and  to  enlist  their  un 
limited  and  undivided  devotion  in  his  service  and  the  state's. 


TRANSFORMATION  OF  SICILY  135 

It  was  his  task  to  see  that  Sicily  herself  offered  to  his  subjects 
all  that  they  had  hitherto  gone  abroad  to  seek.  Frederick 
was  as  thorough  in  this  as  in  his  other  enterprises  ;  he  is  the 
first  Emperor  who  consciously  and  deliberately  set  himself  to 
establish  an  empire  over  the  minds  of  men. 

Frederick  II  had  thus  rapidly  tackled  every  department  of 
life  in  his  state  and  had  left  his  mark  upon  them  all.  There 
was  to  be  practically  no  activity  which  did  not  emanate  from 
him,  and  none  which  did  not  in  its  turn  advantageously  react 
upon  the  state.  The  feudal  system  had  become  static  :  the 
more  important  nobility  were  in  the  direct  service  of  the  Em 
peror  ;  the  castles  had  become  national  fortresses  ;  trade  had 
been  to  a  large  extent  nationalised  ;  markets  and  fairs  reduced 
in  number  and  concentrated  ;  a  stately  fleet  created,  in  com 
parison  with  which  private  merchant  ships  were  almost  negli 
gible  ;  unity  of  faith  had  been  approximately  achieved  ;  the 
Saracens  herded  into  one  single  colony  ;  a  standing  army 
established  ;  independent  justice  assured  ;  and  now,  finally, 
those  halls  of  learning  opened  which  would  spread  the  imperial 
spirit  and  attract  collaborators.  It  was  no  small  achievement 
for  a  man  of  thirty,  and  all  had  been  accomplished  with  joy  and 
zest,  almost  in  play,  on  the  basis  of  one  single  law.  All  had 
been  set  in  motion  almost  simultaneously  ;  indeed  only  the 
immediate  successful  interlocking  of  the  various  cogs  made  the 
wheels  turn.  Only  one  power,  not  a  Sicilian  but  a  world 
power,  the  Church,  still  resisted  every  onslaught  of  Frederick's. 


For  some  years  Frederick  had  worn  the  imperial  crown,  but 
his  achievements  had  been  confined  to  one  relatively  restricted 
sphere  :  he  had  been  playing  the  king  only,  and  though  these 
kingly  deeds  would  presently  serve  the  Emperor  they  had 
not  yet  assumed  any  importance  for  Christendom  at  large. 
Frederick  could  already,  as  Roman  emperor,  hold  the  balance 
even  against  a  world  power  like  Church  and  Pope,  but  before 
he  could  seriously  challenge  it  he  must  himself  become  a 
"  world  power  "  too.  This  position  could  not  be  achieved  all 
in  a  moment,  nor  could  Frederick  in  his  progress  have  over 
leaped  the  king  stage.  Pope  Honorius  still  wrote  to  him  during 


136  DISASTER  OF  DAMIETTA  ni 

these  years  that  he  was  overlooking  occasional  trespasses  as 
natural  to  "  the  fiery  spirit  of  your  youth,"  by  which  phrase  he 
drew  the  sting  from  Frederick's  attacks.  The  political  relation 
was  parallel  to  the  human.  Frederick  had  not  yet  got  a  unified, 
consolidated  World  Empire  to  oppose  to  the  World  Church. 
The  Empire  was  still  in  the  making.  Frederick  had  only 
mediate  authority  in  Germany,  and  had  not  even  shown  himself 
there  since  his  formal  coronation  in  Rome.  He  had  indeed 
conquered  Sicily,  but  the  fruits  of  his  new  constitution  had 
naturally  not  yet  been  harvested.  He  had  not  even  tackled 
imperial  Italy.  So  every  attempt  he  made  to  exercise  definite 
pressure  on  the  Church  was  doomed  as  yet  to  failure,  though 
he  was  able  successfully  to  best  her  in  diplomacy — no  con 
temptible  achievement.  He  had  not  yet  redeemed  his  cru 
sader's  vow  and  had  been  able,  again  and  yet  again,  to  postpone 
the  date  of  his  departure  and  gain  time  for  his  Sicilian  reforms. 
Many  circumstances  had  favoured  him. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  coronation  Frederick  had  promised 
to  start  on  the  Crusade  in  the  late  summer  of  1221.  He  had 
only  sent  two  imperial  squadrons  to  Damietta  under  Admiral 
Henry  of  Malta  and  the  ex-Chancellor  Walter  of  Palear,  now 
Bishop  of  Catania  ;  he  himself  remained  at  home.  The  im 
perial  reinforcements  arrived  in  Egypt  too  late,  mistakes  were 
made,  the  catastrophe  of  the  Nile  delta  was  not  to  be  averted. 
Without  waiting  for  the  reinforcements,  and  with  wholly  in 
adequate  means,  the  crusaders  had  advanced  up  the  Nile  from 
Damietta  to  conquer  Cairo.  The  Nile  was  just  beginning 
to  rise.  The  Egyptians  breached  the  dams,  and  finally  the 
Christian  army  had  to  capitulate  and  surrender  Damietta. 
The  Emperor's  presence  would  have  been  of  no  avail. 

All  Christendom  was  affected  by  the  defeat  of  the  crusading 
army ;  most  heavily  of  all  Pope  Honorius,  who  had  himself 
initiated  the  Crusade.  Frederick  II  was  not  unaffected  by  the 
failure  either.  His  correspondence  and  some  meetings  with 
Pope  Honorius  had  reference  to  the  events  in  the  East. 
New  extensive  preparations  were  agreed  upon,  arrangements 
for  which  made  further  postponement  inevitable,  and  this 
in  turn  secured  further  respite  for  Frederick  IFs  work  in 
Sicily. 


1225  SAN  GERMANO  137 

He  pleaded,  not  without  justification,  that  he  was  waging 
war  against  the  infidel  Saracen  just  as  much  in  Sicily  as  in  the 
Holy  Land.  Fresh  recruiting  for  the  Crusade  must  be  begun 
(Hermann  of  Salza  undertook  it  for  Germany)  and  for  three 
successive  years  laymen  and  clerics  had  to  submit  to  extra 
ordinary  taxes  for  the  new  enterprise.  Success  was  every 
where  slight,  Crusade-enthusiasm  seemed  to  have  evaporated 
for  ever,  protracted  preparations  were  needed.  The  reports 
sent  by  the  German  Grand  Master,  and  corroborated  by 
others,  at  last  convinced  Honorius  of  the  general  apathy 
and  discontent,  and  he  decided  to  grant  Frederick  a  further 
respite  till  1227.  This  was  agreed  on  at  San  Germano  in 
1225  and  laid  down  in  a  treaty  after  earlier  conferences  on 
Eastern  affairs  between  Pope  and  Emperor  (in  1222  at  Veroli, 
in  1223  at  Ferentino).  At  each  of  these  meetings  Frederick 
had  succeeded  in  winning  a  further  delay,  which,  in  the  cir 
cumstances,  the  Pope  was  unable  to  refuse.  Pope  Honorius 
showed  considerable  annoyance,  which  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  for  the  Crusade  was  the  very  breath  of  his  nostrils  to  this 
ailing,  aged  man. 

The  San  Germano  agreement  gave  Honorius  the  necessary 
securities  for  the  ultimate  undertaking  of  the  Crusade,  but  he 
had  the  vexation  of  seeing  the  whole  organisation  of  it  slip  from 
the  fingers  of  the  papal  Curia  and  pass  into  the  Emperor's  hands 
— where  many  people  thought  it  should  have  rested  all  along. 
The  conditions  of  the  agreement  were  certainly  not  light,  for 
Frederick  shouldered  sole  and  only  responsibility.  It  is  a  testi 
mony  to  the  capacity  of  his  kingdom  that  he  swore  on  his  soul 
to  set  out  for  the  Holy  Land  in  August  1227  with  1000  knights  ; 
to  maintain  this  force  there  for  two  years  ;  to  hold  ships  in 
readiness  for  the  transport  of  a  further  2000,  each  knight  with 
his  following  and  three  horses.  He  promised  finally  before 
crossing  over  to  deposit  in  five  instalments  100,000  ounces  of 
gold  (about  quarter  of  a  million  sterling)  to  be  forfeited  for  the 
cause  of  the  Holy  Land  if  for  any  reason  the  Emperor  failed  to 
go  on  the  Crusade.  Hermann  of  Salza  was  to  be  the  trustee 
for  this  immense  sum.  Apart  from  the  money  penalty  the 
Emperor  declared  himself  ready  to  incur  the  papal  ban  as  a 
dilatory  crusader  if  he  failed  to  start  on  the  appointed  date  or 


138          "THE  SWORD  OF  THE  CHURCH"  in 

in  any  other  way  played  false,  and  he  allowed  the  ban  to  be 
provisionally  suspended  over  him. 

In  spite  of  these  heavy  commitments  the  Emperor  was  the 
gainer.  He  had  again  secured  two  years5  respite  for  Sicily  and 
could  turn  the  Crusade  to  imperial  advantage.  Frederick's 
present  complaisance  obliterated  for  the  moment  the  annoy 
ances  of  the  last  five  years.  In  his  first  meeting  with  the  Pope 
in  1222  the  Emperor  seems  to  have  sought  to  get  back  into  his 
power  by  some  means  or  other  the  old  imperial  territories  of 
central  Italy,  the  "  Recuperations  "  which  he  had  been  com 
pelled  to  renounce  in  favour  of  the  Church.  He  coveted  in 
particular  Spoleto  and  the  Ancona  March.  Pope  and  Cardinals 
incontinently  refused  what  the  Pope  termed  "  these  unseemly 
requests."  This  central  Italian  complex  of  territory  cut  Frede 
rick's  empire  in  half,  and  drove  a  wedge  between  Sicily  and 
imperial  Italy.  It  was  an  unendurable  thorn  in  Frederick's 
side,  and  sooner  or  later  the  question  would  have  to  be  thrashed 
out.  Frederick  absolutely  needed  at  least  the  Adriatic  coast 
districts,  the  March  and  Spoleto,  as  a  corridor  between  Sicily 
and  Lombardy.  The  time  for  forcible  annexation  had,  how 
ever,  not  yet  come  and  Frederick  had  prematurely  disclosed 
his  plans.  The  Roman  Curia  was  on  the  gui  vive.  Not  long 
after  this  the  imperial  governor,  Gunzelin  of  Wolfenbuttel, 
committed  certain  encroachments,  drove  out  papal  officials  and 
demanded  that  people  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Emperor.  In  vain  the  Emperor  protested  his  innocence  and 
declared  that  the  Governor  had  exceeded  his  instructions  ;  his 
assurances  fell  on  deaf  ears.  Nothing  short  of  the  disgrace  of 
Gunzelin  and  the  intercession  of  Hermann  of  Salza  sufficed. 
With  that  the  storm  blew  over. 

The  heavy  obligations  which  Frederick  had  assumed  at  San 
Germane  were  in  the  spirit  of  his  original  vow  :  the  Emperor 
was  the  Sword  of  the  Church  and  the  Leader  of  Christendom, 
and  on  him  fell  by  right  the  conduct  of  the  Crusade.  Other 
reasons  were  operative  as  well.  The  Empress  Constance  had 
died  in  1222  in  Catania.  Frederick  acceded  to  a  wish  of  the 
Pope  and  of  the  German  Grand  Master,  and  in  order  "  the  better 
to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Holy  Land  "  declared  himself  ready 
to  contract  a  fresh  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  King  John  of 


NOV.  1225         ISABELLA  OF  JERUSALEM  139 

Jerusalem.  The  intention  of  the  Curia  was  to  strengthen  the 
Emperor's  connection  with  Jerusalem,  and  the  plan  was  suc 
cessful.  Isabella  of  Jerusalem  was  penniless,  but  she  brought 
as  her  dowry  the  sceptre  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  lustre  this 
would  lend  the  Empire  was  unique. 

The  hereditary  succession  of  the  Syrian  kingdom  was  such 
that  on  the  death  of  her  mother  Isabella  became  the  heir ; 
while  her  father,  Count  John  of  Brienne,  merely  bore  the 
honorary  title  of  king.  The  marriage  was  celebrated  in 
Brindisi  in  the  beginning  of  November  1225,  and  the  barest 
recitation  of  the  events  flashes  a  momentary  light  on  the 
glamour  and  the  glory  of  crusading  times.  The  Emperor  sent 
a  squadron  of  ships  with  his  notables  to  Acre,  and  there  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Cross  the  princess  was  solemnly  betrothed, 
to  the  wonderment  of  all,  to  the  absent  Emperor,  whose  ring 
was  placed  on  her  finger  by  a  Sicilian  bishop.  In  Tyre  the 
bride  received  from  the  hands  of  the  Patriarch  the  crown  of  the 
Holy  Land,  and  the  Knights  of  Jerusalem  did  homage  to  their 
Queen.  The  Franco-Syrian  child  of  fourteen,  escorted  by  a 
knight  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  embarked  on  the  imperial  galley 
and  sailed  across  the  sea  to  wed  the  Emperor  of  the  West.  The 
poets  of  the  day  could  not  resist  a  theme  so  ready  to  their  hand  ; 
the  German  epic  Ortnit  makes  this  Syrian  bridal — adorned  with 
many  a  fable,  worked  up  almost  into  a  fairy  tale — the  centre  of 
the  plot,  while  other  touches  hint  at  Frederick's  story.  The 
hero  after  many  adventures  wins  his  Syrian  bride — a  worshipper 
of  Apollo  and  Muhammad — but  not  without  the  help  of 
Zacharias  the  King  of  the  Sicilian  Saracens,  the  "  wise  heathen 
of  Apulia."  A  thread  of  chivalrous  romance — hard  to  reconcile 
in  appearance  with  the  sober,  statesmanlike  sense  of  the  Sicilian 
autocrat — runs  through  the  whole  life  of  this  last  Hohenstaufen, 
who  must  in  person  have  lived  through  all  the  saga  episodes 
of  the  medieval  world  of  knights.  If  one  sought  out  and  wove 
together  the  marvellous  adventures  of  the  imperial  story,  as 
reported  in  history  and  in  legend,  the  tale  would  be  the  typical 
biography  of  a  crusading  knight  as  recounted  by  current 
romances. 

This  magic  spell  for  a  moment  hid  political  realities  ;  their 
recrudescence  marred  the  marriage  feast.  On  the  wedding  day 


140  JOHN  OF  JERUSALEM  in 

Frederick,  as  was  his  right,  adopted  the  title,  King  of  Jerusalem, 
which  appears  henceforth  in  all  his  documents  after  the  title  of 
Roman  Emperor,  and  before  that  of  Sicilian  King.  Imme 
diately  he  demanded  that  John  of  Brienne,  titular  King  of 
Jerusalem,  should  formally  renounce  his  royal  rights.  King 
John  was  a  personal  friend  of  Frederick's,  like  him  one  of  the 
earliest  poets  to  write  in  the  Italian  tongue.  He  had  been  for 
months  the  Emperor's  guest.  He  had  reckoned  on  being  at 
least  the  Viceroy  of  Jerusalem.  He  was  deeply  hurt,  and  after 
a  wordy  quarrel  with  the  Emperor  he  fled  to  Rome.  The 
Emperor  received  without  delay  the  homage  of  the  Syrian 
grandees.  Little  is  known  of  Isabella's  fate.  The  Emperor's 
quarrel  with  King  John  gave  rise  to  many  a  tale.  A  French 
man  relates  that  Frederick  spent  his  wedding  night  with  a 
Syrian  niece  of  King  John's,  beat  Isabella,  threw  her  into  prison 
and  never  went  near  her.  But  facts  give  this  tale  the  lie. 
Frederick  assigned  the  castle  of  Terracina  near  Salerno  to  his 
consort,  and  took  her  with  him  to  Sicily.  The  young  girl 
certainly  exercised  no  influence  on  Frederick,  and  she  died  in 
1228  at  the  birth  of  her  son  Conrad.  The  crown  of  Jerusalem 
had  suddenly  lent  a  tangible  political  value  to  the  Crusade  in 
Frederick's  eyes.  He  must  win  a  new  kingdom  in  the  East. 
State  and  personal  factors  were  thus  combined  ;  when  World 
Church,  World  Empire  and  World  Politics  were  intermingled 
the  Crusade  gained  in  importance.  Nothing  further  was  needed 
but  the  opportune  moment  to  achieve  success. 

Pope  and  Emperor,  being  in  the  matter  interdependent,  were 
in  the  main  at  one  about  the  Crusade,  though  it  was  inevitable 
that  misunderstandings  and  differences  should  arise  from  time 
to  time  in  the  intricate  negotiations  entailed.  On  both  sides 
every  effort  was  made  to  avoid  friction,  and  for  the  moment 
they  even  steered  clear  of  the  rock  of  the  "Recuperations.1' 
The  first  serious  conflicts  arose  over  Sicilian  questions,  for 
Frederick  in  the  new  organisation  of  his  state  began  to  regulate 
Church  matters  after  his  own  fashion.  At  the  Diet  of  Capua  he 
had  urged  on  his  subjects  the  punctual  payments  of  tithes  to  the 
Church.  Soon  after  he  revived  a  Norman  edict  which  forbade 
the  accumulation  of  lands  under  mortmain  :  churches  and 
monasteries  might  purchase  land  and  receive  it  as  gifts — later 


CLERICAL  ABUSES  141 

the  Emperor  forbade  this  also — but  they  must  part  with  it  again 
within  a  year  a  month  a  week  and  a  day,  otherwise,  as  Frederick 
later  expressed  it,  "  the  Church  would  ere  long  have  bought  up 
the  entire  kingdom."  These  laws  were  quite  customary  and 
roused  no  hostility  against  the  Emperor. 

Matters  assumed  a  different  complexion,  however,  when 
Frederick  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  Sicilian  episcopacy. 
He  was  always  ready  to  apply  the  surgeon's  knife  and  cauterising 
iron  to  get  rid  of  sores  and  ulcers — the  metaphor  was  a  favourite 
with  him — and  he  embarked  according  to  these  principles  on 
a  purification  of  the  Sicilian  clergy.  He  suspended  Bishop 
Arduin  of  Cefalu  for  his  general  conduct  in  squandering  Church 
property — the  records  of  the  trial  prove  that  the  accusations 
were  well  founded — and  soon  after  Archbishop  Nicholas  of 
Taranto  on  similar  grounds.  The  ex-Chancellor  Walter  of  Pa- 
lear,  Bishop  of  Catania,  whom  Frederick  had  mistrusted  of  old 
and  whom  he  had  sent  out  of  the  kingdom  ostensibly  with 
reinforcements  for  the  crusading  army,  did  not  venture  to  show 
his  face  again  in  Sicily.  He  went  from  Damietta  probably  first 
to  Rome  and  on  to  Venice,  where  he  finally  died,  it  was  said, 
in  utter  poverty.  The  irregularities  of  the  Sicilian  clergy  were 
probably  extreme :  Frederick  was  obliged  to  imprison  a  large 
number  of  the  inferior  clergy,  and  even  the  Pope  had  to  remove 
individual  bishops  such  as  those  of  Carinola  and  Squillace. 
The  bishops  deposed  by  Frederick  took  refuge  in  Rome,  which 
gradually  became  the  asylum  of  exiled  Sicilians.  In  addition 
to  the  three  bishops,  Count  Thomas  of  Molise  was  there, 
Roger  of  Aquila,  Jacob  of  San  Severino  and  the  other  barons, 
presumably  also  the  Count  of  Syracuse,  Alaman  da  Costa  and 
King  John  of  Jerusalem.  These  episodes  contributed  to 
Honorius's  irritation.  He  had  acquiesced  in  the  Emperor's 
proceedings  against  the  bishops  at  the  time,  but  they  did  not 
cease  to  rankle,  and  on  occasion  formed  a  subject  of  reproach. 
The  thing  that  ultimately  provoked  a  heated  correspondence  on 
both  sides  was  the  question  of  the  episcopal  elections  in  Sicily. 

It  has  already  been  explained  how  vital  was  the  so-called 
"  freedom  of  episcopal  elections."  One  further  consideration 
should  be  added :  at  the  same  moment  that  the  Curia  set  out 
to  tighten  up  the  relationship  between  itself  and  the  bishops 


i42  RISE  OF  NATIONALISM  m 

throughout  the  Christian  world,  and  convert  them  into  im 
mediate  dependants  of  the  Pope  and  his  direct  representatives, 
a  parallel  movement  was  at  work  in  the  West,  a  development 
of  strong  national  self-consciousness  in  the  various  countries. 
The  Church's  endeavour  to  subject  episcopacy  in  each  country 
to  the  direct  and  immediate  control  of  Rome  ran  violently 
counter  to  this  new  tendency  of  the  ancient  Roman  world  to 
resolve  itself  into  individual  nations. 

On  the  other  hand  it  also  stood  in  the  way  of  each  individual 
nation  as  it  strove  to  consolidate  itself  into  a  unified  state,  for 
everywhere  the  Church  was  a  "  state  within  a  state."  The 
more  because  she  was  in  no  wise  a  purely  spiritual  force,  but  a 
very  material  one,  endowed  with  land  and  possessions,  and  in 
the  most  important  matters  refusing  allegiance  to  the  state. 
This  situation  led  sooner  or  later  to  serious  friction  in  every 
country  in  Europe.  Things  came  to  a  head  in  Sicily  first, 
because  Frederick  II  was  not  only  King  of  Sicily  but  also 
Emperor.  As  Emperor  he  had  a  dual  role  to  sustain.  For  the 
preservation  of  world  unity  the  Church's  aims  were  the 
Emperor's,  for  the  Roman  Emperor  felt  himself  just  as  respon 
sible  for  the  oneness  of  the  world  as  any  Pope,  but  their  views 
diverged  in  this,  that  the  Emperor  fully  recognised  national 
individuality— nay ,  was  in  the  act  of  creating  a  new  and  well-knit 
nation.  Frederick's  dual  attitude  had  been  latent  from  the 
first ;  its  full  extent  began  to  be  revealed  when  the  evolution 
of  the  Sicilian  state  made  the  question  a  vital  one  for  him.  A 
permanent  conflict  that  haunted  Frederick  all  his  days  is  here 
seen  in  its  beginning  :  it  may  be  summed  up  in  the  formula 
"  an  empire — and  yet— nations.*'  A  tension  which  Dante  felt 
in  yet  acuter  form  :  "  individuals  and  yet  a  Roman  Empire/* 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  Germany,  where  national 
feeling  was  less  developed,  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  conflict 
with  Rome,  and  Frederick  was  content  to  leave  the  Curia  un 
molested  in  its  bishops'  elections.  But  in  Sicily,  where  he  was 
not  only  Emperor  but  King,  he  fought  the  Pope  most  strenuously. 
As  a  mere  boy  he  had  crossed  swords  with  Innocent  III  about 
the  Palermo  elections.  Episodes  of  this  sort  were  bound  to 
multiply  with  time,  and  a  glance  at  the  constitution  of  the 
Sicilian  Church  will  show  what  importance  these  elections 


BERARD  OF  PALERMO  143 

assumed  in  Sicily.  There  was  no  other  country  where  new 
elections  were  so  frequent,  for  this  tiny  land  boasted  zi  arch 
bishops  and  124  bishops.  The  disproportion  of  this  becomes 
more  manifest  when  we  realise  that  at  the  Lateran  Council  of 
1215,  which  was  graced  by  all  the  spiritual  dignitaries  in  Chris 
tendom,  105  out  of  405  participants  came  from  the  Sicilian 
kingdom.  The  enormous  number  of  archbishops  is  probably 
rightly  traced  to  the  Byzantine  influence  in  southern  Italy. 
The  Greek  archpriest  develops  into  the  Roman  archbishop, 
though  the  two  are  radically  different,  and  "archpriest"  con 
noted  no  more  than  a  priest  independent  of  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople.  Vacancies  occurred  in  Sicily  with  extra 
ordinary  frequency,  and  it  was  absolutely  vital  to  the  Emperor 
to  keep  his  bishoprics  in  trusty  hands,  that  the  bishops  might 
be  as  they  had  been  in  Norman  days,  organs  of  the  king  and 
of  the  state.  The  excessive  number  of  the  bishops  made  this 
in  one  way  easier  to  achieve.  The  Sicilian  bishop  was  not,  like 
his  German  brother,  a  mighty  prince  of  the  Empire,  holding 
extensive  territories,  but  of  humbler  status,  well  suited  to  be  a 
Church  or  state  official. 

The  episcopal  type  dear  to  Frederick's  heart  is  well  repre 
sented  by  the  Primate  of  the  Sicilian  Church,  Berard  of 
Castacca,  Archbishop  of  Palermo.  To  forestall  an  election 
squabble  with  Frederick,  over  Palermo,  Pope  Innocent  III  had 
entrusted  the  church  of  the  capital  to  Berard,  formerly  Arch 
bishop  of  Ban.  From  Frederick's  point  of  view  no  more 
fortunate  choice  could  have  been  made.  Archbishop  Berard 
of  Palermo  became  quite  indispensable  to  the  Emperor,  a  second 
Hermann  of  Salza.  He  had  not  the  statesmanship  of  the 
German  Grand  Master,  but  he  was  his  superior  in  learning  and 
culture.  He  enjoyed  the  respect  of  the  Roman  Curia  while 
being  whole-heartedly  devoted  to  the  Emperor.  Ultimately  no 
weighty  negotiation  with  the  Pope  could  be  conceived  in  which 
the  shrewd  and  reverend  prelate  did  not  represent  the  Emperor. 
There  was  indeed  no  weighty  event  of  any  kind  in  which 
Berard  had  not  his  share,  so  completely  did  he  command  the 
Emperor's  confidence.  The  services  he  rendered  are  innumer 
able.  Frederick  himself  wrote  "...  in  danger  of  every  sort 
he  stood  by  our  side  and  many  things  hath  he  endured  on  our 


144  SICILIAN  BISHOPS  in 

behalf."  Berard  was  one  of  the  few  churchmen  who  could 
breathe  the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  Frederick's  court  and 
was  able  to  hold  his  own  in  the  literary  activities  of  the  courtiers. 
Indeed  it  was  he  who  discovered  Piero  della  Vigna  and  brought 
him  to  the  imperial  court.  His  greatest  service,  however — and 
it  was  no  slight  one — was  that  he  lived  through  the  whole  of 
Frederick's  life  in  closest  proximity  with  him.  As  Bishop  of 
Bari  he  had  been  one  of  the  household  officers  of  the  boy  king, 
He  had  accompanied  him  on  his  adventurous  journey  to 
Germany.  It  was  on  Berard's  summons  that  the  Bishop  of 
Constance  had  opened  the  city  gates  ;  it  was  Berard  who  repre 
sented  Frederick  at  the  Lateran  Council.  He  lived  almost 
continuously  at  the  imperial  court,  and  was  destined  to  outlive 
his  master  and  administer  to  him  the  final  sacrament.  We  have 
no  detailed  knowledge  of  Berard's  personality — he  was  the 
Emperor's  instrument  and  clung  to  his  master  through  ban  and 
curse — but  as  the  faithful  and  honourable  priest  who  stood  by 
the  Emperor  from  his  boyhood  to  his  dying  bed  he  is  one  of  the 
most  human  of  the  secondary  figures  in  the  picture  of  Frederick's 
life.  No  astounding  achievement  immortalises  his  name  ;  it  is 
enough  that  when  great  deeds  were  doing  he  was  there. 

Such  will  be  roughly  the  type  of  prelate  which  Frederick  II 
liked  to  have,  and  there  always  were  a  considerable  number 
of  such  in  Sicily,  though  none  enjoyed  the  same  intimacy  as 
Berard  of  Palermo.  The  only  right  remaining  to  the  Emperor 
under  the  Concordat  was  that  of  choosing  such  adherents  for 
episcopal  vacancies — or  rather  of  giving  his  concurrence  only 
to  such  candidates.  The  Concordat  of  the  Empress  Constance 
had  reduced  the  King's  right  to  simple  concurrence  in  the  choice 
made  by  the  Chapter.  The  bishop  thus  chosen  by  the  Chapter 
and  confirmed  by  the  King  could  only  officiate  after  final  ap 
proval  by  the  Pope.  Even  this  meagre  privilege  of  the  King's 
was  further  whittled  away  by  the  Pope's  revival  of  an  ancient 
"  right  of  devolution."  According  to  this  a  vacancy  which 
lasted  over  six  months  entitled  the  Pope  to  fill  it  immediately 
himself,  without  reference  to  either  King  or  Chapter.  A 
favourite  practice  of  the  Roman  Curia  was  therefore  to  postpone 
on  the  flimsiest  pretexts  the  final  confirmation  of  the  bishop 
till  the  six  months  had  elapsed,  and  then  simply  to  appoint 


BITTERNESS   OVER  ELECTIONS  145 

another  man,  whom  neither  King  nor  Chapter  wanted,  but  who 
best  suited  Rome.  The  Emperor,  conversely,  sought  to  exceed 
his  rights,  and  by  promises  or  pressure  to  induce  the  Chapter 
to  choose  a  candidate  of  his  proposing,  an  imperial  physician 
it  might  be,  or  notary — a  procedure  which  the  Curia  did  not 
fail  to  challenge. 

Things  gradually  came  to  such  a  pass  that  the  mere  recom 
mendation  of  the  Emperor  damned  any  candidate  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Curia.  In  Capua,  for  instance,  a  certain  dean,  Hugo  by 
name,  had  been  unanimously  chosen  and  was  recommended  to 
the  Pope  by  Frederick — who  did  not  apparently  even  know  the 
man  personally — as  "  an  educated,  suitable  man  and  a  native 
of  the  country."  Thereupon  the  Pope  rejected  him. 

In  Nola  Master  Peronnus,  a  notary  of  the  Emperor's,  was 
chosen,  but  a  minority  dissented  and  his  appointment  was  not 
confirmed.  On  the  other  hand  the  long  vacancy  in  Salerno 
is  to  be  thus  explained :  Archbishop  Nicholas  of  Ajello  had 
proposed  his  own  successor.  Now  Nicholas  was  some  relation 
of  Count  Richard  of  Ajello,  no  great  friend  of  Frederick's,  and 
had  himself  been  an  adherent  of  Kaiser  Otto's  and  had  rebelled 
against  the  Law  of  Privileges.  He  had  therefore  fallen  into 
disfavour,  sufficient  grounds  for  Frederick  on  his  part  to  reject 
the  proposed  successor. 

In  Brindisi  matters  reached  a  climax.  The  unanimous  choice 
fell  on  a  notary  and  household  officer  of  the  Emperor's,  John 
of  Trajetto,  a  man  well  known  to  the  Roman  Curia.  Frederick 
had  exerted  himself  most  eagerly  to  secure  this  candidate's 
appointment  by  the  Pope,  had  even  sent  a  special  deputation 
to  Rome.  It  had,  however,  become  almost  a  point  of  honour 
at  Rome  to  reject  the  Emperor's  candidate.  Honorius  made  the 
excuse  of  a  technical  error  in  the  election — it  had  taken  place 
three  months  after  the  death  of  the  previous  incumbent — and 
refused  John  of  Trajetto  even  when  Frederick  wrote  again. 
A  similar  state  of  affairs  prevailed  in  Aversa,  Acerno,  Sarno, 
Conza,  Bari  :  as  far  as  can  be  judged  the  Emperor  never  suc 
ceeded  in  carrying  the  day. 

Bitterness  increased  on  both  sides.  Honorius  reproached 
Frederick  with  interference  in  the  election  in  just  such  words 
as  Innocent  had  used  to  the  boy  of  years  ago  :  he  had  better 


146  SERIOUS   FRICTION  m 

be  warned  to  avoid  the  evil  practices  of  his  ancestors  whose 
trespasses  had  brought  it  about  that  he,  Frederick,  was  the  last 
scion  of  his  race.  The  Emperor  replied  that  Honorius  was 
seeking  his  destruction  :  this  papal  protection  was  not  protec 
tion  but  extinction.  With  extreme  incisiveness  he  declared 
that  if  the  Pope  would  not  confirm  in  office  the  bishops  nomi 
nated  by  the  Emperor  he  might  save  himself  the  trouble  of 
sending  other  persons  as  bishops  into  the  Sicilian  kingdom,  for 
the  Emperor  on  his  side  would  henceforth  refuse  to  receive  the 
men  chosen  by  the  Pope.  He  would  give  orders  to  close  not 
only  the  churches  but  the  towns  against  them.  That  had  all 
the  ring  of  an  ultimatum,  yet  Honorius  did  not  so  interpret  it, 
but  turned  it  aside  with  the  comment  that  the  young  Emperor 
was  misled  by  evil  counsellors,  and  swept  off  his  feet  by  his 
own  youth.  Such  procedure,  however,  was  bound  to  cause 
unpleasantness.  He  requested  the  Emperor  to  apologise  for 
the  unseemly  utterances  of  his  messengers — by  which  was 
meant  the  unseemly  tenor  of  the  imperial  letter  itself.  Whether 
the  Pope  received  his  apology  or  not  we  do  not  know. 

The  Pope,  however,  set  about  filling  the  vacant  sees  after  a 
further  warning  to  Frederick  not  to  interfere  with  Church 
affairs — a  dangerous  thing  for  laymen.  Witness  the  Bible 
example  of  Uzzah  who  put  forth  his  hand  to  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant  of  the  Lord  when  the  oxen  shook  it  and  God  smote 
him  there  for  his  error  and  there  he  died  by  the  Ark  of  God. 
The  Pope  would  henceforth  appoint  his  own  shepherds  for  his 
flocks.  Even  when  the  persons  chosen  were  not  in  themselves 
unwelcome  to  Frederick — Marinus  Filangieri,  for  instance,  was 
a  brother  of  the  Emperor's  marshal  Richard  Filangieri — he 
nevertheless  forbade  their  admission.  The  correspondence 
between  Pope  and  Emperor  grew  steadily  more  hostile,  till  at 
last  the  hoarded  wrath  burst  forth  simultaneously  on  both  sides, 
just  at  the  moment  least  convenient  to  the  Emperor  when  he 
was  busy  restoring  order  in  Lombardy. 

Frederick's  early  days  were  not  to  pass  without  his  learning 
the  bitterness  of  his  other  enemies,  the  Lombard  towns,  for 
whom  he  was  as  yet  no  match — largely  because  the  Roman 
Curia  of  the  time  was  behind  the  Lombards. 


LOMBARD   SITUATION  147 

The  Treaty  of  San  Germane  had  granted  Frederick  two 
years'  respite  before  the  Crusade.  He  intended  to  utilise  this 
interval  to  round  off  all  Western  affairs  before  tackling  the 
problems  of  the  Orient.  The  reorganisation  of  Sicily  was 
already  more  or  less  complete,  and  German  problems  were  to 
be  regulated  at  a  Diet  which  Frederick  decided  to  hold  in 
Lombardy,  so  as  to  give  full  weight  to  his  imperial  authority  in 
those  regions.  He  therefore  invited  the  German  princes  and 
King  Henry  to  Cremona  for  Easter  1226,  "  and  if  you  come  for 
no  good  reason  but  to  see  ourself ,  ourself  will  be  well  pleased 
by  sight  of  you,"  so  he  concluded  his  letter  of  invitation.  The 
Court  agenda  mentioned  only  very  general  topics  :  Restoration 
in  Italy  of  Imperial  Rights  :  Eradication  of  Heresy  :  Prosecu 
tion  of  the  Crusade.  Frederick  particularly  stressed  the  last 
two  items,  which  concerned  Church  affairs.  Backed  by  the 
united  armed  forces  of  Germany  and  Sicily  he  had  good  hope 
of  finding  the  Lombards  docile  and  complacent. 

The  Lombards,  however,  had  unfortunately  noted  the  recent 
re-assertion  of  royal  rights  in  Sicily,  and  Frederick's  "  Restora 
tion  of  Imperial  Rights  "  rang  ominously  in  their  ears.  The 
normal  status  quo  for  Lombardy  was  laid  down  in  Barbarossa's 
Peace  of  Constance  dating  from  1183.  For  several  decades  no 
Emperor's  eye  had  been  upon  the  Lombard  towns,  and  there 
was  no  question  that  they  had  quietly  encroached  on  imperial 
properties  and  on  imperial  rights,  quite  as  seriously  as  the  minor 
powers  had  in  Sicily  usurped  royal  rights  and  property.  The 
Lombards  might  well  dread  another  Law  of  Privileges  with 
more  far-reaching  effects  than  the  Sicilian  one.  They  had  no 
wish  to  take  risks.  Exaggerated  reports  reached  them  of  the 
mighty  army  that  Frederick  was  gathering  for  his  Lombard 
Diet.  This  was  decisive.  With  quick  distrust  the  Lombards, 
under  the  leadership  of  Milan,  formed  themselves  into  a 
League  which  was  joined  by  the  majority  of  north  Italian 
communes. 

It  is  most  unlikely  that  Frederick  had  had  any  such  Law  of 
Privileges  in  mtnd,  for  he  was  well  aware  that  the  Lombard 
problem  was  very  different  from  the  Sicilian.  He  was  here 
opposed,  not  by  a  multitude  of  disconnected,  mutually  warring, 
minor  powers,  but  by  a  large  number  of  homogeneous  foes, 


148  MILAN  in 

territorial  powers  who,  not  unlike  the  German  princes,  would 
immediately  rally  to  a  common  banner  to  repulse  a  common 
enemy,  all  their  mutual  jealousies  and  squabbles  notwithstand 
ing.  The  Peace  of  Constance  did  not  forbid  a  union  of  the 
towns,  but  this  revival  of  the  ancient  Lombard  League  was  a 
manifest  act  of  hostility,  provoked  it  is  true  by  Frederick's 
attitude,  which  in  Lombard  politics  had  gradually  become  more 
and  more  obviously  that  of  a  partisan.  Lombardy  was  in  fact 
split  into  two  camps,  and  a  non-parry  Emperor  was  scarcely 
possible.  Traditional  as  well  as  personal  bias  determined  his 
choice  of  party. 

Cremona  and  Milan  strove  for  the  hegemony  of  Lombardy, 
just  as  Genoa  and  Pisa  disputed  the  supremacy  of  the  Medi 
terranean.    Milan  was  of  old  the  most  powerful  of  the  Lombard 
towns.    The  arrogance  of  the  bishops  who  sat  in  the  seat  of 
St.  Ambrose  rose  in  the  eleventh  century  to  actual  rivalry  with 
Rome,  as  Frederick  reminded  the  Romans,  to  spur  them  on  to 
humble  the  pride  of  Milan.    Milan,  moreover,  was  an  ancient 
coronation  town.    In  quite  recent  times  Henry  VI  had  worn 
there  the  crown  of  the  Italian  King.    The  people  of  Milan, 
with  justifiable  pridey  had  been  the  first  among  the  communes 
to  fight  for  freedom.    Here  for  the  first  time  the  burghers  and 
the  humbler  aristocracy  made  common  cause  against  the  Great, 
and  had  in  the  motta  *  achieved  municipal  unity.   Milan  was  the 
first  town  which  quite  early  dared  to  defy  imperial  authority. 
Having  once  talked  of  freedom,  Milan  under  its  consuls  strove 
for  political  independence  and  submitted  only  with  extreme 
distaste  to  any  law,  spiritual  or  temporal,  emanating  from  a 
higher  power.    This  attitude  on  the  part  of  its  powerful  citizens 
of  dual  rebellion — against  Church  and  Empire — made  Milan 
the  focus  of  heresy  and  insurrection.    Its  territories  were  the 
size  of  a  dukedom,  and  no  other  Lombard  town  could  compete 
with  it  in  wealth  or  power.    The  other  towns  also  early  de 
veloped  a  taste  for  freedom,  for  independence  and  for  territorial 
aggrandisement.    In  spite  of  endless  wars  amongst  themselves 
they  all  willingly  acknowledged  the  primacy  of  "  the  central 
town  "  if  outside  aggression  threatened  their  liberties  and  chal 
lenged  them  to  common  resistance.    This  did  not  preclude 

1  Motta  is  roughly :  the  revolutionary  popular  party. — Tr. 


CREMONA  149 

them  from  occasionally  banding  themselves  together  against  the 
oppressive  superiority  of  Milan,  or  even  lending  Barbarossa  a 
helping  hand  when  he  destroyed  the  town  in  1162.  Such  alli 
ances  between  the  towns  did  not  denote  any  dream  of  a  larger 
unity.  The  polis  was  all  in  all  to  the  Lombards  as  to  the 
Greeks,  and  this  narrow-minded  pre-occupation  with  solely 
municipal  affairs  militated  against  all  serious  political  thought, 
and  against  any  wish  to  subordinate  their  town  to  the  overlord- 
ship  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Not  all  the  towns,  however,  followed  Milan  ;   a  proportion 
held  to  Cremona.    Tacitus's  judgment  seemed  for  many  a 
long  day  to  hang  like  a  curse  over  this  town :   bellts  externis 
intacta,  civilibus  infeltx.    But  from  the  ninth  century  on  Cre 
mona  became  powerful  and  rich  and  her  ships  sailed  down  the 
Po  to  trade  with  Venice  and  even  directly  with  Byzantium. 
The  first  Italian  town  to  be  granted  a  town  charter,  as  far  as  is 
known,  was  Cremona,  and  since  then  the  burghers  whom 
Otto  III  protected  had  in  the  main  stood  by  the  Empire.    A 
hundred  years  later,  in  1098,  the  final  seal  was  put  for  all  time 
on  Cremona's  loyalty.    The  Margravine  Matilda,  who  had  hi 
her  lifetime  witnessed  the  great  Canossa  struggle,  threw  down 
an  apple  of  discord  between  Cremona  and  Milan  when  she 
amplified  a  gift  to  the  Cremonese  by  including  the  land  between 
the  Adda  and  the  Serio,  the  so-called  "  insula  Fulcherii,"  and 
the  town  of  Crema.    "  In  this  year  the  fight  for  Crema  began," 
declares  the  chronicler,  and  from  this  time  onwards  Cremona 
was  always  on  the  side  of  the  Emperors,  for  only  they  could 
secure  to  the  Cremonese  the  possession  of  the  bequest  by  pro 
tecting  them  against  Milan  who  also  laid  claim  to  Crema.     It 
was  important  therefore  for  the  Emperors  to  strengthen  the 
loyal  communes,  and  those  towns  which  from  time  to  time  for 
one  reason  or  another  were  enemies  of  Milan  or  of  Milan's 
satellites.    The  political  groupings  in  Lombardy  altered  often, 
and  altered  suddenly.    But  however  greatly  the  following  of 
the  two  rival  towns  might  change,  one  thing  remained  un 
changed  in  Lombardy  :  the  hate  between  Cremona  and  Milan. 
Frederick  II  had  to  take  up  his  position.    Two  ways  were 
theoretically  open  :  he  could  hold  himself  aloof  and  above  the 
quarrels  of  the  towns,  if  he  could  have  found  a  formula  to 


150  "ABHORRED   FREEDOM "  m 

satisfy  all  rivals,  and  thus  have  won  the  Lombard  towns  for 
himself.  This  might  in  fact  have  been  possible  if  Frederick 
instead  of  ever  and  again  seeking  reconciliation  with  the  aristo 
cratic  Church  had  made  common  cause  with  the  Lombards 
against  the  common  enemy — the  papacy.  But  an  alliance  of 
the  Empire  with  the  tiers  etat  against  the  clergy — in  other 
spheres  the  greatest  of  Frederick's  great  achievements — had  for 
many  reasons  not  yet  risen  above  the  Hohenstaufen's  horizon  in 
the  sphere  of  world  politics.  So  only  the  second  path  lay  open  : 
to  take  sides  ;  to  espouse  the  cause  of  Cremona,  and  with  her 
help  and  her  allies,  in  addition  to  the  resources  of  Sicily — which 
earlier  emperors  had  not  had  at  their  disposal — and  with  Ger 
man  backing,  to  intimidate  the  opposite  party,  if  possible  with 
out  fighting,  and  so  to  restore  imperial  rights.  The  personal 
factor  was  not  wanting.  Frederick  on  his  first  journey  to  Ger 
many  at  seventeen  had  been  hunted  by  Milan,  whereas  Cremona 
had  helped  him  in  his  need.  He  had  pledged  his  faith  to 
her,  confirming  her  title  to  Crema  and  the  Isola  Fulcheria. 
Frederick  apparently  considered  this  old  attachment  to  Cre 
mona  still  of  value  ;  at  any  rate  he  professed  to  feel  himself  still 
bound  by  his  early  promise — by  no  means  always  his  case — and 
accepted  now  her  friendly  demonstration  with  a  graciousness  he 
rarely  showed  at  any  time  to  any  town.  "  This  faithful  town, 
hereditarily  loyal  to  the  Empire,"  as  he  called  it,  was  later  even 
permitted  to  play  the  godmother  to  Frederick's  son,  Conrad. 

Yet  another  factor  carried  weight.  The  Emperor  nourished 
an  instinctive  constitutional  hate  against  rebels  in  general,  and 
an  inherited  hate  against  Milan  in  particular.  "  No  sooner  had 
we  ascended  against  all  the  expectation  of  men,  by  the  aid  of 
Divine  Providence  alone,  the  highest  peaks  of  the  Roman  Em 
pire,  in  the  years  of  our  ripening  adolescence,  in  the  glowing 
power  of  mind  and  body  .  .  .  than  all  the  acuteness  of  our  mind 
was  continually  directed  to  one  end  ...  to  avenge  the  injury 
offered  (by  the  Milanese)  to  our  Father  and  our  Grandfather 
and  to  trample  under  foot  the  offshoots  of  abhorred  freedom 
already  carefully  cultivated  in  other  places  also."  Thus  the 
Emperor,  ten  years  later.  Such  abysmal  hate,  such  lust  for 
vengeance,  admits  no  argument.  It  is  simply  a  fact  to  be 
reckoned  with.  As  early  as  1219  in  Germany  Frederick  had 


RISE  OF  THE  PLEBS  151 

vowed  to  the  Cremonese  never  to  receive  Milan  into  favour 
without  their  concurrence.  He  soon  delegated  to  Cremona 
control  over  the  affairs  of  Lombardy. 

This  was  the  major  schism  in  northern  Italy,  and  the  Em 
peror's  attitude  to  it  was  already  laid  down.  The  mere  fact 
that  he  summoned  his  Diet  to  meet  in  Cremona  showed  the 
enemy  his  hand.  But  in  the  tangle  of  divisions  and  feuds  the 
rivalry  of  the  two  groups  of  towns  only  represented  one  of  many 
cleavages.  From  somewhere  about  the  turn  of  the  century  the 
inhabitants  of  the  towns  had  been  divided  by  internal  faction. 
In  the  eleventh  century  burgher  and  inferior  noble  had  made 
common  cause  against  margrave  and  count,  and  had  wrung 
from  the  great  landowners  the  territories  of  the  town.  And 
now  the  plebeians  had  risen  against  the  inferior  noble  and  the 
town  knight.  In  most  towns  two  factions  had  developed, 
the  knightly  party  and  the  popular  party,  and  in  some  cases 
the  similar  parties  of  different  towns  had  formed  alliances. 

This  quarrel  divided  Lombardy  horizontally  into  two  fac 
tions,  between  whom  the  Emperor  must  needs  make  his  choice. 
His  attitude  could  not  be  merely  to  support  the  knights,  though 
in  general  of  course  they  were  pro-Emperor,  while  the  plebeians 
as  the  revolutionary  section  seemed  naturally  the  Emperor's 
foes.  Matters  were  not  however  so  straightforward  and  simple 
as  that.  The  knights  were  frequently  anti-Emperor  and  the 
plebeians  the  opposite.  It  even  happened  now  and  then — as 
later  once  in  Siena — that  one  of  the  Emperor's  men  cleverly 
contrived  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  the  popular  movement 
and  that  the  victorious  popular  party  was  thus  the  Emperor's. 
In  spite  of  the  confusion,  however,  we  can  trace  certain  well- 
defined  principles  that  guided  Frederick's  conduct :  in  the 
traditionally  loyal  towns  like  Cremona,  Parma,  Pavia  he  tried 
to  smooth  out  differences  and  establish  peace,  so  as  to  secure 
the  support  of  these  imperial  cities  as  a  whole.  In  the  towns 
which  he  felt  to  be  wavering,  and  whose  population  as  a  whole 
he  could  not  hope  to  win,  he  sided  with  the  knights.  In 
Piacenza,  for  instance,  he  broke  up  the  plebeian  party,  declared 
them  rebels  and  outlawed  them,  while  he  recognised  and  pro 
tected  the  potentially  loyal  knightly  party  and  issued  orders  to 
the  neighbouring  towns  to  support  the  knights  of  Piacenza.  A 


152  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  TOWNS  m 

short-lived  alliance  even  came  to  birth  between  the  knights  of 
Piacenza  and  the  imperial  commune  of  Cremona.  In  the 
actively  hostile  towns  the  Emperor  set  himself  to  fan  the  dis 
cord  as  far  as  possible.  It  was  a  complicated  policy,  since 
Frederick  had  to  treat  each  town  individually  and  could  never 
bring  his  direct,  wholesale  straightforward  methods  into  play, 
unless  he  were  prepared  to  fight. 

A  sample  correspondence  will  illustrate  the  radically  different 
points  of  view  of  the  pro-  and  anti-Kaiser  towns.  If  it  is  a 
fabrication  it  is  all  the  more  illustrative.  Florence  wrote  during 
these  years  to  the  imperial  town  of  Siena  :  "  It  is  true  that  the 
Emperor's  Majesty  being  bound  by  no  law  enjoys  the  fulness 
of  power.  Yet  it  is  dependent  on  the  law  for  life  and  must  not 
hanker  after  what  is  alien,  lest  it  break  the  law  and  be  itself 
accused  of  injustice  at  the  very  time  that  it  enforces  obedience 
upon  others."  Whereupon  Siena  writes  :  "  Whereas  it  is  the 
property  of  the  Roman  Princeps  to  tower  above  others  in  peace 
or  war  as  victor,  it  is  not  to  be  tolerated  that  his  subjects  should 
crave  equally  to  be  his  equals.  For  if  the  condition  of  all  men 
were  equal  the  name  of  Princeps  would  be  an  empty  sham  ; 
there  can  be  no  superior  without  inferiors.  And  the  law  of 
nations  would  have  accomplished  nothing,  whereas  it  has  estab 
lished  inequality  and  arranged  ranks  and  grades." 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  formulate  more  sharply  the  contrasts 
in  which  the  question  of  the  Church's  attitude  to  the  parties  is 
bound  up.  For  the  aristocratic  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages 
must  of  necessity  be  as  hostile  as  the  Emperor  to  the  popular 
movement,  which  was  asserting  the  freedom  of  the  individual 
alike  against  temporal  and  against  spiritual  authority.  And  so 
in  fact  it  was.  Just  before  this,  when  the  populace  of  Milan 
rose  against  the  bishop,  the  papal  legate  in  Lombardy,  Cardinal 
Hugo  of  Ostia,  assisted  the  knightly  party  against  the  people. 
Frederick  II,  like  his  predecessors,  always  strove  to  preserve, 
as  far  as  he  could,  the  feeble  remnants  of  episcopal  power 
in  the  Lombard  towns.  In  these  matters  he  was,  to  all 
appearance,  hand  in  glove  with  the  Pope,  who  went  so  far  as 
to  excommunicate  Milan  and  stigmatised  it  as  "  saturated  with 
the  poison  of  heresy."  Frederick  had  demonstrated  his  una 
nimity  with  the  Church  on  such  matters  by  stiffening  up,  in 


ROME  AND  THE  LOMBARDS  153 

March  1224,  the  edict  against  heretics  which  he  had  already 
issued  on  the  occasion  of  his  coronation.  Those  condemned 
as  heretics  by  the  bishop  were  summoned  before  a  secular 
tribunal,  and  the  punishment  for  heresy  was  death  by  burning 
or  the  amputation  of  the  tongue,  that  further  blasphemy  might 
be  forestalled.  These  edicts  were  no  mere  "  courtesies  "  from 
Emperor  to  Pope  ;  they  represented,  as  will  be  seen  later,  the 
innermost  conviction  of  Frederick,  for  whom  the  heretic  was 
synonymous  with  the  rebel,  who  blasphemed  the  divine  majesty 
of  the  Emperor.  Being  at  one  with  the  Church  on  questions 
of  rebels  and  heretics  Frederick  had  counted  on  considerable 
support  from  the  Church  for  his  Lombard  Diet,, the  more  so 
as  his  agenda  especially  stressed  the  two  items  of  heresy  and 
Crusade. 

The  Curia  had  to  stand  by  him  over  the  Crusade,  but  that 
by  no  means  implied  taking  an  anti-Lombard  line  ;  quite  the 
reverse  ;  politically  the  Church  was  driven  into  the  Lombards* 
arms.  For  if  the  Emperor  were  to  succeed  in  establishing  in 
north  Italy  a  power  similar  to  that  he  had  organised  in  Sicily, 
the  states  of  the  Church  would  be  hemmed  in,  north  and  south, 
by  imperial  territories,  and  the  Curia  could  foresee  his  next 
move.  The  papal  "  Recuperations/'  the  central  Italian  pro 
vinces  of  the  Church,  were  menaced  ;  at  a  very  minimum  the 
Adriatic  strip,  the  March  and  Spoleto,  but  probably  other  sec 
tions  of  the  Church's  land  as  well,  would  be  commandeered  to 
give  Frederick  a  corridor  from  south  to  north.  Frederick  had 
let  it  be  seen  how  sorely  he  craved  these  lands. 

As  long  as  the  Lombards,  however,  resisted  the  Emperor,  and 
stood  out  against  any  reproduction  in  northern  Italy  of  the 
Sicilian  monarchy,  the  Church  was  safe.  The  Curia  therefore 
could  not  possibly  take  the  risk  of  helping  the  Emperor  to  break 
down  the  opposition  of  the  Lombard  towns.  Politically  the 
Church  found  the  Lombard  Confederation  a  valuable  ally,  and 
in  Rome  the  fact  was  welcomed  that  the  League  was  organising 
itself  into  a  semi-state.  The  Confederation  was  renewed  for 
twenty-five  years.  All  the  confederate  towns  had  annually  to 
renew  the  oath ;  none  were  to  conclude  independent  peace  ; 
and  resignation  from  the  league  was  to  be  considered  as 
"rebellion"  and  dealt  with  accordingly.  The  Emperor  saw 


154  ST.  FRANCIS   AND  THE  PEOPLE  m 

in  the  Confederation  a  rebel  state  within  a  state ;  the  Church 
hailed  it  as  a  bulwark  against  imperial  encirclement. 

In  questions  relating  to  heresy  and  popular  movements  the 
views  of  Emperor  and  Curia  were  by  no  means  identical.  As 
regards  the  recalcitrant  Roman  plebeians  they  saw  eye  to  eye  on 
many  points,  but  the  Curia  was  in  touch  with  the  Roman  popu 
lace  in  a  way  in  which  the  Emperor  was  not.  The  Curia  too 
was  willing  enough  to  use  the  Emperor's  sword  for  the  eradica 
tion  of  heresy,  but  felt  by  no  means  so  exclusively  dependent 
on  his  good  offices  in  the  matter  as  Frederick  liked  to  think. 
Here  quite  a  new  factor  enters  in.  The  two  new  mendicant 
orders  aimed  at  reaching  these  two  classes,  plebeian  and  heretic, 
and  either  luring  them  back  into  the  Church  or  rendering  them 
innocuous.  The  democratic  Franciscans  and  the  heresy-hunt 
ing  Dominicans  had  recently  sprung  from  the  womb  of  the 
Church  in  her  old  age.  These  two  Orders  lent  a  significance, 
beyond  the  merely  political,  to  the  alliance  between  Lombards 
and  Curia.  Without  here  pursuing  the  very  varied  activities 
of  the  Orders  in  detail  we  may  quote  an  episode  which  legend 
records,  that  illustrates  the  sympathy  existing  between  a  man 
like  St.  Francis  and  various  strata  of  the  populace.  One  day 
when  the  saint  was  preaching  in  Perugia  before  a  large  crowd 
the  knights  of  the  town  invaded  the  piazza  and  began  to  joust 
and  to  manoeuvre  their  horses,  doing  their  best  to  disturb  the 
saint's  discourse,  whereupon  the  populace  set  upon  them.  For 
the  message  of  St.  Francis  was  directed  to  the  humbler  towns 
folk  who  enthusiastically  clung  to  the  apostle  of  poverty. 


Such  was  in  rough  outline  the  tangled  state  of  affairs  in 
northern  Italy  when  Frederick  set  out  to  hold  his  diet  in 
Lombardy.  To  add  to  existing  difficulties  Frederick's  quarrel 
with  the  Curia  over  the  episcopal  elections  in  Sicily  was  just 
then  at  its  height.  And,  finally,  his  march  to  the  north  provoked 
a  quarrel  with  the  Curia  that  nearly  amounted  to  a  final  breach. 
Without  asking  permission  Frederick  marched  his  troops  right 
through  central  Italy  and,  acting  as  if  the  Church  only  held 
these  territories  from  the  Empire  in  fee,  he  enlisted  auxiliaries 
for  his  Lombard  Diet.  This  procedure  was  no  doubt  a  little 


WRATHFUL  CORRESPONDENCE  155 

brusque.  Frederick  II,  however,  had  not  acted  without 
reflection.  If  the  Pope  had  denied  him  permission  the  breach 
would  have  been  even  more  inevitable,  and  he  would  have 
created  a  dangerous  precedent  for  himself  by  appearing  to 
acknowledge  that  the  Emperor  had  no  right  to  inarch  his  troops 
from  Sicily  into  north  Italy  without  papal  sanction.  Pope 
Honorius  now  taxed  Frederick  with  this  march,  reproached  him 
for  ingratitude  to  the  Church,  and  at  last  the  long-repressed 
resentment  on  both  sides  burst  forth.  Quousque  tandem patientia 
mea  abutetur  pontifex  !  Such  was  the  gist  of  Frederick's  answer, 
if  we  may  anticipate  an  expression  attributed  to  him  later  in 
a  reply  in  which  he  likened  the  Pope  to  Catiline. 

Frederick  poured  out  in  a  violent  letter  all  his  grievances 
against  the  Curia  :  for  his  own  part  he  owed  the  Church  no 
thanks  ;  in  any  help  she  had  at  any  time  accorded  him  she  had 
sought  solely  her  own  advantage.  He  on  his  side  had  met  every 
wish  the  Pope  expressed.  The  Pope  had  welcomed  to  Rome 
every  enemy  of  the  Emperor  and  every  exile  from  Sicily  ;  he 
had  curtailed  the  Emperor's  rights  in  Sicily  ;  he  had  obstructed 
the  Emperor's  procedure  against  licentious  priests ;  he  had 
"  lifted  no  finger  "  to  ease  the  burdens  of  the  Crusade  that 
rested  on  the  Emperor's  shoulders — and  so  forth. 

Pope  Honorius  replied  in  a  long  document,  refuting  the  im 
perial  letter  point  by  point,  a  document  that  was  a  masterpiece 
of  style,  beginning  "  strangely  our  letter  smote  upon  thy  mind 
— so  writest  thou —  .  .  .  more  strangely  yet  thy  letter  smote  on 
ours."  Honorius  omitted  nothing,  and  when  he  came  to  speak 
of  the  treatment  Frederick  had  meted  out  to  those  who  were 
now  refugees  in  Rome,  especially  the  unfortunate  King  John 
of  Jerusalem,  "  whose  only  crime  has  been  that  they  are  still 
alive,"  he  took  occasion  to  remind  Frederick  of  his  great  pro 
totype  :  "  Thou  wilt  have  read  no  parallel  to  these  things  in 
the  deeds  of  Julius  Caesar,  who  spared  Domitius  in  his  own 
despite  and  held  Metellus  to  be  unworthy  of  his  wrath  when 
Metellus  offered  his  breast  to  the  sword.  .  .  ."  For  all  the 
perfection  of  its  form  it  was  a  spiteful  document,  into 
which  the  Pope  poured  the  full  measure  of  his  anger.  The 
ill-will  of  both  reached  its  climax  in  these  two  letters — and  its 
end.  Frederick  answered  very  briefly,  though  he  could  not 


156  CLOSING  OF  THE   BRENNER  m 

refrain  from  a  few  sarcasms  over  the  inordinate  length  of  the 
epistle.  The  Pope's  long-winded  letter  had  disinterred  from 
the  papal  storehouses  so  much  material,  old  and  new,  that  if  a 
womb  so  teeming  should,  from  fresh  imperial  replies,  again 
conceive,  it  would  bring  forth  another  foetus  like  unto  the  first. 
Frederick  cherished  the  feelings  of  a  pious  son  to  an  angry- 
father,  and  therefore  preferred  to  let  the  matter  drop,  if  only 
because  the  Pope  had  the  advantage  of  him  in  the  multitude  of 
his  scholars  and  his  scribes. 

The  Emperor's  thus  "  coming  to  heel  "  coincided  with  the 
complete  failure  of  his  Lombard  adventure.  A  few  words  will 
suffice  to  narrate  the  events.  Frederick  first  sought  to  counter 
the  unexpectedly  hostile  attitude  of  the  League  by  emphasising 
his  peaceful  intentions  and  placing  in  the  foreground  his  anxiety 
about  the  Crusade.  On  the  whole  march  he  scrupulously 
avoided  coming  into  contact  with  any  of  the  towns.  This  self- 
restraint  emboldened  the  Lombards  ;  they  were  no  doubt  also 
informed  of  the  serious  friction  with  the  Curia  and  so  were 
reassured  that  their  worst  foreboding  was  groundless — the  Pope 
and  the  Emperor  were  not  going  to  proceed  as  one  man  against 
them.  They  promptly  exercised  their  sense  of  power.  As 
the  German  army  under  Bang  Henry,  approaching  along  the 
Brenner  road,  had  just  reached  Trent,  the  confederate  towns — 
of  which  Verona  was  one — closed  the  narrow  defile  and  denied 
passage  to  any  person  bearing  arms.  The  German  army, 
which  was  wholly  composed  of  cavalry,  was  probably  not  strong 
enough  to  fight  its  way  through,  but  in  any  case  the  use  of  force 
would  have  been  contrary  to  the  Emperor's  intentions — he  had 
no  wish,  nor  indeed  the  means,  to  embark  at  the  moment  on  a 
Lombard  war — he  preferred  to  lodge  a  complaint  against  the 
Lombards  with  the  Pope.  Meantime  King  Henry  awaited 
events  in  Trent.  Without  his  German  knights  the  Emperor's 
forces  were  too  weak  to  exercise  even  moral  suasion,  still  less 
serious  practical  pressure.  So  Frederick  opened  negotiations 
with  the  Rectors  of  the  Confederation,  especially  with  reference 
to  the  passage  of  the  German  party.  Before  opening  the  road 
— the  closing  of  which  was  an  unprecedented  arrogance — the 
Lombard  towns  proposed  such  unacceptable  terms  that  the 
Emperor  refused  to  negotiate  further,  in  which  he  was  unani- 


1226  ABANDONMENT  OF  DIET  157 

mously  backed  by  the  big  men  about  him  and  numerous  bishops 
from  Germany,  Italy,  Sicily  and  Burgundy.  As  repeated  sum 
monses  to  give  in  were  in  vain,  the  Emperor  induced  the  bishops 
assembled  with  him  to  excommunicate  all  the  confederate  towns 
for  hindering  the  Crusade,  and  for  his  part  exercised  the  im 
perial  ban  and  declared  the  Lombards  outlaws  and  traitors  to 
the  Empire.  By  this  he  forbade  all  intercourse  with  them  and 
declared  all  schools  and  institutions  closed — including  the 
University  of  Bologna.  After  months  of  delay  that  was  the 
only  thing  he  was  able  to  accomplish.  He  could  only  save  his 
face  in  the  whole  affair  by  consistently  posing  as  the  simple- 
hearted  crusader  who  had  come  to  Lombardy  not  on  his  own 
private  business  but  on  a  mission  for  God  and  for  the  Church. 
The  Lombards'  opposition  had  thus  been  directed  not  against 
him  but  against  the  Church.  By  skilfully  playing  this  role  he 
compelled  the  Church  eventually  to  take  his  part.  But  for  the 
time  being  he  had  to  let  outlawry  and  excommunication  suffice 
him,  and  vengeance  for  many  a  deed  of  treachery — in  Faenza 
a  knight  had  been  murdered  in  mistake  for  Frederick — had  to 
be  adjourned  till  another  day.  The  Diet  was  never  held  at  all. 
A  few  German  princes  had  joined  him  by  way  of  Venice,  but 
King  Henry  and  the  bulk  of  the  other  German  nobles  had  had 
to  return  home  from  Trent  after  months  of  fruitless  waiting. 
The  confusion  in  Lombardy  was  greater  than  ever  and  Frederick 
had  accomplished  nothing.  In  July  1226  he  began  the  return 
journey  to  Sicily.  His  route  was  already  threatened ;  finally 
Pisan  troops  came  to  fetch  him  and  escorted  him  safely  to  their 
town,  where  he  halted  a  short  time. 


In  spite  of  everything  Frederick  II  found  time  during  his 
stay  in  Pisa  to  converse  with  a  scholar  whose  writings  were 
already  known  to  him.  They  discussed  at  length  a  number  of 
problems  in  Geometry  and  Algebra  which  were  occupying 
Frederick's  mind.  The  scholar  was  Leonardo  Fibonacci  of 
Pisa,  the  greatest  mathematician  of  his  time,  indeed  the  greatest 
mathematician  of  the  Middle  Ages,  whom  a  Spanish  scholar, 
one  Dominicus,  introduced  to  the  Emperor.  Leonardo  had 
pursued  his  studies  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  Greece  and  Spain,  and 


158  LEONARDO  OF  PISA  m 

was  trying  to  introduce  a  new  style  of  reckoning  into  Europe 
"  after  the  manner  of  the  Indians  "  :  reckoning  with  the  Arabic 
numerals  and  the  zero.  The  problems  which  Frederick  laid 
before  him  through  his  court  philosopher,  Master  John  of 
Palermo,  are  so  difficult  and  technical  that  even  to-day  only  a 
mathematician  can  follow  them.  To  the  Emperor's  admira 
tion  and  delight  Leonardo  was  able  to  solve  them.  He  wrote 
them  down  in  a  book  for  the  Emperor,  and  henceforth  main 
tained  contact  with  the  scholars  of  the  court — with  Master 
Theodore  for  instance,  and,  in  particular,  with  Michael  Scot, 
who  arrived  shortly  after  at  the  imperial  court. 

These  intellectual  friendships  were  not  the  only  outcome  of 
the  stay  in  Lombardy.  A  number  of  German  princes  had  come 
round  by  Venice  to  join  Frederick,  and  their  presence  had 
brought  the  Emperor  again  into  closer  touch  with  German 
affairs,  with  which,  however,  he  did  not  attempt  to  interfere 
except  corroboratively.  The  year  before,  in  1225,  Archbishop 
Engelbert  of  Cologne,  till  then  the  Gubernator  of  Germany, 
had  been  murdered,  and  Duke  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  one  of  the 
guardians  of  young  King  Henry,  had  been  appointed  his 
successor. 

Further,  without  any  connivance  of  the  Emperor,  the  Danish 
power  had  crumbled,  and  North  Albingia  as  far  as  the  Eider 
had  fallen  to  the  Empire.  This  is  the  period,  too,  of  the  Golden 
Bull  of  Rimini,  which  established  the  Order  of  Teutonic  Knights 
in  Prussia  to  extend  the  power  of  the  Empire  in  those  regions. 
For  the  moment,  however,  nothing  was  so  vital  to  Frederick  II 
as  to  get  the  Lombard  business  disposed  of,  and  for  this  he 
needed  the  co-operation  of  the  Roman  Curia. 

Many  contemporaries  contended  that  Pope  and  Curia  were 
solely  responsible  for  the  failure  of  the  Lombard  Diet.  That 
is  to  put  the  case  too  crudely.  It  is  clear  that  Rome  had  watched 
the  progress  of  events  not  without  malicious  satisfaction,  especi 
ally  as  she  reaped  direct  advantage  from  Frederick's  embar 
rassment.  Frederick  now  acceded  to  every  wish  of  the  Pope's  ; 
acquiesced  without  a  murmur  in  his  choice  of  Sicilian  bishops, 
as  if  they  had  never  had  a  difference  of  opinion  on  the  sub 
ject,  and  when  famine  broke  out  in  Rome  eagerly  came  to  his 
assistance  with  Sicilian  corn. 


POPE  AS  ARBITRATOR  159 

With  his  characteristic  adaptability  Frederick  changed  his 
tactics  in  a  night,  and  leaped  without  transition  from  downright 
brusquerie  to  affectionate  docility.  Nevertheless  the  Pope's 
position  was  delicate.  It  seemed  possible  that  the  Emperor's 
whole  Crusade  would  be  wrecked  by  the  intransigence  of  the 
Lombards  if  Frederick  were  to  make  the  new  developments  a 
pretext  for  further  delay.  The  Pope  was  anxious  to  clear  even 
imaginary  obstacles  from  the  Emperor's  path,  so  he  bestirred 
himself  to  achieve  some  workable  compromise  in  Lombardy  by 
Acting  as  go-between.  It  was  no  easy  task.  Honorius  did  not 
want  to  forfeit  the  Lombards'  support  against  the  Emperor ;  on 
the  other  hand  they  were  most  manifestly  in  the  wrong  and 
had  had  no  shadow  of  justification  for  the  closure  of  the 
Brenner  road.  After  lengthy  negotiation  a  temporary  accommo 
dation  was  arrived  at,  thanks  to  Frederick's  placability.  The 
Pope  would  release  the  confederate  towns  from  his  ban,  the 
Emperor  would  rescind  his  edict  of  outlawry,  and  the  Lombard 
League  would  keep  the  peace  with  the  imperial  towns,  Cremona 
and  the  rest.  The  status  quo  ante  which  the  Emperor  had  before 
found  unsatisfactory  was  thus  in  effect  restored,  and  Frederick 
had  received  no  reparation  or  apology  for  the  insult  offered  him. 

The  Emperor  shut  his  eyes  for  the  moment  to  this  flaw  in 
the  Pope's  arbitration  and  declared  himself — in  the  interests  of 
the  Crusade — willing  to  accept  this  provisional  award.  He 
could,  however,  no  longer  blind  himself  to  the  political  alliance 
of  Lombards  and  Pope,  whose  embrace  drew  closer  and  closer 
in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  Emperor's  power.  From 
the  imperial  standpoint  he  justifiably  regarded  this  alliance  of 
the  Pope  with  heretics  and  rebels,  enemies  alike  of  Church  and 
Empire,  as  treason  to  the  Church  herself — treason  that  is  to  the 
aristocratic  medieval  Church.  Frederick  could  not  feel  other 
wise,  and  in  his  wrath  at  this  betrayal  he  could  justify  to  himself 
and  to  the  world  his  fight  against  the  papacy.  Indeed  his  faith 
in  his  mission  and  in  the  justice  of  his  cause  was  mainly  based 
on  the  conviction  that  this  "  incestuous  "  coalition  of  Church 
and  heretic  undermined  the  God-ordained  constitution  of  the 
world.  This  was  a  purely  aristocratic  constitution  founded  on 
the  unity  of  the  two  Swords — the  spiritual  and  the  temporal — 
and  the  unity  of  the  two  monarchs  :  Emperor  and  Pope. 


160  FREDERICK  AND  FRANCIS  m 

Frederick  would  have  been  unreservedly  in  the  right  in 
talking  of  treachery  if  nothing  but  papal  aggrandisement  had 
prompted  this  unnatural  rapprochement  between  the  Curia  and 
the  townsfolk  of  Lombardy,  for  which  the  Pope  finally  threw 
over  the  Emperor  and  therewith  the  unity  of  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  worlds.  Political  advantage  certainly  held  the  fore 
ground  ;  but  behind  the  scenes,  behind  Lombards  and  papacy, 
a  new  world-power  was  at  work,  a  power  against  whose  visible 
warriors  Frederick  II  consciously  fought,  against  which  itself 
he  fought  his  life  long  all  unknowing,  and  growing  thereby  in 
stature  :  Francis  of  Assisi  and  the  new  Christ  image  he  had 
evoked. 

Frederick  grew  in  the  conflict  with  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  the 
course  of  his  imperial  life  will  demonstrate  the  manner  of  his 
growth.  Francis  of  Assisi,  the  greatest  contemporary  of  this 
last  Hohenstaufen,  was  the  bearer  of  the  strange,  mysterious 
power  which  Frederick  in  his  cradle  was  destined  to  rebel 
against,  and  in  reaction  against  which  he  was  to  mobilise  all 
the  forces  of  the  world.  Abbot  Joachim  of  Flora  had  years 
ago  prophesied  the  coming  of  power  and  counter-power :  the 
founder  of  an  order  should  bring  again  the  age  of  Christ  and 
the  Apostles.  The  Church  should  renew  her  youth  and  an 
Emperor  should  be  the  Church's  scourge.  Following  the  myth, 
Abbot  Joachim  had  hailed  the  son  of  Henry  VI  as  the  future 
Castigator,  and  Confusion-bringer,  the  herald  of  Anti-Christ. 
The  inference  was  clear — a  renewal  of  Christ  must  necessarily 
beget  the  Anti-Christ. 

Legend  tells  us  of  a  meeting  of  the  two  great  foes.  Some 
where  about  1222,  as  Frederick  II  held  court  in  Bari,  St. 
Francis  had  come  thither  with  holy  exhortation  to  warn  the 
people  of  the  dangers  of  sin,  and  to  warn  the  nobility  of  the 
dangers  of  the  court.  The  encounter  between  the  young  vic 
torious  king  and  the  man  who  had  taken  Lady  Poverty  to  wife 
is  humanly  akin  to  the  meeting  of  Alexander  the  Great  with 
the  Cynic  Diogenes.  Legend  assigns  to  Frederick  the  role  of 
the  tempter.  He  sought  to  undermine  the  celebrated  continence 
of  the  holy  man  by  the  wiles  of  a  lovely  woman,  but  when  this 
attempt  was  vain,  and  the  Emperor  saw  that  "  his  practice  was 
even  as  his  precept,"  he  dismissed  his  imperial  retinue  and 


FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  161 

spent  many  hours  in  an  earnest  tete-a-tete,  listening  attentively 
to  what  the  saint  had  to  tell  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul. 

Not  long  after,  in  1223,  the  final  Rule  of  the  Brothers  Minor 
was  confirmed  by  the  Pope,  and  when  Francis  of  Assisi  died  three 
years  later  in  1226  the  zeal  that  fired  him  had  communicated 
itself  to  tens  of  thousands.  What  Francis  of  Assisi  brought  was 
heresy  dressed  in  canonicals  ;  his  first  appearance  was  closely 
allied  to  that  of  the  heretics,  "  The  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,"  and 
indeed  to  the  Albigensians,  with  whom  the  Church  for  many 
years  waged  bloody  war  in  Provence.  The  heretics  had  spread 
a  dangerous  doctrine  summed  up  in  the  famous  phrase  "  to  obey 
God  rather  than  men,"  maintaining  the  communion  of  the 
individual  soul  with  God  without  the  mediation  of  the  Roman 
priest,  without  the  need  of  sacrament.  To  combat  this  here 
tical  doctrine  Pope  Innocent  III  had  magnified  the  position  of 
the  priest,  and  reasserted  the  principle  that  the  layman  could 
not  forego  the  priest's  mediation.  The  only  difference  between 
St.  Francis  and  the  heretics  was  that  he  recognised  the  mediation 
of  the  priest  as  of  right,  though  no  man  had  less  need  of  priest 
than  he.  He  even  brought  "  these  heretical  tendencies  "  into 
the  service  of  the  Church  by  himself  bringing  the  supreme 
sacrifice  of  submitting  to  the  church  universal. 

Francis  of  Assisi  was  canonised  in  1228,  a  couple  of  years 
after  his  death.  Uncounted  were  the  miracles  that  he  per 
formed.  The  miracle  with  which  we  are  here  concerned  seems 
to  lack  heavenly  magic  and  seraphic  glamour,  but  in  compen 
sation  it  reveals  Francis  to  us  as  a  man,  a  complete  man,  a  figure 
which  to-day  is  frequently  forgotten  in  mawkish  sentimentaliz 
ing  over  the  tender,  childlike  saint.  And  this  in  spite  of  his 
"  royally  independent  "  attitude  to  the  Pope— the  word  is 
Dante's — in  spite  of  his  manly  opposition  to  the  Church  ;  in 
spite  of  his  forbidding  the  Brothers  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures 
for  beauty — for  the  holy  is  above  and  beyond  both  the  ugly  and 
the  beautiful ;  in  spite  of  his  belonging  to  that  company  of  the 
great  whose  holiness  lies  in  spartan  discipline  against  the  "  all 
too  venal  flesh." 

The  wounds  of  the  Saviour,  which  he  bore  in  the  body,  were 
less  painful  to  him  than  the  terrible  oppression  which  weighed 
on  him  when  he  compelled  his  free  soul,  dwelling  in,  free  and 


1 62  HUGO  OF  OSTIA  m 

direct  communion  with  God,  into  the  rigid,  ruthless  formalism 
of  the  Roman  hierarchy.  This  constriction  which  the  heretics 
escaped  by  forming  independent  groups  outside  the  Church, 
Francis  voluntarily  accepted — though  he  felt  it  more  pro 
foundly  and  suffered  under  it  more  severely  than  others.  He 
knew  that  the  personal  immediate  one-ness  of  the  Soul  with 
God  was  the  loftiest  aim,  but  held  that  nevertheless  the  Papacy 
was  the  necessary  means.  None  of  his  contemporaries  was  so 
full  as  was  St.  Francis  of  high  explosive  forces  to  disrupt  the 
Church,  but  though  at  first  he  would  hear  nothing  of  the  hier 
archy  and  forbade  his  brothers  to  accept  privilege  from  her  or 
exercise  her  offices,  yet  he  recognised,  hi  contrast  to  the  heretics, 
one  universal  Church,  and  forced  his  wide,  nature-loving, 
sublime  spirit  into  the  narrow,  rigid  legalism  of  the  hierarchy. 
This  opposition  corresponds  to  that  which  Frederick,  his 
worldly  counterpart,  had  begun  to  conjure  up  hi  the  worldly 
sphere  :  the  tension  between  the  individual  and  the  world-wide 
Roman  Empire.  With  Dante  the  man  is  born  who  consciously 
suffers  in  both  conflicts. 

Francis  found  a  means  of  incorporating  in  the  Church  and 
utilising  for  her  service  the  hitherto  decried  egotistical  tenden 
cies  of  the  heretics.  The  founder  of  the  Franciscans  might  not 
easily  have  accomplished  this  single-handed.  He  had  a  friend 
at  hand,  a  Cardinal  of  the  Roman  Church  whom  he  placed  as 
Protector  over  the  Order,  Hugo  of  Ostia.  The  Cardinal,  a 
priest  almost  overladen  with  scholastic  wisdom  and  learned  lore, 
was  poles  asunder  from  the  original,  creative  Francis.  What 
drew  him  to  the  saint  was  his  yearning  for  simplicity,  for  aban 
donment,  for  mystic  rapture  which  the  cares  of  this  world  and 
the  duties  of  a  Cardinal's  office  put  continually  and  ever  further 
beyond  his  reach.  The  mystic  vein  was  still  alive  in  Hugo 
of  Ostia :  in  his  youth  he  had  been  filled  with  admiration 
for  Abbot  Joachim  of  Flora—the  "  John  "  of  the  Franciscan 
gospel — and  had  founded  two  monasteries  in  Florence  out  of 
his  private  means.  It  was  Hugo  of  Ostia  who  by  his  drafting 
of  the  last  Rule  of  the  Order  introduced  the  founder's  spirit  into 
the  Roman  Church.  It  was  he  who  skilfully  kept  the  Fran 
ciscan  spirit  that  filled  north  Italy  alive  in  the  penitential 
brotherhoods  lest  it  should  evaporate  or — what  was  even  more 


1227  POPE  GREGORY  IX  163 

probable — in  that  dangerous  north  Italian  soil,  degenerate  into 
heresy,  from  which  indeed  it  ultimately  sprang.  Hugo  of  Ostia 
arranged  and  organised,  created  centres  for  the  brotherhoods 
in  all  the  towns,  and  so  turned  to  the  Church's  advantage  that 
passion  for  individuality  that  was  a  feature  of  the  time  and 
affected  by  the  heretics.  The  alliance  between  Papacy  and 
Lombards  on  other  sides  than  the  merely  political  was  therefore 
a  product  of  Cardinal  Hugo's  labours  :  a  man  whose  influence 
can  often  be  traced  in  the  later  measures  of  the  aged  Pope 
Honorius. 

The  truce  effected  between  Kaiser  Frederick  and  the 
Lombards  was  destined  to  be  the  last  act  of  Honorius  III.  He 
died  shortly  after,  in  March  1227,  while  the  Emperor  was  about 
to  start  on  the  Crusade.  Cardinal  Hugo  of  Ostia,  the  friend 
of  Francis  of  Assisi,  sometime  Legate  in  Lombardy,  succeeded 
him.  He  was  a  Conti,  a  near  relative  of  Innocent  III,  under 
whose  influence  he  had  grown  up.  As  Pope  he  chose  the  sug 
gestive  name  of  Gregory  IX.  With  the  coming  of  this  elderly 
opponent,  who  united  in  his  person  all  the  anti-imperial  forces 
of  his  time,  Frederick  IPs  youth  ended.  He  must  prepare  for 
the  worst  and  strain  every  nerve  to  build  up  speedily  an  all- 
embracing  imperial  world,  ready  to  face  the  foe. 


IV.  THE  CRUSADE 

Rendezvous  in  Brindisi,  1227 Plague Frederick  falls 

111  and  turns  back Hostility  of  Gregory  IX Excom 
munication Gregory's     entente     with     Lombards — 

Loyalty  of  Rome  to  Frederick Frederick's  first  mani 
festo Frederick  sails  for  East,  June,  1228 Gregory 

attacks  Sicily Frederick  recovers  Cyprus Lands  at 

Acre Treaty  with  al  Kamil  ;  ten-year  truce Saracen 

chivalry Treachery  of  Templars Influence  of  East 

on  Frederick Entry  into   Jerusalem,  March   17,  1229, 

and   Self-Coronation,  March    18 Jerusalem  manifesto 

Frederick  lands  at  Brindisi,  June,  1229 Last  scenes 

in  Palestine Exeunt  papal  troops  from  Sicily Attitude 

of  Gregory  IX  ;  truce Peace  of  Ceperano 


IV.  THE  CRUSADE 

IT  has  at  all  times  been  the  case  in  Western  history  that  none 
might  reach  the  heights  of  world  dominion  save  the  Conqueror 
of  the  East,  the  man  who  brought  the  Orient  into  his  Empire. 
It  seems  almost  a  natural  law  that  each  World  Ruler  must  renew 
his  youth  in  the  land  of  the  rising  sun,  and  return  thence 
crowned  with  glory  to  build  up  his  Western  power.  World 
monarchs  have  been  few,  but  all  have  brought  from  the  East 
the  authority  and  the  halo  of  a  God.  From  the  moment  that 
the  Hohenstaufens  began  to  dream  of  world  power  the  Crusade 
became  their  proudest  ambition. 

Soon  after  the  first  Franco-Norman  Crusade  of  Godfrey, 
Bohemund  and  Tancred,  St.  Bernard  called  men  to  the  second. 
The  leaders  of  the  Christian  host  were  the  Hohenstaufen  Conrad 
III  with  the  King  of  France.  Twenty  years  later  Barbarossa 
deliberately  treated  Emperor  and  Crusader  as  synonymous 
terms.  His  first  step  was  the  canonisation  of  Charlemagne,  and 
shortly  afterwards  he  commissioned  a  monk  of  Aix  to  write 
the  Legenda  KaroU  Magni,  in  which  much  space  was  given  to 
Charles,  the  Crusader,  and  his  Pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Charlemagne's  wholly  utilitarian  campaign  against  the  Moors 
of  Spain  had  gradually  been  sublimated  by  legend  into  a 
Crusade.  The  legend  was  French  in  origin,  but  Barbarossa 
eagerly  imported  it,  and  with  further  Christian-imperial  em 
bellishments  gave  it  currency  in  Germany.  Many  a  dream 
of  the  time  he  thus  fulfilled  and  many  a  dream  he  conjured  up. 
The  Western  world  was  waiting,  with  bated  breath,  till  an 
Emperor  of  the  West  should  make  his  entry  into  Jerusalem, 
Ever  new  prophecies  hinged  on  the  great  event :  he  who  rides 
into  Jerusalem  as  King  will  bring  the  long-awaited  Reign  of 
Peace  before  the  Anti-Christ  shall  come.  Toledo  was  the 
medieval  capital  of  prophecy,  and  her  astrologers  announced 
that  after  plague  and  earthquake  the  days  of  Islam  should  be 
numbered  ;  while  Sibylline  sayings  ran  :  "  An  Emperor  of  the 

167 


168  RECRUITING  iv 

East  shall  in  Jerusalem  meet  an  Emperor  of  the  West  and  the 
dry  tree  shall  send  forth  green  shoots  when  the  Emperor  of 
the  West  shall  hang  his  shield  upon  it  as  the  token  of  his 
law-giving."  Such  prophetic  utterances  gained  in  strength  and 
pervasiveness,  and  men  looked  towards  the  Emperors'  Crusades 
with  hope.  In  spite  of  his  age,  Barbarossa  had  not  hesitated 
to  take  on  him  the  highest  duty  and  proudest  privilege  of  an 
Emperor  when  the  Sultan  Saladin  conquered  Jerusalem  in 
1 187.  At  his  departure  men  hailed  the  aged  King  as  a  "  Second 
Moses  "  who  was  to  lead  the  host  of  the  chosen  into  the 
Promised  Land :  it  was  only  granted  him  to  see  the  land  of 
promise  from  afar.  His  mighty  son,  Henry  VI,  was  also 
destined  not  to  enter  the  Royal  City  as  Christian  Emperor  :  no 
German  Emperor  yet  had  trodden  the  sacred  soil. 

Frederick  II  began  where  his  ancestors  left  off.  Not  only 
did  the  Crusade  represent  his  services  to  the  Church,  his  duty 
as  Roman  Emperor — a  new  crown  awaited  him  in  Jerusalem. 
Moreover,  the  East  was  for  him  no  magic  land  of  wonders  as 
it  had  been  to  his  ancestors  ;  it  was  the  spiritual  home  of 
a  mind  well  versed  in  oriental  lore.  Frederick  made  most 
extensive  preparations  for  his  imperial  crusade.  He  had  sent 
on  in  advance  Count  Thomas  of  Aquino  to  act  as  Regent  of  his 
Syrian  kingdom.  He  had  succeeded  by  great  efforts  in  kindling 
once  more  crusading  enthusiasm  in  the  West,  not  by  inspired 
preaching  :  his  agents  numbered  no  St.  Bernard,  no  Hermann 
of  Salza  in  their  ranks.  The  Emperor's  promises,  however,  and 
the  Emperor's  gold,  lavishly  bestowed  on  all  who  enlisted,  were 
not  without  their  power  to  lure  men  to  the  Holy  Land.  Frede 
rick  not  only  promised  free  transport  to  princes  ^  knights  and 
esquires,  but  made  them  generous  cash  advances.  He  had 
thus  attracted  a  number  of  German  princes,  most  important  of 
them  all  Landgrave  Lewis  of  Thuringia,  the  husband  of  St. 
Elizabeth,  who  arrived  in  Frederick's  Sicilian  kingdom  in  August 
1227  with  an  entire  crusading  army.  Pilgrims  of  every  German 
race  crossed  the  Alps  in  numbers  and  travelled  to  Brindisi, 
the  port  of  embarkation.  The  Frisians  preferred  the  long  sea 
route  round  Spain  as  did  the  English  who,  under  several  bishops, 
had  responded  to  the  call  in  thousands.  By  a  generous  issue 
of  indulgences  the  Church  had  lent  the  necessary  weight  to 


PLAGUE  IN  CAMP  169 

Frederick's  recruiting  campaign.  Thus,  enticed  by  the  favour 
able  offers,  stream  after  stream  of  pilgrims  poured  ceaselessly 
into  Brindisi.  A  few  turned  back  en  route y  but  they  did  not 
preceptibly  reduce  the  masses  who  poured  on.  Many  of  the 
pilgrims  had  travelled  by  way  of  Rome.  A  swindler,  disguised 
as  Vicar  of  the  Pope,  took  up  his  station  at  the  gate  of  St.  Peter 
offering  to  release  the  pilgrims  from  their  vows,  without  detri 
ment  to  their  indulgences,  for  the  sum  of  four  silver  marks.  The 
Romans  looked  on  this  comedy  with  great  amusement  and  did 
not  interfere.  It  was  weeks  before  the  Pope,  who  was  in  Anagni, 
heard  of  the  affair  and  hastily  put  the  "vicar  "  out  of  action. 

.It  would  have  been  no  bad  thing  if  more  pilgrims  had  bought 
themselves  off  in  Rome.  We  cannot  attempt  even  an  approxi 
mate  estimate  of  actual  numbers,  but  gradually  an  appalling 
horde  of  crusaders  had  accumulated  in  the  pilgrims'  camp  at 
Brindisi — immensely  more  than  the  Emperor  had  calculated  on 
or  provided  for.  In  spite  of  all  preparations  the  ships  were 
insufficient ;  the  pilgrims  ran  out  of  food — which,  in  any  case, 
had  not  been  amongst  the  things  Frederick  had  promised. 
The  ship  room,  however,  was  destined  to  prove  in  the  end  more 
than  sufficient— indeed  ships  remained  empty  behind — for  in 
the  middle  of  August  a  terrible  plague  broke  out  to  which  the 
Crusaders  succumbed  in  shoals,  while  it  was  said  that  tens  of 
thousands  fled  from  the  plague-camp  and  scattered  over  Italy. 
No  one  could  be  held  responsible  for  this  outbreak  :  many  a 
German  army  before  had  perished  in  the  same  way  in  the  August 
heat  of  southern  Italy,  and  no  modern  observer  needs  to  seek 
any  further  cause  than  the  herding  together  of  thousands  of 
pilgrims,  unaccustomed  to  the  food,  climate  and  conditions  of 
the  south.  Many  of  the  German  nobles  also  died  of  the  disease, 
and  finally  the  Emperor  himself  caught  it.  In  spite  of  illness 
he  superintended  the  embarkation  of  the  first  two  squadrons 
in  person,  and  then  just  before  the  third  division  of  the  fleet  was 
to  start,  which  was  to  take  him  and  Count  Lewis  of  Thuringia, 
he  betook  himself  with  his  friend  to  the  small  island  of  St. 
Andrea  outside  Brindisi  harbour  to  try  to  recover  by  escaping 
the  poisoned  air.  For  the  Landgrave,  his  chief  assistant  in  the 
undertaking,  had  also  been  attacked.  In  spite  of  everything 
they  both  embarked  on  the  Qth  of  September  in  the  hopes  that 


iTo  GREGORY  AND   FREDERICK  iv 

the  sea  air  and  the  sea  journey  would  cure  them.  Two  days 
after  Count  Lewis  died,  and  the  Emperor  took  the  advice  of  his 
doctors  and  the  German  Grand  Master,  in  which  the  Patriarch 
Gerold  of  Jerusalem  concurred,  and  landed  again  in  Otranto, 
postponing  his  Crusade  till  after  his  complete  recovery.  He 
handed  over  the  chief  command  to  the  Duke  of  Limburg  and, 
promising  to  follow  in  the  Spring  with  fresh  contingents,  he 
went  off  to  the  Baths  of  Pozzuoli  to  seek  a  cure.  He  imme 
diately  despatched  two  court  judges  to  the  Pope  at  Anagni  to 
announce  what  had  happened  and  to  excuse  his  defection. 


The  Emperor's  relations  with  Pope  Gregory  IX  during  the 
few  months  of  the  new  pontificate  had  been  friendly.  Frederick 
had,  on  several  occasions,  gone  out  of  his  way  to  gratify  the 
Pope,  and  there  existed  at  the  moment  no  grounds  for  irritation. 
The  Emperor  had  started  on  his  Crusade  according  to  agreement, 
and  Gregory  IX,  while  a  Cardinal,  had  always  seemed  parti 
cularly  favourable  to  the  erstwhile  protege  of  the  Church. 
Not  so  many  years  before  he  had  even  called  the  Hohenstaufen 
"the  Church's  beloved  sapling."  The  Pope's  benevolent 
attitude  had,  however,  undergone  a  radical  change.  Perhaps 
his  intimacy  with  St.  Francis  had  sharpened  his  senses  to  detect 
potential  foes,  perhaps  he  had  naturally  a  very  delicate  percep 
tion  ;  be  that  as  it  may,  Pope  Gregory  IX  was  the  first  fully  to 
realise  the  immense  danger  latent  in  Frederick  II  which  no 
one  else  yet  suspected.  Gregory  was  not  a  real  statesman 
but  an  astute  diplomat  with  an  eye  for  all  political  cabals,  and 
he  suddenly  detected — perhaps  during  the  days  of  the  Lombard 
Diet — the  dawning  of  a  new  danger  that  immediately  threatened 
the  States  of  the  Church.  For  the  Patrimony  blocked  the 
Emperor's  passage  from  south  to  north,  and  if  the  Emperor 
attained  sufficient  power  the  papal  territory  would  be  in  certain 
danger.  The  Pope,  judging  from  Frederick's  early  career, 
could  cherish  no  hope  of  making  the  Emperor  a  docile  tool  of 
the  Curia  :  he  saw  only  one  possible  line  of  action,  he  must  at 
all  costs  strive  to  keep  him  down.  From  the  first  moment  of 
his  power  Pope  Gregory's  one  aim  was  the  humiliation — if  not 
the  annihilation — of  Frederick  II. 


SEPT.  1227  EXCOMMUNICATION  171 

Gregory  IX  was  not  the  man  to  flinch  from  the  struggle. 
Though  an  old  man  he  was  still  strong  and  handsome  ;  he  was 
a  priest  who  knew  the  art,  and  loved  to  practise  it,  of  enhancing 
the  impressiveness  of  his  person  by  pomp  and  ceremony : 
tiara-crowned,  a  papal  Imperator.  The  wild  fire  of  his  youth 
still  burned  in  the  aged  man  and  flamed  up,  now  in  the  ecstatic 
mysticism  of  a  Francis  of  Assisi,  now  in  passionate  unbridled 
hate  towards  Frederick  II.  This  natural  bent,  reinforced  by  the 
recognition  of  threatening  danger,  make  him  ere  long  the  aggres 
sor.  For  Frederick  had  nothing  to  gain  and  much  to  lose  by  a 
conflict  with  the  Church.  Pope  Gregory  felt  himself  by  stern 
necessity  compelled  to  compass  the  destruction  of  the  Hohen- 
staufen.  He  seized  the  first  opportunity  of  compelling  the  foe 
to  fight. 

His  weapons  and  methods  were  for  the  most  part  unattrac 
tive  :  slight  untruths,  imputations,  calumnies  :  they  were  often 
too  transparent  and  produced  an  ugly  impression,  robbing  the 
Pope's  procedure  of  every  shadow  of  right,  especially  as  no 
one  but  himself  recognised  the  deeper  necessity  of  the  struggle. 
The  obstinate  old  man,  drunk  with  hate,  pursued  his  end  with 
singleness  of  aim  to  his  last  hour,  indifferent  to  the  fact  that  he 
was  called  a  "  heretic,"  that  he  was  forsaken  by  those  nearest 
him,  until  he  became — for  all  his  petty  dishonesties — not  only 
a  dangerous  enemy  but  a  great  one. 

Here  was  his  first  big  opportunity,  and  Gregory  launched 
forthwith  a  savage  attack  on  Frederick.  It  will  have  been  the 
1 2th  or  1 3th  September  that  the  Emperor  decided  to  halt  in 
Otranto ;  on  the  i8th  the  Pope  nominated  several  new  Lom 
bard  cardinals  to  strengthen  his  hand  ;  ten  days  later  he  ex 
communicated  Frederick.  He  had  not  received  the  imperial 
messengers,  still  less  given  them  a  hearing.  The  Pope  was 
entirely  within  his  rights  in  excommunicating  Frederick.  In 
accordance  with  the  agreement  of  San  Germano  the  Emperor 
was  declared  unreservedly  under  the  ban  if  for  any  reason 
whatsoever  he  failed  to  keep  the  appointed  date,  August  1227. 
In  consideration  of  his  illness  Gregory  could,  of  course,  have 
given  him  dispensation,  but  he  was  fully  entitled  to  exercise 
the  ban,  and  Frederick  II  always  recognised  the  right.  There 
was  no  dispute  as  to  the  facts  :  the  Emperor  had  not  started — 


173  PAPAL  MISREPRESENTATIONS  iv 

the  reason  was  irrelevant — he  had  therefore  incurred  the 
penalty.  Frederick  was  the  very  man  to  understand  that  facts 
should  weigh  heavier  with  the  Pope  than  reasons  or  motives. 
Gregory,  however,  looked  at  neither  the  one  nor  the  other. 
He  paid  no  heed  to  the  fact  of  the  Emperor's  illness  ;  he  would 
neither  see  nor  hear  the  numerous  witnesses  ;  he  immediately 
pronounced  it  to  be  counterfeit.  The  simple  truth  might  have 
sufficed  him.  Frederick  had  failed  to  keep  his  engagement ; 
Frederick  was  therefore  excommunicate.  The  whole  Christian 
world  would  have  understood.  People  were  tired  of  the  re 
curring  postponements  of  the  imperial  Crusade  and  none  too 
greatly  prejudiced  in  Frederick's  favour,  and  "  public  opinion  " 
was,  in  those  clearsighted  days,  a  potent  weapon,  dear  alike  to 
Pope  and  Emperor. 

Actual  events,  however,  played  a  small  part,  and  baseless 
accusations  a  large  one,  in  the  envenomed  encyclicals  of  the 
Pope.  Pope  Honorius  shared  the  blame  of  specifying  the 
month  of  August  as  the  date  of  starting.  He  and  the  Emperor 
were  calculating  how  to  secure  the  whole  autumn  and  winter 
for  the  Syrian  campaign,  and  they  gave  too  little  thought  to  the 
dangers  of  the  late  summer  heat  in  Southern  Italy.  The  choice 
of  Brindisi  as  starting  point  was  a  perfectly  natural  one.  It  was 
traditionally  a  favourite  port  for  the  Orient,  and  habitually  used 
by  the  Venetians  before  leaving  the  Adriatic  for  the  Mediter 
ranean.  Ignoring  these  things  Gregory  IX  represented  matters 
to  the  world  as  if  Frederick's  mismanagement  of  his  Sicilian 
kingdom — the  papal  fief— had  been  so  gross  that  he  was  driven 
to  the  choice  of  the  most  unhealthy  of  all  Sicilian  harbours  ; 
further,  that  he  deliberately  chose  the  most  unhealthy  month  of 
the  year  for  setting  out ;  farther,  that  he  intentionally  supplied 
too  few  ships  and  intentionally  detained  the  pilgrims,  and  was 
therefore  the  guilty  cause  of  the  Great  Death.  In  later  years 
Gregory  went  even  further  and  accused  Frederick  not  only  of 
intentionally  slaying  the  pilgrims  by  the  plague,  but  of  having 
poisoned  Count  Lewis  of  Thuringia.  On  this  theory  Frederick 
himself  was  suffering  from  mental  not  bodily  illness.  The 
Emperor  had  been  unwilling  to  tear  himself  from  the  luxuries  and 
lusts  of  his  kingdom  and  had  sacrificed  to  them  the  Holy  Land. 
Gregory  imparted  still  further  information  to  the  Christian 


DELIBERATE  BREACH  173 

world  :  the  Emperor  was  also  to  blame  for  the  catastrophe  of 
Damietta  and  the  Nile  (Frederick  had  in  fact  forewarned  the 
Pope  of  the  dangers  incurred),  he  had  allowed  his  followers  to 
loot  the  town  and  then  surrendered  it  to  the  Sultan.  From  the 
first  he  had  failed  to  fulfil  his  undertakings  about  the  new 
Crusade  :  he  had  not  only  been  short  of  ship  room — which  was 
true — but  had  made  no  arrangements  for  the  care  of  the  pil 
grims  ;  the  thousand  knights  which  he  was  to  provide  he  had 
not  provided  ;  the  100,000  ounces  of  gold  which  he  was  to  pay 
he  had  not  paid.  The  Sicilian  bishops  and  the  Sicilian  Admiral 
Henry  of  Malta  hastened  to  inform  the  Pope  that  their  master 
had  sent  considerably  more  than  a  thousand  knights  to  Syria  ; 
that  the  gold  had  been  paid  ;  that  the  Emperor  had  made  him 
self  responsible  for  the  transport  of  the  pilgrims,  but  not  for 
their  maintenance.  They  were  also  able  to  remind  the  Pope 
that  the  Lombards  had  failed  to  send  the  400  knights  which 
they  had  undertaken  to  do  under  the  Pope's  arbitration  award 
— the  only  penalty  they  were  to  pay  for  blocking  the  mountain 
road.  But  the  bishops'  protests  bore  no  fruit,  the  Pope  simply 
reiterated  his  excommunication  of  the  Emperor. 

Meanwhile  Frederick  had  stated  that  he  was  prepared  to 
undergo  any  Church  penances  that  might  be  assigned  him  as 
an  amende  honorable,  and  renewed  his  promise  to  sail  the  fol 
lowing  May.  He  looked  on  the  ban  as  the  usual  formal  Church 
penalty  incurred  by  dilatory  Crusaders  which  was  always  re 
scinded  on  due  penance  being  performed.  Pope  Gregory  had 
no  shadow  of  an  excuse  for  refusing  absolution  to  a  penitent 
offender  willing  to  make  amends.  But  the  Pope  had  other 
schemes  brewing  and  was  determined  to  continue  the  ban,  so 
he  took  up  an  entirely  new  line  of  attack  :  there  was  soon  no 
more  talk  of  the  abandoned  Crusade  save  as  a  side  issue ;  the 
front  of  the  Emperor's  offending  was  his  administration  of 
Sicily,  the  papal  fief ;  his  enslavement  of  the  Sicilian  Church  ; 
quarrels  long  since  disposed  of ;  the  banishment  of  the  barons, 
and  finally  a  mass  of  new,  baseless  accusations,  some  of  which 
can  be  proved  to  have  been  entirely  false.  Pope  Gregory  had  no 
wish  to  find  a  solution  of  the  conflict ;  he  did  his  best  to  make 
the  breach  complete.  Frederick  II  could  have  his  absolution 
only  on  condition  of  accepting  papal  tutelage  in  Sicily.  This  he 


i74  THE  ROMAN  MOB  iv 

could  not  conceivably  submit  to,  and  reconciliation  was  there 
fore  for  the  time  being  impossible. 

Pope  Gregory's  aim  was  probably  to  create  so  many  diffi 
culties  for  the  Emperor  in  the  West  that  an  imperial  Crusade 
in  the  following  May  would  be  a  sheer  impossibility.  If 
Frederick  again  failed  to  sail,  public  opinion  would  be  behind 
the  Pope  if  he  should  resume  the  Church's  fief  of  Sicily,  or 
even  depose  the  recreant  Emperor,  as  Innocent  had  once  de 
posed  the  Welf .  Lombardy  was  the  place  to  make  difficulties  : 
the  Pope  began  to  get  into  touch  with  the  Lombards.  He  had 
completely  overlooked  their  failure  to  provide  a  contingent  for 
the  Crusade  and  had  appointed  some  Lombard  cardinals  :  the 
entente  now  went  still  further.  Frederick  proposed  to  sum 
mon  the  German  princes  to  a  Diet  in  Ravenna  in  March  to 
discuss  the  breach  with  the  Pope.  The  Lombards,  at  Gregory's 
instigation,  threatened  again  to  bar  the  road,  so  the  Emperor 
was  forced  to  abandon  the  project.  The  understanding  be 
tween  Gregory  IX  and  the  Lombard  League,  which  now  em 
braced  almost  the  whole  of  Lombardy  except.  Cremona  and 
three  or  four  other  towns,  grew  and  flourished  till  it  blossomed 
into  a  formal  alliance.  The  Pope's  one  thought  was  how  best 
to  hinder  Frederick's  enterprise  ;  he  therefore  prompted  his 
Lombard  allies  to  seize  and  plunder  any  Crusaders  who  crossed 
their  territories  on  the  way  to  join  the  Emperor. 

Such  were  the  Pope's  first  preparations.  It  was  not  all  plain 
sailing  for  him,  however.  Maundy  Thursday  was  the  usual 
day  for  proclaiming  excommunications ;  when  Pope  Gregory 
renewed  the  ban  against  Frederick  II  an  unedifying  scene  fol 
lowed.  The  Roman  town  nobility,  led  by  the  Frangipani,  a 
family  whose  support  Frederick  had  won,  stirred  up  the  Roman 
populace  against  their  Bishop  ;  on  Easter  Monday  during  mass 
the  people  mobbed  the  Pope,  and  their  attitude  became  so 
threatening  that  Gregory  had  difficulty  in  extricating  himself 
and  escaping  to  the  Lateran.  But  the  mob  were  roused  and 
would  not  tolerate  his  presence  in  the  city,  so  that  he  was  forced 
to  accept  a  safe  conduct  and  fly  to  Rieti. 

For  a  long  time  Frederick  II  was  silent  under  all  the  Pope's 
attacks  ;  he  hoped  at  first  that  the  breach  would  soon  be  healed. 
At  last  he  decided  that  he  must  defend  himself  against  the 


FREDERICK'S  FIRST  MANIFESTO         175 

accumulated  accusations  and  reproaches,  and  now  on  his  side 
began  to  issue  circular  letters  to  the  world — his  first.  In  con 
trast  to  the  Pope's  effusions  the  Emperor's  were  accurate  and 
calm  :  they  rehearsed  without  betraying  heat  the  actual  facts 
of  the  Brindisi  happenings  and  the  conduct  of  the  Pope. 
Frederick  II  had  no  wish  to  widen  the  breach  which,  as  a 
chronicler  phrased  it,  "  confused  almost  the  whole  Christian 
world  with  new  and  unaccustomed  miseries."  He  kept  him 
self  well  in  hand.  Only  towards  the  very  end  of  his  first  letter 
is  there  a  trace  of  feeling  and  appeal,  when  he  solemnly  enters 
a  protest  before  "  heaven  and  the  circuit  of  the  earth,'*  and 
begs  the  recipients  of  his  letter,  the  kings  and  princes  of  Europe, 
the  bishops  and  nobles  of  Germany :  "  pray  cause  this  our 
present  letter  to  be  read  aloud  and  listened  to  with  honour  and 
respect,  so  that  from  its  contents  the  certainty  of  our  innocence 
may  be  clear  to  all,  and  clear  also  the  shame  which  is  being 
done  to  us  and  to  our  Empire."  A  remarkable  reception 
awaited  the  imperial  letter  in  Rome,  his  "  capital  city."  The 
Senate  and  People  of  Rome  insisted  that  the  Court  judge, 
Roffredo  of  Benevento,  should  publicly  read  the  Emperor's 
letter  from  the  Capitol. 

The  Emperor's  aim  in  issuing  his  manifestos  was  to  get  back 
to  facts.  He  did  not  plead  that  his  excommunication  was  un 
justified  ;  he  emphasised  that  he  had  incurred  it  solely  on 
account  of  the  non-fulfilment  of  his  crusading  vow.  For  the 
Pope  was  deliberately  obscuring  the  issue,  and  Frederick  was 
bent  on  bringing  it  again  to  light.  To  rob  the  Pope  of  his 
weapons  Frederick  solemnly  undertook  before  all  the  world  to 
sail  early  in  the  following  year,  "  unless  indeed  it  be — which 
God  forfend — that  the  new-awakened  bitterness  of  this  feud 
should  hold  us  back  against  our  will  from  such  a  holy  task." 
The  allusion  here  was,  of  course,  to  the  papal  intrigues  which 
Frederick  exposed  in  detail  in  two  subsequent  letters  :  the 
Pope,  in  the  sight  of  the  assembled  people  had  taken  the 
Milanese,  the  Emperor's  enemies,  into  favour  ;  the  Pope  had 
issued  orders  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Emperor  ;  the  Pope 
had  already  begun  to  foment  insurrection  in  Sicily  against  its 
king.  It  was  indeed  true  that  Gregory  IX  had  forbidden  the 
Sicilian  clergy  to  help  the  Emperor  in  any  way  with  his  new 


176  FREDERICK  SETS   SAIL  iv 

preparations,  and  that  he  was  now  threatening  to  release 
Frederick's  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  fealty  unless  the 
Emperor  would  obey  the  Curia.  The  Emperor  took  care  to 
keep  his  friends  informed  of  the  facts  :  the  Pope  refused  to 
accord  him  the  usual  Crusader's  blessing  on  his  departure  for 
the  Holy  Land  ;  he  refused  to  inform  the  venerable  Archbishop 
Albert  of  Magdeburg,  the  imperial  envoy,  what  penance  or 
amends  he  would  be  prepared  to  accept.  The  gravest  charge 
against  the  Pope,  and  one  to  which  Gregory  could  find  no 
answer,  was  reserved  for  the  last.  "  With  the  moneys  which  he 
has  received  to  aid  the  Crusaders  in  Christ's  work  this  Romish 
Priest  entertains  mercenaries  to  molest  us  in  every  way." 


Frederick  was  well  aware  that  the  best  his  writings  could 
accomplish  was  to  place  matters  in  a  certain  light,  and  that  he 
must  show  his  intentions  "  not  with  words  but  with  deeds." 
Only  thus  could  he  ward  off  the  Pope's  attacks  and  perchance 
even  turn  the  papal  weapons  against  the  Pope  himself :  by  his 
action  expose  the  Pope's  machinations  and  give  his  words  the  lie. 

Nothing  should  now  detain  him  from  the  Crusade,  not  even 
Gregory's  "  devilish  inspiration  "  in  forbidding  him  to  set  out 
till  he  had  been  released  from  the  ban.  The  Pope's  tactics 
were  too  obvious  :  the  excommunicated  Emperor  must  not 
start,  he  refused  to  lift  the  ban,  he  refused  to  state  what  amends 
would  be  acceptable.  If  Frederick  stayed  behind  the  Pope 
had  won  :  a  new  procrastination  would  justify  the  Pope's 
procedure.  It  was  in  the  circumstances  a  clever  move  of  the 
Emperor's  to  let  nothing  detain  him.  Only  some  visible  act 
could  make  him  again  master  of  the  situation  :  in  the  spring 
he  sent  on  in  advance  his  Marshal,  Richard  Filangieri,  with 
500  knights  to  the  Holy  Land,  held  himself  .a  Diet  in  Barletta 
at  which  he  appointed  Reginald  of  Urslingen,  Titular  Duke  of 
Spoleto,  as  Regent  of  Sicily.  He  then  embarked  on  his  galley 
and  at  the  end  of  June  set  sail  from  Brindisi,  having  just  received 
favourable  news  from  Syria. 

"  We  have  just  left  Brindisi  for  Syria  and  are  speeding  along 
before  a  favourable  wind  with  Christ  our  Leader  .  .  . , "  so  the 
banned  Emperor  announced  his  journey  to  the  world. 


POPE  INVADES   SICILY  177 

No  one  had  been  expecting  the  Emperor's  departure,  least 
of  all  Gregory  IX.  His  stiffhecked  implacability  put  him  into  a 
very  painful  position  :  "  We  do  not  know  whose  foolish  counsel 
he  hearkened  to,  or,  better  :  what  devilish  cunning  betrayed 
him  into  secretly  quitting  the  harbour  of  Brindisi  without  pen 
ance  and  without  absolution,  without  anyone's  knowing  for 
certain  whither  he  has  sailed."  The  fact  that  he  saw  himself 
placed  in  the  wrong  by  no  means  inclined  Gregory  to  give  in, 
rather  the  reverse.  Now  that  he  knew  the  Emperor  far  away 
he  had  a  free  hand  in  the  West.  No  sooner  had  he  received 
tidings  of  Frederick's  landing  in  Syria — whence  a  sudden  return 
was  not  to  be  feared — than  he  opened  the  long-prepared  war  : 
in  the  Empire  and  in  Sicily  he  released  all  subjects  from  their 
oath,  and  then  sought  to  set  up  a  rival  king  in  Germany.  He 
found  himself  another  Welf ,  but  his  protege  quickly  thought 
better  of  the  offer  and  opined  "  he  had  no  wish  to  die  the 
death  of  his  uncle,  Kaiser  Otto  IV."  In  other  ways,  too,  the 
Pope's  German  plans  missed  fire.  The  secular  princes  and 
the  bishops  remained  faithful  to  their  openhanded  Emperor, 
especially  as  there  was  nothing  particular  to  be  done  for  him 
at  the  moment :  they  were  completely  indifferent  to  the  papal 
ban  which  extended  to  their  sixteen-year-old  King  Henry  VII, 
and  by  the  time  the  news  of  Syrian  victories  began  to  penetrate 
to  Germany  even  the  common  people  were  criticising  the  Pope's 
intriguing  ways  :  "  The  Pope  would  seem  to  be  possessed  by  a 
devil,"  "  his  head  is  ailing,  hence  he  is  obstinate."  Another 
characterises  Gregory's  conduct  as  an  abhorred  sign  of  the 
decay  of  the  Church,  a  third  exclaims  :  "  Christian  folk  will 
suffer  from  it  till  the  Judgment  Day."  What  aroused  the 
greatest  indignation  against  Pope  Gregory  throughout  Ger 
many  and  everywhere  else  in  the  world  was  his  behaviour  in 
Sicily.  The  Emperor's  regent,  Reginald  of  Spoleto,  took  the 
Pope's  release  of  Frederick's  subjects  from  their  oath  to  be  a 
declaration  of  war  and  invaded  the  March  and  his  own  earlier 
dukedom  of  Spoleto  with  Sicilian  and  Saracen  troops — perhaps 
exceeding  his  instructions  in  so  doing.  Whereupon  the  Pope, 
who  had  long  since  made  full  preparations,  invaded  the  king, 
dom  of  Sicily  with  his  own  soldiers — the  first  army  to  fight  as 
Soldiers  of  the  Keys  under  the  banner  of  Peter — supported  by 


i78  POPE'S  UNPOPULARITY  iv 

the  Lombard  rebels.  A  body  of  Franciscans  under  his  orders 
worked  through  the  country  spreading  the  news  that  the 
Emperor  was  dead.  The  Sicilians  did  not  know  what  to  do, 
and  in  a  short  time  a  large  part  of  continental  Sicily  was  in  his 
hands.  People  now  began  to  believe  what  Frederick  had  said, 
that  the  Pope  was  using  Crusade  money  to  pay  his  soldiers,  and 
indeed  the  Pope's  vindictiveness  against  a  Crusader  was  in 
credible.  The  Pope  who  must  not  carry  out  a  death  sentence 
was  now  maintaining  a  papal  army  and  leading  it  to  battle 
against  a  Christian  prince,  and  a  Crusader  to  boot,  who  was 
absent  in  the  Holy  Land  fighting  for  the  true  religion,  and 
whose  land  and  property  ought,  according  to  time-honoured 
convention,  to  be  held  sacred  under  the  protection  of  the 
Church.  This  brought  the  Pope  into  such  bad  odour  that  no 
one  can  have  believed  his  final  justifications — in  which  there 
was  nevertheless  a  certain  truth — "  This  war  is  necessary  for  the 
Christian  faith  that  such  a  mighty  Persecutor  of  the  Church 
may  be  driven  from  his  throne."  Gregory  saw  the  dire  neces 
sity.  What  the  world  saw  was  the  reverse. 


The  Emperor's  resolution  to  leave  the  West  was  an  incom 
parably  daring  gamble  in  which  his  all  was  at  stake.  When  he 
sailed  Lombardy  was  already  lost.  He  knew  the  Pope's  in 
tention  to  release  his  Sicilian  subjects  from  their  allegiance  and 
resume  the  papal  fief.  He  knew  that  the  next  step  would  be 
to  dethrone  him.  He  was  sufficiently  experienced  to  have  no 
illusions.  His  whole  western  power  was  in  the  balance,  and 
if  defeat  awaited  him  in  the  East — a  visible  judgment  of  God 
against  the  "  hubris  "  of  the  excommunicated  man  who  with 
his  curse  upon  him  had  dared  to  set  foot  in  the  Holy  Land — 
then  his  thrones  were  lost,  and  with  them  his  dreams  of  Roman 
Empire.  There  was  no  alternative  :  he  must  at  all  costs  suc 
ceed.  There  was  heavy  work  ahead,  and  well  Frederick  knew 
it.  But,  as  he  said  himself,  he  let  none  perceive  his  anxieties, 
but  turned  the  same  confident  and  smiling  face  upon  the  world. 
This  crusade  adventure  of  the  excommunicated  Emperor,  pur 
sued  even  into  the  Holy  Land  by  the  papal  curse,  is  one  of  the 
most  stirring  episodes  in  his  eventful  life.  For  a  brief  space 


CYPRUS  179 

Frederick  II  was  cut  off  from  all  the  confusion  of  the  West,  as 
free  as  any  young  adventurer,  or  as  the  "  pirate  "  Gregory  DC 
called  him. 

It  was  with  a  fleet  of  forty  galleys  under  the  chief  command 
of  Admiral  Henry  of  Malta  that  Frederick  II  eventually  sailed 
from  Brindisi  in  June  1228.  He  was  accompanied  as  usual  by 
the  faithful  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo  and  the  imperial 
chamberlain  Richard,  a  Sicilian  who  had  never  left  the  Em 
peror's  side  since  he  journeyed  with  the  Puer  Apuliae  to 
Germany,  and  finally  by  Archbishop  Jacob  of  Capua,  who  also 
belonged  to  the  trusted  courtiers  of  the  Emperor.  Frederick's 
other  immediate  friends,  the  German  Grand  Master,  Count 
Thomas  of  Aquino  and  Marshal  Richard  Filangieri,  were  await 
ing  his  arrival  in  Syria.  There  were  many  Germans  too  in  the 
Emperor's  suite,  one  of  whom,  Conrad  of  Hohenlohe,  soon 
entered  his  personal  service.  Amongst  the  Saracen  retainers  who 
as  usual  accompanied  him  was  Frederick  II  's  teacher  of  Arab 
dialectic,  a  Sicilian  Saracen.  The  gifted  Frederick  was  to  find 
his  fluency  in  Arabic  conversation  of  more  value  than  warriors 
or  weapons. 

Pope  Gregory  was  not  wholly  beside  the  mark  when  he  stated 
that  no  one  knew  whither  the  Emperor  sailed,  for  Frederick  II 
was  killing  two  birds  with  his  one  stone.  Three  weeks  after 
leaving  Brindisi,  and  sailing  mainly  close  to  the  coast  past  Corfu, 
Cephalonia,  Crete  and  Rhodes,  the  Emperor's  galleys  cast 
anchor  in  Limassol,  the  harbour  of  Cyprus.  The  prince  of  the 
island,  Amaury  of  Lusignan,  had  at  his  own  request  done 
feudal  homage  to  the  Emperor  Henry  VI  and  received  the 
crown  at  his  hands,  and  since  then  Cyprus  had  been  counted 
a  fief  of  the  Roman  Empire.  During  the  years  of  chaos  in 
Germany  the  island  had  been  lost  to  the  Empire  and  Frederick 
had  long  intended  to  reconquer  it.  This  necessitated  an  inter 
ruption  of  his  journey.  The  Emperor  looked  on  it  as  one  of 
his  duties  to  reassemble  under  one  firm  hand  the  scattered 
possessions  of  the  Empire,  but  Cyprus  had  just  now  particular 
importance  as  a  base  for  the  Syrian  campaign.  This  large 
island  could  easily  support  a  thousand  fighting  men  who  could 
release  the  Emperor's  own  troops  for  other  work.  We  need 
only  mention  here  that  Frederick  without  fighting,  though  not 


i8o 


IV 


JOHN  OF  IBELIN  181 

without  a  few  adventures,  achieved  what  he  wanted.    He  con 
cluded  an  agreement  with  John  of  Ibelin,  the  guardian  of  the 
twelve-year-old  king,  a  Syrian  nobleman  who  enjoyed  a  great 
reputation  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Christian  East  as  a 
lawyer  and  a  scholar,  and  was  renowned  for  his  shrewdness, 
eloquence  and  ingenuity.   By  this  agreement  the  regency  passed, 
in  accordance  with  German  feudal  law,  to  the  Emperor,  who 
immediately  nominated  a  Sicilian  regent  and  installed  Sicilian 
chatelains  in  all  the  fortresses,  while  he  appointed  finance 
officials  to  collect  the  revenues  of  the  various  districts.  Ibelin  and 
the  Cypriot  knights  were  carried  off  to  fight  in  the  Holy  Land. 
Such  was  the  result  of  the  halt  in  Cyprus,  which  lasted  many 
weeks.     Individual  events  on  the  island  belong  to  the  epic  story 
of  knightly  deeds  which  constitutes  the  life  of  Frederick  II. 
People  loved  to  hear  and  tell  how  John  of  Ibelin,  leader  of  the 
anti-imperial  party,  appeared  before  the  Emperor  in  mourning 
for  his  dead  brother.    The  Emperor  immediately  sent  him  the 
most  costly  scarlet  robes  and  begged  him  to  put  them  on  :  for 
his  joy  at  welcoming  the  Emperor  must  surely  triumph  over 
his  grief  for  a  lost  brother.    A  day  or  two  later  a  brilliant  ban 
quet  was  held  at  which  Ibelin  sat  on  the  Emperor's  right  hand 
while  his  sons  served  as  pages.    As  the  feast  drew  to  a  close 
the  castle  gradually  filled  with  sailors  and  armed  men  from  the 
Emperor's  galleys,  while  Frederick  in  a  stern  tone  demanded 
an  account  of  Ibelin's  guardianship.     Confounded,  Ibelin  at 
first  could  make  no  reply.    The  Emperor  wrathfully  swore  to 
arrest  him,  when  the  celebrated  jurist  was  inspired  to  one  of 
his  famous  speeches  which  held  Frederick  spellbound,  as  often 
before  Ibelin  had  enthralled  the  feudal  court.     The  episode, 
however,  had  alarmed  Ibelin.    A  night  or  so  later  he  took  flight 
secretly  with  his  knights,  who  had  been  instant  in  warning  him, 
and  were  minded  to  avenge  themselves  for  Frederick's  auto 
cratic  behaviour.     The  Emperor  heard  the  noise  and  fearing 
an  ambush  slept  the  night  on  board  his  ship,  and  next  morning 
pursued  the  fugitive  who  had  fled  to  the  castle  Dieu  d 'Amour, 
well  known  to  be  difficult  to  capture.    The  agreement  closed 
the  adventure.    Ibelin  followed  the  Emperor  to  the  Holy  Land 
and  for  the  moment  did  him  good  service  there,  biding  his 
time  for  revenge. 


iSz         CRUSADER  FACTIONS          iv 

The  news  of  Frederick's  speedy  triumph  in  Cyprus  must  have 
preceded  him  to  Syria.  On  landing  in  Acre  he  was  hailed  with 
indescribable  joy,  and  the  pilgrims  greeted  the  Pope's  accursed 
as  the  "  Saviour  of  Israel,"  mindful  of  the  ancient,  ever-living 
prophecy  that  an  Emperor  would  come  out  of  the  West  to 
fulfil  the  time,  to  unite  East  and  West,  and  to  free  Jerusalem. 
Even  the  clergy  appeared  to  welcome  him ;  though  they  refused 
the  kiss  of  homage,  the  Templars  and  the  Knights  of  *St.  John 
knelt  before  the  excommunicate  Emperor.  The  Muslims  be 
lieved  that  the  mighty  Emperor  of  the  West,  the  "  King  of  the 
Amirs,"  had  come  with  uncounted  hosts,  and  they  were  afraid. 

They  soon  found  out  that  the  fear  was  groundless.  Frederick 
had  assembled  in  Acre  at  most  ten  thousand  pilgrims  and  some 
thousand  knights,  and  he  could  not  wholly  trust  even  this 
exiguous  force.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  two  Franciscan 
emissaries  of  the  Pope  made  their  appearance,  commanding 
that  none  should  render  obedience  to  the  banned  Emperor. 
Thus  the  quarrel  between  Pope  and  Emperor  was  carried  even 
into  the  Holy  Land,  where  Frederick's  fulfilment  of  his  vow 
might  have  been  expected  to  effect  his  release  from  the  ban. 
The  Emperor's  position  as  leader  of  Christendom  was  under 
mined,  and  the  pilgrims  split  into  two  hostile  camps.  The 
Sicilians,  the  Germans  with  the  Order  of  Teutonic  Knights, 
the  Pisans  and  Genoese  remained  faithful  to  the  Emperor,  but 
all  the  rest,  the  English  and  French  with  the  Templars  and 
the  Knights  of  St.  John,  and  above  all  the  clergy,  concentrated 
on  one  purpose  :  to  hinder  the  Emperor  in  every  way  and  to 
nullify  his  every  action.  For  the  sake  of  the  cause  Frederick 
exercised  the  greatest  self-restraint  and  sought  to  obviate  all 
grounds  of  discord.  He  went  so  far  as  to  hand  over  the  nominal 
leadership  to  the  Grand  Master,  Hermann  of  Salza,  Marshal 
Richard  Filangieri  and  the  Syrian  Constable,  Odo  of  Mont- 
beliard,  so  that  no  one  should  need  to  obey  an  excommunicated 
leader.  He  even  acquiesced  in  the  Templars*  demand  that 
orders  should  no  longer  be  issued  over  the  imperial  name  but 
in  the  name  of  God  and  of  Christendom.  All  moderation  on 
the  Emperor's  part  was  fruitless  as  long  as  the  Pope  and  his 
Legate,  Gerold,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  hounded  his  enemies 
on.  Their  hostile  propaganda  strengthened  from  day  to  day. 


MUSLIM  SITUATION  183 

The  situation  was  aggravated  by  the  news  that  Pope  Gregory 
had  released  the  Emperor's  subjects  from  their  allegiance. 
Under  such  unhappy  auspices  Frederick  began  his  difficult 
enterprise  in  the  East.  Circumstances  forbade  warlike  action 
against  the  Saracens,  even  if  that  had  formed,  as  it  did  not,  part 
of  Frederick's  plan. 


A  short  while  before,  the  position  in  the  East  had  been  phe- 
nominally  favourable  for  Frederick  II.  The  Muslim  princes 
were  at  strife  with  each  other  and  the  Emperor  had  hoped  to 
take  advantage  of  their  rivalries.  He  had  been  carrying  on 
negotiations  for  a  long  time  back  with  al  Kamil,  the  Sultan  of 
Egypt.  Al  Kamil  was  a  nephew  of  the  chivalrous  Saladin,  the 
first  of  the  Ayyubids  whose  immense  Empire  was  divided  up 
at  his  death  ;  he  conceived  himself  threatened  by  his  brother 
al  Muazzam,  Sultan  of  Damascus,  and  sought  to  win  allies 
against  him.  The  Sultan  of  Egypt  therefore,  as  soon  as  he 
heard  of  the  Emperor's  projected  Crusade  into  Syria — which 
would  necessarily  make  Frederick  a  enemy  of  the  Sultan  of 
Damascus — immediately  sent  ambassadors  to  Sicily  to  invite 
an  alliance,  promising  to  give  up  to  Frederick  the  whole  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  which  they  would  conquer  together, 
and  begging  only  the  Emperor's  speedy  arrival.  Further  em 
bassies  were  interchanged,  led  on  Frederick's  side  by  Arch 
bishop  Berard  of  Palermo,  and  on  the  Sultan's  by  the  Amir 
Fakhru'd  Din ;  presents  were  exchanged,  one  of  the  gifts  to 
Frederick  being  an  elephant,  and  negotiations  had  reached  a 
fairly  advanced  stage  when  Frederick  reached  Acre — much 
later  than  originally  intended — and  at  once  announced  his 
arrival  to  the  Sultan  through  his  Syrian  regent  Count  Thomas 
of  Aquino. 

The  story  later  ran  that  the  Sultan  had  spread  the  streets 
with  carpets  to  welcome  Frederick  II :  even  in  a  metaphorical 
sense  this  is  far  from  true.  Al  Kamil  was  lying  at  Nablus  with 
a  great  army.  He  received  the  Emperor's  envoys  with  the 
greatest  honour,  held  a  review,  and  sent  Fakhru'd  Din  on  his 
behalf  to  the  Emperor  with  costly  gifts,  fabrics  and  gems,  riding 
camels  and  mules.  All  talk  of  handing  over  Jerusalem,  how- 


184  PAPAL  INTRIGUES  iv 

ever,  suddenly  ceased  ;  the  general  situation  had  greatly  altered 
to  Frederick's  disadvantage.  The  feared  al  Muazzam,  the 
Sultan  of  Damascus,  their  common  foe,  was  dead,  and  his  little 
son  could  scarcely  rank  as  a  serious  enemy.  So  al  Kamil,  who 
had  also  concluded  an  alliance  with  the  Sultan  of  Mesopotamia, 
had  conquered  a  large  part  of  the  Damascus  territory,  including 
Jerusalem,  without  Frederick's  help.  His  western  ally,  whom 
he  had  so  urgently  summoned  and  to  whom  he  had  promised 
so  much,  was  for  the  moment  an  encumbrance,  for  the  Emperor 
would  want  land  which  the  Egyptian  Sultan  had  just  conquered 
on  his  own  behalf.  Al  Kamil,  therefore,  had  recourse  to  the 
time-honoured  Oriental  device  of  exercising  lavish  politeness, 
inexhaustible  courtesy,  the  liveliest  assurances  of  friendship, 
and  maintaining  the  silence  of  the  grave  on  the  point  at  issue. 
The  Sultan,  moreover,  was  aware  of  the  weakness  of  Frederick's 
actual  forces,  the  quarrel  in  the  Christian  camp,  and  the  breach 
between  Emperor  and  Pope.  So  before  long  he  completely 
"  forgot  "  the  Emperor's  existence  and  quietly  overlooked  the 
notary,  his  new  messenger. 

The  Emperor's  position  was  desperate.  He  must  have  suc 
cess,  and  everything  was  conspiring  against  him.  He  could  not 
dream  of  attacking  al  Kamil's  mighty  army  ;  the  pilgrims  and 
the  troops  whom  he  had  marched,  by  way  of  demonstration,  a 
little  nearer  to  Nablus  as  far  as  Jaffa,  were  on  the  point  of  star 
vation,  for  storms  had  detained  their  supply-ships  ;  the  nego 
tiations  on  which  he  had  built  so  much  had  fallen  through  ; 
sensational  news  was  arriving  from  Italy  about  the  Pope's 
activities,  and — worst  of  all — the  disaffection  in  his  own  camp 
was  on  the  increase.  Intercepted  letters  proved  that  the  Pope 
was  conjuring  the  Sultan  on  no  account  to  hand  over  Jerusalem 
to  the  Emperor.  The  Pope  stooped  to  this  because  the  success 
of  the  banned  Emperor  would  mean  the  Judgment  of  God 
against  himself .  That  his  contemporaries  were  ready  to  believe 
in  the  Pope's  treachery  is  shown  both  by  spurious  letters  of  the 
time  and  by  the  Crusade  sagas  which  grew  up  round  the  events 
of  the  day.  Later  versions  even  relate  the  capture  of  Frederick, 
and  tell  how  the  Pope  had  a  "  counterfeit  "  of  Frederick  made, 
and  sent  the  portrait  to  the  Sultan  so  that  he  might  make  no 
mistake  about  the  person  of  his  victim. 


FAKHRU'D  DIN  185 

Meanwhile  Frederick  had  not  gained  a  foot,  and  his  presence 
was  urgently  needed  in  Sicily  while  he  bootlessly  wasted  valu 
able  time.  It  is  not  hard  to  believe  his  own  later  account  that 
at  times  he  wept  with  rage  and  grief  and  thought  of  turning 
back,  but  "  I  began  to  treat  of  peace  and  of  agreements  and 
hastened  preparations  for  my  return,  concealing  my  consuming 
pain  behind  a  cheerful  countenance  so  that  the  enemy  might 
not  triumph  and  rejoice."  It  is  true  that  in  these  cheerless 
days  negotiations  were  resumed  by  help  from  the  enemy  him 
self.  The  Sultan's  ambassador,  the  Amir  Fakhru'd  Din,  was 
attached  to  Frederick  by  profound  admiration  and  personal 
friendship.  He  gave  the  Emperor  a  hint  that  something  might 
be  accomplished  by  changing  his  envoy — the  present  one  being 
none  too  acceptable  to  the  Sultan.  So  Count  Thomas  of 
Aquino  was  sent  once  more  to  the  Sultan  in  place  of  the  notary 
while  Frederick  treated  with  Fakhru'd  Din,  which  all  goes  to 
indicate  how  important  the  personal  factor  was  throughout. 
The  Emperor  was  a  past  master  in  the  art  of  discussion.  The 
charm  of  his  personality,  his  astounding  knowledge,  his  quick 
ness  of  repartee  made  him  the  equal  of  any,  though  at  times  his 
passionate  pride  and  his  biting  wit  led  him  into  danger.  In 
this  case,  however,  where  he  was  not  upholding  claims  but 
seeking  favours,  this  danger  was  absent,  and  it  may  well  be 
that,  after  all  the  dissensions  of  his  own  camp,  the  conversations 
with  the  cultured  and  courteous  Fakhru'd  Din  were  restful  and 
refreshing.  Frederick  had  complete  command  of  Arabic,  and 
was  acquainted  with  the  Arab  poets  ;  his  amazing  knowledge 
of  philosophy,  logic,  mathematics  and  medicine,  and  every 
other  branch  of  learning  enabled  him  to  turn  any  conversation 
into  the  philosophical  channels  dear  to  the  Oriental  heart.  He 
had  been  completely  successful  in  his  handling  of  his  Saracen 
colonists  of  Lucera,  and  now  he  moved  amongst  the  Saracen 
princes  with  the  perfect  savour  fair  e  of  an  accomplished  man  of 
the  world.  So  he  conversed  away  with  Fakhru'd  Din  about 
philosophy  and  the  arts  of  government,  and  Fakhru'd  Din  must 
have  had  much  to  tell  his  master  about  the  Emperor. 

Al  Kamil  was  the  very  man  to  appreciate  such  qualities.  He 
was  an  oriental  edition  of  the  Emperor,  unless  indeed  it  be  more 
correct  to  call  the  Emperor  an  occidental  edition  of  the  Sultan. 


!86  PERSONAL  DIPLOMACY  iv 

Al  Kamil  loved  to  dispute  with  learned  men  about  jurisprudence 
and  grammar,  beloved  especially  of  the  Arab  ;  he  was  himself 
a  poet — some  of  his  verses  still  survive — and  in  his  mountain 
castle,  as  they  tell,  "  fifty  scholars  reclined  on  divans  round  his 
throne  to  provide  his  evening  conversation."  He  spent  money 
willingly  in  the  furtherance  of  learning  ;  founded  a  school  in 
Cairo  for  the  study  of  Islamic  Tradition,  and  appointed  salaries 
for  jurists.  People  praised  his  courteous  bearing  as  much  as 
his  stern  and  impressive  dignity.  In  addition  he  was  an  ad 
mirable  administrator,  who  checked  his  own  revenues  and  even 
invented  new  varieties  of  tax.  He  had  no  more  fancy  than 
Frederick  for  aimless  bloodshed  if  the  end  could  be  reached  by 
friendly  means,  and  so  it  came  about  that  their  negotiations 
presently  bore  fruit. 

The  little  that  we  know  suffices  to  make  it  clear  that  Frederick 
set  himself  to  win  the  personal  friendship  of  the  Muslims.    He 
had  not  come  to  seek  conquests,  but  peaceably  to  take  over  the 
districts  that  had  previously  been  offered  him.    "  I  should  not 
have  sought  to  win  such  terms  from  the  Sultan  had  I  not  been 
fearful  of  losing  my  prestige  amongst  the  Franks,"  he  said  quite 
frankly  at  the  close,  and  probably  the  same  tone  had  prevailed 
throughout.    While  the  negotiations  were  in  progress  not  a 
whisper  of  their  political  significance  was  audible  outside. 
People  have  sorely  reproached  the  Emperor  for  this  secretive- 
ness,  which,  however,  was  imposed  on  him  by  the  papal  intrigues 
and  the  dissensions  in  the  Christian  camp.     It  was  revolting  to 
Gregory's  supporters  that  the  Emperor  should  treat  at  all  with 
unbelievers.    Even  the  Swabian  poet,  the  "  Freidank,"  an 
admirer  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  himself  a  Crusader,  thought  it 
high  time  there  should  be  "  an  end  of  whisperings,"  whose 
worth,  in  the  absence  of"  high  counsel,"  he  gravely  questioned. 
Neither  the  papal  nor  the  German  party  could  tolerate  this 
autocratic  method  of  imperial  negotiations,  centring  round 
the  person  of  the  Emperor  alone,  divorced  from  the  advice  of  the 
great.    Yet  this  method  suited  al  Kamil  as  well  as  it  suited  the 
Emperor.    We  know  that  he  was  wont  to  conduct  the  affairs 
of  state  singlehanded,  without  reference  to  his  Wazir  ;  indeed, 
on  the  death  of  his  Wazir  he  omitted  to  appoint  a  successor  and 
contented  himself  with  the  services  of  a  scribe.    Frederick  was 


1229  TREATY  WITH  MUSLIMS  187 

shrewd  enough  to  perceive  how  much  might  be  achieved  by 
mutual  personal  friendship  and  courtesy,  that  was  unattainable 
by  public  discussion.  A  certain  degree  of  give  and  take  was 
possible  in  secret — and  it  was  now  a  question  of  giving  on  both 
sides.  The  treaty  which  Frederick  concluded  on  the  i8th  of 
February,  1229,  is  most  obviously  coloured  by  the  personal 
desire  to  please  on  al  KarmTs  side.  The  Christians,  however, 
felt  it  to  be  rather  a  weak  point  that  there  were  no  guarantees 
on  either  side  save  the  personal  good  faith  of  Emperor  and 
Sultan.  According  to  this  agreement  Frederick  was  to  receive 
back  Jerusalem  with  the  exception  of  the  Haramu'sh  Sharif,  the 
sacred  enclosure  in  which  the  mosque  of  'Urnar  and  the  rock 
temple  of  Solomon  were  situate.  The  Christian  pilgrims,  how 
ever,  were  permitted  to  perform  their  prayers  in  this  area,  and 
the  Muslims  conversely  theirs  in  Bethlehem,  which  was  ceded 
to  Frederick.  The  Emperor  also  acquired  Nazareth  and  a  strip 
of  land  running  from  Jerusalem  to  the  coast,  further  Sidon  and 
Caesarea,  Jaffa  and  Acre,  and  some  other  places.  All  these 
might  be  fortified  by  the  Christians,  and,  though  the  kingdom 
of  Jerusalem  was  not  to  be  militarised,  a  ten-year  truce  was 
concluded  which  Frederick  hoped  to  renew  with  his  friend  al 
Kamil  on  its  expiry. 


The  treaty  was  not  without  its  weak  points,  but  the  papalists' 
attacks  on  it  as  a  "  patchwork  "  were  unjust.  Frederick  II, 
the  banned  Emperor,  had  done  what  no  other  Emperor  had 
succeeded  in  doing,  what  all  Crusaders  had  failed  to  do  since 
Saladin  conquered  Jerusalem — he  had  set  free  the  Holy  City. 
When  Frederick  assembled  the  German  pilgrims  and  announced 
the  news  they  broke  out  into  shouts  of  uncontrolled  rejoicing. 
On  the  advice  of  Hermann  of  Salza  the  Emperor  decided  him 
self  to  enter  the  liberated  Jerusalem  at  the  head  of  the  pilgrims. 
The  joy  of  his  adherents  was  equalled  only  by  the  rage  of  his 
enemies.  The  Emperor's  success  was  for  the  Pope  the  most 
unwelcome  thing  that  could  have  happened.  The  Patriarch, 
unsuccessfully,  forbade  the  pilgrims  to  enter  Jerusalem  with  the 
Emperor.  He  was  infuriated  by  Frederick's  omission  to  consult 
him,  and  also  by  the  rejoicing  of  the  Germans,  and  wrote  to  the 


i88  MU&LIMS  AND  JERUSALEM  iv 

Pope :  "  The  Germans  had  only  one  thought,  to  be  free  to  visit 
the  Holy  Sepulchre ;  they  were  the  only  nation  who  raised 
paeans  of  praise  and  illuminated  the  town  in  festal  wise  ;  all 
others  considered  the  whole  thing  a  folly." 

Gerold's  hatred  of  the  Emperor  finally  exceeded  all  bounds. 
He  informed  the  Pope  at  great  length  about  the  treaty,  empha 
sising  pharisaically  its  weak  points — many  of  which  were 
primarily  attributable  to  his  own  multiple  treachery — and 
painted  the  Emperor  as  a  fool  who  had  allowed  himself  to  be 
hoodwinked  by  the  Mussulmans.  He  was  more  particularly 
embittered  because  the  treaty  contained  not  a  word  about  the 
restoration  of  Church  and  Monastery  property.  The  Pope  lost 
no  time  in  further  blackening  this  report  and  circulating  it  to 
the  world,  maliciously  representing  Frederick's  conduct  as  dis 
graceful  in  treating  at  all  with  the  Infidel  and  permitting  the 
Heathen  to  worship  in  Jerusalem.  He  was  skilful  in  glossing 
over  the  fact  that  Frederick  had  after  all  accomplished  more 
than  all  the  mighty  Crusaders  of  recent  times. 

The  loss  of  Jerusalem  made  so  unhappy  an  impression  on 
the  Musulmans  that  it  is  quite  clear  that  al  Kamil  had  gone  to 
the  utmost  limit  of  the  possible.  Saladin  had  written  once  to 
Cceur  de  Lion :  "  Jerusalem  is  to  us  as  holy  as  to  you,  nay, 
more  holy,  for  thence  the  Prophet  made  by  night  his  flight  to 
Heaven,  and  there  the  angels  are  wont  to  assemble."  The 
Khalif  of  Baghdad  called  him  to  account,  the  other  Sultans  were 
wroth  with  him,  and  mourning  for  the  loss  of  the  Holy  City, 
which  was  felt  to  be  a  most  bitter  blow  to  Islam,  rose  to  open 
demonstrations  against  al  Kamil.  Finally,  a  service  of  protest 
was  held,  which  the  Sultan  punished  only  by  the  confiscation 
of  the  treasures  of  the  mosque — an  expedient  which  probably 
impressed  Frederick.  The  Muslims,  however,  conceded  that 
al  Kamil,  who  had  himself  called  the  Emperor  to  his  help, 
had  been  in  a  dilemma,  and  they  comforted  themselves  with 
thoughts  of  the  future  and  of  the  Will  of  Allah.  The  Sultan's 
advantage  in  this  pact  was  slight,  and  consisted  mainly  in  having 
secured  for  himself  the  opportunity  of  pursuing  his  campaigns 
of  conquest  undisturbed  by  a  new  Crusade,  which  would  cer 
tainly  have  followed  his  refusal  to  surrender  Jerusalem.  Al 
KamiPs  relations  with  Kaiser  Frederick  grew  more  and  more 


SARACEN  CHIVALRY  189 

cordial,  though  partisans  on  both  sides  bitterly  resented  this 
friendship  with  one  of  an  alien  faith. 

Frederick  II  owed  his  great  success  unquestionably  to  the 
Amir  Fakhru'd  Din,  and  tradition  has  it  that  the  Emperor 
knighted  him  and  gave  him  permission  to  wear  the  imperial 
eagle  on  his  shield.  There  is  nothing  improbable  in  this  ; 
similar  tales  are  told  of  Coeur  de  Lion.  For  the  world  of 
East  and  West  was  then  one  great  knightly  comradeship,  in 
which  there  reigned  so  much  common  chivalry  that  the  barriers 
of  religion  were  not  insuperable.  The  aristocratic  standards  of 
chivalry  were  indeed  earlier  developed  in  the  East,  in  Persia, 
than  in  Europe,  as  the  epic  of  Firdausi  and  many  another  poem 
reveals  to  us.  Both  in  East  and  West  this  feeling  for  knightly 
comradeship  was  a  living  thing,  and  the  epic  of  the  West  always 
represents  the  Saracen  knights  as  conspicuously  noble  and 
distinguished :  think  only  of  Feirefiss,1  Parzival's  black-and- 
white  brother,  of  Ortnit's  helper,  of  the  wise  heathen  Zacharias, 
of  Ariosto's  Medor,  and,  above  all,  of  Saladin,  the  pearl  of 
oriental  chivalry,  to  whom  Dante  accorded  a  place  in  Elysium, 
beside  the  great  pagan  heroes  and  poets,  though  it  was  he  who 
had  taken  Jerusalem  from  the  Christians. 


The  Emperor  had  still  something  to  learn  of  Saracen  chivalry. 
He  was  anxious  to  visit  the  place  of  Christ's  baptism  on  the 
Jordan  and  set  out  from  Jerusalem  with  a  few  followers.  The 
Templars,  who  had  allowed  themselves  to  become  the  blind 
tools  of  the  Patriarch,  sent  news  of  this  expedition,  apparently 
at  the  direct  instigation  of  the  Pope,  to  the  Sultan  al  Kamil : 
here  was  his  chance  to  take  Frederick  prisoner,  and  if  he  wished 
to  make  away  with  him.  "  Disgusted  by  this  low  treachery," 
and  not  sorry  to  put  to  shame  the  Pope's  Christian  knights, 
al  Kamil  sent  the  letter  with  a  covering  note  to  the  Emperor, 
who  from  that  time  forward  cherished  an  undying  hatred  of 
the  Templars.  He  was  grateful  for  the  Sultan's  friendship, 
which  he  cherished  till  al  Kamil's  death  and  then  transferred 
to  his  son. 

1  Feirefis,  Old  French :  vaire  fiz,  "  the  particoloured  son,"  Wolfram  von 
Eschenbach,  i.  1705. — Tr. 


igo  RELIGIOUS  TOLERANCE  iv 

The  Arabs  on  their  side  preserved  kindly  memories  of  the 
Emperor.  Partly  from  motives  of  expediency  and  partly  from 
genuine  inclination  Frederick  II  liked  to  make  himself  one  of 
the  Saracens.  He  had  a  great  admiration  for  their  science,  and 
he  purposely  paraded  also  his  unfeigned  respect  for  their  re 
ligion  and  their  customs .  The  Muslims  related  many  anecdotes 
of  the  Emperor  in  this  regard,  which  tally  well  with  utter 
ances  of  Frederick's.  The  Emperor,  for  instance,  attended  the 
Mosque  of  'Urnar  with  one  of  the  Sultan's  amirs.  As  he  came 
forth  he  saw  a  Christian  priest  standing  at  the  door  of  the 
sanctuary  with  the  gospel  in  his  hand  begging  from  the  pilgrims, 
and  even  from  the  Emperor  himself.  Enraged  at  this  breach 
of  the  Saracen's  hospitality  Frederick  smote  him  on  the  chest 
and  knocked  him  down,  shouting  "  Thou  viper  .  .  .,  we  are 
naught  but  the  slaves  of  the  Sultan  who  allows  us  so  many 
privileges,  and  thou  darest  to  transgress  the  bounds  that  he  has 
set !  The  next  of  you  who  so  offends  I  shall  most  surely  slay." 
The  Emperor's  violence  when  roused  was  well  known,  and 
many  anecdotes  of  it  are  told. 

In  Jerusalem  Frederick  lodged  in  the  house  of  the  Qazi 
Shamsu'd  Din.  The  Sultan  had  expressly  given  orders  out  of 
courtesy  to  his  friend,  whose  religious  feelings  he  did  not  wish 
to  offend,  that  the  muazzins  must  not  chant  the  call  to  prayer 
during  the  Emperor's  stay.  One  of  them  forgot,  and  at  the  time 
for  morning  prayer  mounted  the  minaret  and  sang  out  the 
verses,  expressly  directed  against  the  Christian  faith,  "  He  be- 
getteth  not,  neither  is  he  begotten,  and  there  is  none  like  unto 
him,"  and  so  forth.  The  Qazi  reproved  him  and  the  next 
night  he  refrained.  In  the  morning,  however,  the  Emperor 
summoned  the  Qazi  and  asked  him  why  the  muazzin  had  not 
chanted  the  call  to  prayer.  The  Qazi  quoted  the  Sultan's 
orders.  "  O  Qazi  " — Frederick  is  said  to  have  replied — "  you 
are  doing  wrong  to  alter  your  cult,  your  customs,  your  religion 
for  my  sake.  You  would  not  need  to  do  so  even  if  you  were 
in  my  country."  This  was  quite  true.  An  Arabic  scholar,  who 
in  later  years  visited  King  Manfred,  was  not  a  little  surprised 
to  hear  the  muazzins  calling  the  faithful  to  prayer  from  the 
minarets  of  Lucera.  The  story  about  different  religions  and 
the  three  rings  was  told  in  relation  to  Frederick.  The  Arabs 


A  POLITICAL  CRUSADE  191 

learnt  on  another  occasion  that  the  Emperor  refused  to  be 
hedged  within  conventional  boundaries  and  had  an  opinion  of 
his  own  about  religion,  differing  in  many  points  from  that 
current  in  his  day.  On  the  cupola  of  the  Sakhrah  mosque  in 
Jerusalem  Frederick  read  the  golden  inscription  of  the  con 
queror  Saladin  :  "  Saladin  cleansed  this  temple  of  the  poly- 
theists."  The  Emperor  pretended  not  to  understand,  and  for 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Muslims'  embarrassment  insisted  on 
their  explaining  to  him  who  the  polytheists  could  be.  They 
told  him  that  the  Christians  with  their  Trinity  were  meant. 
He  then  went  on  to  ask  "  What  is  the  point  of  the  grill  over  the 
doors  of  the  mosque  ? "  "  To  keep  out  the  sparrows  " ;  where 
upon  the  Emperor — using  the  Arabic  term  of  contempt  for 
Christians  as  " unclean " — smiled  and  said,  "Yet  Allah  has 
brought  the  swine  amongst  you  after  all/* 

With  phrases  like  these  Frederick  II  shocked  even  the 
Saracens  themselves  ;  they  thought  he  could  scarcely  be  even 
a  Christian,  bat  must  be  some  materialist  who  denied  the  im 
mortality  of  the  soul.  They  had  no  great  opinion  of  his  looks 
— he  was  beardless  and  of  medium  height — "  If  he  were  a  slave/' 
they  said,  "  he  would  not  be  worth  two  hundred  drachmas  " ; 
but  his  dignified  bearing  and  his  bonhomie  were  appreciated. 
The  Muslims  were  amazed  when  at  the  time  of  midday  prayer 
almost  all  the  Emperor's  servants  and  one  of  his  teachers  stood 
up  and  went  through  the  orthodox  Muhammadan  ritual  as  true 
believers  :  they  were  the  Sicilian  Saracens  of  the  Emperor's 
household. 

So  Frederick  did  not  even  maintain  the  pretence  of  a  war  for 
the  faith  :  his  Crusade  was  purely  an  affair  of  state,  a  matter 
concerning  the  Empire,  not  the  Church,  and  this  could  not  have 
been  made  clearer  than  by  the  existence  of  his  Muslim  retinue. 
It  was  perfectly  natural  for  Frederick,  from  the  political  point 
of  view,  to  pose  as  an  Oriental  here  in  Syria.  Napoleon  in 
Egypt  was  prepared  to  go  considerable  lengths  and  loved  to  be 
called  Sultan  al  Kabir.  Making  due  allowance  for  the  difference 
of  centuries  great  men  on  the  human  side  are  much  alike.  Each 
of  these  wanted  in  the  East  to  be  an  Oriental.  The  same  im 
pulse  made  Frederick  occasionally  use  pure  oriental  formulas. 
In  concluding  the  Treaty  he  swore,  for  instance,  "  to  eat  the 


192  ORIENTAL  LEARNING  iv 

flesh  of  his  left  hand  "  if  he  should  break  the  agreement.  Once, 
when  negotiations  had  come  to  a  standstill,  the  Emperor  ad 
vanced  towards  Jaffa,  sending — in  the  symbolism  of  the  Orient 
— his  imperial  weapons,  armour  and  helmet,  to  the  Sultan  to 
indicate  that  he  still  had  these  resources  behind  him. 

The  Orient  had  different  connotations  for  these  two  great 
men.  Unstinted  admiration  of  the  Arab  mind  was  the  weigh 
tiest  factor  with  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor.  For  Frederick  II 
lived  in  a  day  when  the  East  was  the  source  of  all  European 
knowledge  and  science,  as  Italy  and  Roman  culture  were  to  the 
barbarian  North,  as  of  old  the  art  and  philosophy  of  Hellas 
were  to  Italy.  The  spirit  of  the  medieval  Church  was  im 
prisoned  in  formula  and  dogma,  the  fetters  could  be  loosened 
only  by  oriental  hellenistic  knowledge,  chiefly  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  Nature.  Frederick  was  more  determined  than  any 
contemporary  to  unlock  these  stores  of  knowledge,  and  he  was 
destined  to  be,  in  virtue  of  his  mental  receptiveness  and  his 
Sicilian  birth,  the  great  intermediary  and  reconciler  of  East  and 
West.  He  may  be  seen  in  philosophic  discourse  with  Fakhru'd 
Din,  exchanging  geometric  and  algebraic  questions  with  al 
Kamil,  mixing  with  the  most  celebrated  Arab  astronomers 
whom  he  had  begged  the  Sultan  to  lend  him.  Architecture 
again  claimed  his  attention,  as  so  often.  He  studied  the  octa 
gonal  Mosque  of  'Umar  in  Jerusalem,  with  the  cupola  of  green 
and  gold  and  the  artistic  pulpit,  which  he  mounted  with 
admiration.  He  even  collected  information  for  his  hunting. 
"  When  we  were  in  the  Orient  we  observed  that  the  Arabs 
themselves  use  a  hood  in  hawking,  for  the  Arab  kings  sent  us 
their  most  skilful  falconers  with  falcons  of  every  kind." 

It  is  self-evident  that  affairs  of  state  naturally  challenged  his 
most  serious  attention  ;  a  conversational  fragment  is  instructive. 
He  was  discussing  the  Khalifate  with  Fakhru'd  Din.  The 
Amir  explained  to  the  Emperor  how  the  Khalifate  of  the 
Abbasids  could  be  traced  back  in  unbroken  line  to  al  Abbas, 
the  uncle  of  the  Prophet,  and  thus  still  remained  in  the  family 
of  the  Founder.  "  That  is  excellent/'  said  Frederick,  "  far 
superior  to  the  arrangement  of  those  fools,  the  Christians. 
They  choose  as  their  spiritual  head  any  fellow  they  will,  without 
the  smallest  relationship  to  the  Messiah,  and  they  make  him 


THE  "ASSASSINS"  193 

the  Messiah's  representative.  That  Pope  there  has  no  claim 
to  such  a  position,  whereas  your  Khalif  is  the  descendant  of 
Muhammad's  uncle."  Here  speaks  the  pride  of  race  of  one 
who  later  loved  to  style  himself  "  son  and  grandson  of  Emperors 
and  Kings  " — in  contrast  to  the  Pope — and  here  we  see  too  his 
reverence  for  natural  above  spiritual  law,  for  Frederick  was 
fully  emancipated  from  the  excessive  mysticism  of  his  time. 

These  things  all  gave  a  pretext  for  the  papal  reproach  that 
Frederick  II  had  adopted  Saracen  customs.  Legend,  partly 
friendly,  partly  malicious,  strengthened  this  belief.  The 
Saracen  dancing  girls,  whom  the  Sultan  had  sent  for  his  enter 
tainment  became,  in  the  Pope's  letters,  Christian  women  whom 
Frederick  had  compelled  to  dance  before  the  Infidel  before 
being  outraged.  An  English  pilgrim  even  wrote  home  that  the 
Emperor  had  married  the  Sultan's  daughter  and  fifty  Saracen 
women.  His  marriage  with  Isabella  of  Jerusalem  may  have 
lent  colour  to  this  story,  perhaps  also  the  fact  that  he  had  a 
natural  son,  Frederick  of  Antioch,  of  whose  mother  nothing 
was  known  and  whose  name  suggested  an  oriental  origin. 
People  later  even  explained  the  normal  dress  of  the  Muslim 
women,  the  black  "  chadar,"  as  mourning  for  Frederick  which 
the  women  had  worn  ever  since  his  departure. 


It  is  obvious  that  Frederick's  stay  in  the  Holy  Land  kindled 
the  imagination  of  his  contemporaries  in  the  very  highest  degree, 
especially  his  relationship  to  the  Assassins  (Hashishin),  with 
one  branch  of  whom,  the  Ismailites  of  Lebanon,  he  did  in 
fact  exchange  embassies.  The  Hashishin  were,  as  Marco  Polo 
recorded  a  generation  kter,  a  fanatical  sect  who  were  trained 
to  the  most  unquestioning  obedience  by  their  leader,  Hasan  i 
Sabbah,  the  so-called  "  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain,"  and  com 
mitted  every  kind  of  murder  for  the  service  of  Islam.  Suitable 
boys  were  selected  and  for  years  subjected  to  a  most  spartan 
regime,  the  delights  of  Paradise  recounted  to  them  the  while. 
When  the  right  moment  came  they  were  given  a  draught  of 
hashish  with  their  usual  frugal  meal.  When  they  awoke  it  was 
to  find  themselves  in  a  veritable  garden  of  Paradise,  which  the 
"  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain  "  had  contrived  in  a  beautiful 


194  LEGENDS  ABOUT  FREDERICK  iv 

valley.  Here  all  the  realistic  promises  of  the  Qur'an  were 
fulfilled,  streams  flowed  with  honey,  milk  and  wine,  there  were 
leaping  fountains,  huris  and  boys.  After  a  few  days  of  glorious 
enjoyment  the  disciples  were  given  a  second  draught,  from 
which  they  woke  to  find  themselves  again  at  the  Old  Man's 
table,  filled  with  yearning  for  the  Paradise  they  had  tasted. 
They  were  promised  a  return  to  Paradise  if  they  should  find 
death  in  their  master's  service.  The  one  ambition  of  the 
Hashishin  was,  therefore,  speedy  death. 

The  Emperor  had  had  intercourse — though  very  transitory — 
with  this  terrible  sect  whose  daggers  had  laid  low  innumerable 
distinguished  crusaders,  and  people  told  tales  of  a  visit  he  was 
alleged  to  have  paid  to  the  "  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain."  To 
demonstrate  the  obedience  of  his  people  the  Old  Man  had 
signalled  to  two  who  were  standing  at  the  top  of  a  high  tower  ; 
happy  to  attain  Paradise  so  soon,  they  hurled  themselves  down 
at  his  bidding.  A  later  version  represents  Frederick  as  rearing 
his  own  "  obedient  stabbers  "  on  similar  lines.  He  locked 
children  in  a  cellar,  it  was  said,  showed  himself  very  rarely,  and 
had  them  taught  that  the  Emperor  was  God  Almighty.  When 
the  little  prisoners  learned  this  : 

They  thought  that  this  indeed  was  so, 
The  Kaiser  was  Lord  God  below. 

No  prince  was  murdered  during  Frederick's  lifetime  whose 
death  was  not  ascribed  to  Frederick's  assassins,  and  even  the 
Popes  did  not  scorn  to  spread  such  rumours. 

These  tales,  of  course,  lack  all  historic  truth,  but  it  is  interest 
ing  to  note  how  tales  of  horror  and  wonder  tend  to  focus  round 
one  great  name,  partly  in  order  to  gain  greater  credence  from 
its  authority  and  partly  out  of  a  strange  desire  to  see  two  incon 
gruous  elements  brought  together  in  one  person's  story — the 
real  and  the  fantastic  ;  Muhammad  and  Christ ;  Kaiser  and 
Khali  f.  The  oriental  atmosphere  that  surrounds  the  figure  of 
Frederick  II  was  a  necessary  factor  in  the  evolution  of  the  auto 
cratic  mind,  which  loved  to  exercise  the  unchallenged  caprice 
of  a  master.  The  Puer  Apuliae  has  developed  and  revealed 
himself :  he  is  no  longer  the  fate  and  destiny  of  individuals  ; 
but  as  the  Emperor,  imitating  the  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain 


MUSLIM  FRIENDS  195 

and  playing  God  to  his  little  prisoners  in  the  cellar,  he  becomes 
himself  the  fate  or  destiny  of  communities  and  peoples. 


There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Emperor  was  deeply  impressed 
by  the  unquestioning  obedience  that  he  saw  and  by  the  un 
limited  autocracy  of  the  oriental  despot  and  the  aura  of  Fate 
that  surrounded  them.  A  few  years  later  the  Pope  wrote 
bitterly  to  him :  "  In  thy  kingdom  of  Sicily  no  man  dares 
move  a  hand  or  foot  save  at  thy  command." 

In  all  the  anecdotes  and  reported  conversations  that  record 
Frederick's  words  and  deeds  during  his  Syrian  stay,  one  recur 
ring  note  is  the  immense  admiration  and  reverence  that  he 
displayed  for  men  and  things.  No  doubt  this  had  a  political 
value — but  the  same  is  true  throughout  his  life.  When 
Frederick,  in  later  days,  was  showing  distinguished  visitors  his 
priceless  planetarium,  in  which  sun,  moon  and  stars  moved  in 
mysterious  harmony,  he  loved  to  tell  that  this  was  a  gift  of  his 
Arab  friend  the  Sultan,  who  was  dearer  to  him  than  any  living 
man  save  only  King  Conrad,  his  son  and  the  heir  of  his  body. 
Such  a  phrase  indicates  how  boundless  was  the  admiration  felt 
by  this  greater  Emperor  for  the  Muslim  princes — himself  almost 
sole  arbiter  of  the  West.  Constantly  tie  proud  boast  recurs  : 
"  The  Hohenstaufen  Emperor,  friend  of  the  Muslim  King  " ; 
when,  for  instance,  he  begs  on  occasion  the  loan  of  a  small  force 
from  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  to  intimidate  the  Lombard  rebels,  or 
when  he  opines  that  certain  events  in  the  East  would  not  have 
taken  place  if  he  had  had  his  way,  sighing :  "  Ah  ...  if  my 
friend  al  Kamil  were  alive  .  .  . ! "  Or,  at  a  Diet  of  the  German 
princes  in  Friuli,  when  the  Emperor  received  with  ostenta 
tious  favour  a  deputation  from  his  Arab  friends  and  celebrated 
with  them — in  sight  of  bishops  and  princes — in  a  great 
banquet  the  Muhammadan  feast  of  the  Hijrah,  and  then  de 
parted  for  Apulia  in  company  with  his  Muslim  guests  ;  or 
when  for  a  long  time  he  mourns  and  bitterly  laments  the  death 
of  his  friend,  al  Kamil — whom  he  had  scarcely  ever  met — the 
chronicler  who  reports  this  imperial  grief  suggests  a  remarkable 
cause  :  the  Sultan  had  perished  unbaptised.  All  indications 
point  to  the  fact  that  for  the  only  time  in  his  life,  now  vis-d-vi$ 


196  ARAB  ADMIRATION  xv 

the  East,  Kaiser  Frederick  felt  himself  to  be  the  learner  and 
the  gainer.  He  is  ever  ready  to  acknowledge  the  debt  and 
proclaim  himself  the  disciple  ;  or,  to  use  his  own  strong  ex 
pression,  "  We  are  all  naught  but  slaves  of  the  Sultan."  That 
sums  up  the  situation.  On  every  convenient  occasion  Frederick 
endeavours  to  imitate  his  Eastern  models,  to  pose  as  one  of 
themselves.  He  sends  mathematical  and  philosophical  ques 
tions  to  the  Sultans,  or  begs  the  Khalif  for  his  good  offices  to 
convey  an  imperial  letter  on  such  topics  to  one  scholar  or 
another.  After  his  return  to  the  West  Frederick  kept  up  his 
Eastern  correspondence,  and  recounts  to  his  Muslim  friends 
his  quarrels  with  the  Pope  and  with  the  Lombards,  quoting  by 
the  way  the  famous  Arab  poets  and  imitating  Arab  custom  in 
the  endless  titles  he  gives  himself :  Frederick,  son  of  Kaiser 
Henry,  son  of  Kaiser  Frederick,  etc.,  etc.  He  does  not  omit 
the  customary  emulation  in  the  giving  of  gifts  :  al  Kamil  had 
presented  him  with  an  elephant,  Frederick  sends  him  in  return 
a  polar  bear,  which  to  the  amazement  of  the  Arabs  eats  nothing 
but  fish.  It  is  easy  to  detect  the  Emperor's  pride  in  being  thus 
able  to  return  the  Sultan's  costly  gift.  In  his  intercourse  with 
Easterns  Frederick  displays  the  gratitude  which  the  Pope  used 
to  demand  from  him  in  vain.  Only  from  the  East  did  Frederick 
in  fact  receive  new  ideas  and  intellectual  stimulus. 

The  Emperor  was  naturally  not  indifferent  to  the  impression 
he  created  ;  he  succeeded  in  exciting  great  admiration  :  no 
western  prince  has  ever  evoked  so  much  affection  and  under 
standing  as  he.  Not  only  did  they  admire  the  encyclopaedic 
learning  of  the  Emperor,  who  maintained  erudite  correspon 
dence  with  the  learned  men  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  Iraq,  Arabia, 
Yemen,  as  well  as  Morocco  and  Spain,  but  they  followed 
all  the  more  important  events  of  his  life  with  unflagging 
interest.  They  knew  of  his  Lombard  troubles,  of  the  con 
spiracies  engineered  by  the  Pope,  spoke  familiarly  of  Tuscany 
and  Lombardy ,  quoted  admiringly  the  interminable  titles  of  the 
Emperor  in  which  all  his  kingdoms  and  provinces  were  re 
hearsed  by  name.  "  I  wished  to  include  this  letter  (with  the 
titles),"  writes  an  Arab  historian,  "  to  record  what  territories 
are  united  under  the  sceptre  of  this  Emperor  and  King.  In 
truth  there  has  never  been  in  Christendom  since  the  days  of 


MARCH  1229      ENTRY  INTO  JERUSALEM  197 

Alexander  a  monarch  like  to  this,  not  only  because  of  his  power 
but  because  he  challenges  the  Pope  to  battle,  their  Khalif,  and 
drives  him  from  the  field."  A  hundred  years  later  people  still 
quoted  Frederick  on  the  political  constellations  of  Italy  :  who 
ever  wished  to  rule  in  Italy — he  had  said — must  be  good  friends 
with  the  Pope,  must  have  Milan  in  his  power,  and  must  possess 
good  astrologers. 

It  was  a  highly  intellectual  "  Marriage  Festival  of  Susa  "  that 
Frederick  celebrated  when  he  surrendered  to  the  East  as  all 
great  men  have  done  since  Alexander  of  Macedon,  each  after 
his  own  kind.  What  intoxicated  the  Hohenstaufen  was  not  the 
space  nor  the  sensual  magic,  which  had  been  familiar  to  him  as 
a  Sicilian  from  his  boyhood,  but  the  inspiring  freedom  of  the 
spirit,  unfettered  by  scholastic  philosophy  and  church  dogma. 
He  was  the  first  and  only  medieval  Emperor  who  drank  of  the 
spirit  of  the  East  and  came  home  to  fuse  it  with  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  the  Empire  of  the  Salians  and  the  Hohenstaufens. 


It  was  the  Eastern  triumph,  not  merely  Eastern  travel  that 
won  for  Frederick  the  halo  of  the  Caesars.  On  the  iyth  of 
March,  1229,  the  Emperor  Frederick  II  made  his  entry  into  the 
royal  city  of  Jerusalem.  In  defiance  of  Patriarch  Gerold's 
commands,  the  bulk  of  the  pilgrims  followed  him,  impelled 
partly  by  the  yearning  to  do  reverence  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
partly  by  the  desire  to  witness  how  the  age-old  prophecy  would 
be  fulfilled,  of  the  Messianic  ruler  of  the  West  who  should  set 
free  Jerusalem.  More  than  ten  years  before  a  widespread  Arab 
prophecy  had  named  the  Calabrian  King  as  Saviour  of  the 
Tomb,  and  many  thought  that  King  of  the  East  was  drawing 
nigh  who  should  attack  Islam  in  the  rear.  It  was  true  enough 
that  the  Muslims  had  a  hard  fight  to  fight  in  the  further  East, 
but  no  man  knew  in  all  its  fulness  what  this  meant.  For  the 
distant  thunder  was  the  trampling  of  Chingiz  Khan's  mounted 
hordes,  while  the  Christians  were  still  thinking  of  the  Nestorian 
Prester  John,  whom  men  compared  to  Alexander,  and  with 
whom  the  Emperor  was  supposed  to  have  exchanged  remark 
able  embassies.  There  was  no  doubt  at  all  in  the  minds  of 
"  the  Pious,"  as  Frederick  now  began  for  the  first  time  to  style 


198  POPE  IRRECONCILABLE  iv 

his  adherents,  that  the  Hohenstaufen  Frederick  II  whom  the 
pilgrims  followed  was  the  true  Emperor  of  the  Fulfilment  who 
as  by  a  miracle  had  succeeded  in  freeing  Jerusalem,  "  without 
battle,  without  instrument  of  war,  without  bloodshed/*  as  the 
promise  ran.  To  the  papalists  the  Emperor  now  appeared  to 
assume  the  features  of  the  impious  Anti-Christ  who  should 
take  his  seat  like  a  God  in  the  temple  of  the  Almighty  for  the 
confusion  of  the  faithful. 

On  the  day  of  his  entry  Frederick  immediately  betook  himself 
to  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre,  "  In  order,"  as  he  wrote,  "as 
a  Catholic  Emperor,  to  worship  reverently  at  the  grave  of  our 
Lord."  The  whole  world  assumed  that  since  the  Emperor  had 
now  not  only  fulfilled  his  vow  to  make  a  Crusade,  but  had  also 
accomplished  the  liberation  of  Jerusalem,  he  would  be  forth 
with  released  from  the  papal  ban.  ...  "  For  no  ban  can  endure 
longer  in  the  eyes  of  God  than  a  man's  sin,"  so  "  Freidank  " 
declared,  in  almost  heretic  phrase,  challenging  thereby  the  papal 
claim  "  to  bind  and  to  loose."  Even  more  anti-papal  was  his 
next  clause :  "  Obedience  is  good  as  long  as  the  Master  worketh 
righteousness.  If  the  Master  seek  to  compel  the  servant  to  do 
what  is  wrong  before  God,  then  the  servant  must  quit  his 
master  and  follow  him  who  doeth  right."  Many  another  pil 
grim  shared  Freidank's  views,  and  in  Germany  the  Pope  was 
often  styled  a  "  heretic."  The  Emperor,  too,  was  hopeful  that 
his  excommunication  would  now  be  ended.  He  wanted  to 
arrange  for  a  Sunday  Mass  in  the  Church  of  the  Sepulchre. 
The  wise  and  prudent  Hermann  of  Salza,  however,  dissuaded 
him  from  thus  rashly  forestalling  the  Pope  and  challenging  his 
further  displeasure,  for  all  the  attempts  at  reconciliation  that 
Frederick  had  made  before  and  after  his  arrival  in  the  Holy 
Land  had  been  ignored,  or  had  only  provoked  a  renewal  of  the 
ban.  The  Pope's  unforgiving  spirit  was  turned  to  good  account. 
Thanks  to  it,  it  came  about  that  on  the  i8th  of  March,  the 
fourth  Sunday  before  Easter,  there  took  place  in  Jerusalem  in 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  the  most  memorable  self- 
coronation  of  an  Emperor  that  the  world  was  to  see  till  the  days 
of  Napoleon.  In  full  imperial  State  the  banned  and  excom 
municated  Emperor — outside  the  congregation  of  the  faithful — 
accompanied  by  followers  and  friends,  crossed  the  threshold  of 


SELF-CORONATION  199 

the  sacred  edifice.  Here,  where  the  first  king  of  Jerusalem, 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  with  humble  emotion,  refused  to  wear  a 
golden  circlet  where  his  Lord  had  worn  a  crown  of  thorns  ; 
here,  without  intermediary  of  the  Church,  without  bishop, 
without  coronation  mass,  Kaiser  Frederick  II,  proud  and 
unabashed,  stretched  forth  his  hand  to  take  the  royal  crown 
of  the  Holy  City.  Striding  towards  the  altar  of  the  Sepulchre 
he  lifted  from  it  the  crown,  and  himself  placed  it  on  his  own 
head — an  act,  whether  so  intended,  of  far-reaching  symbolism. 
For  thus,  on  the  holiest  spot  of  all  the  Christian  universe,  he 
asserted  a  king's  immediate  vassalhood  to  God,  and  without  the 
interposition  of  the  Church  approached  his  God  direct  as  a 
triumphant  conqueror. 

Frederick  II  made  no  effort  to  derive  from  doctrines  and 
theories  a  belief  in  the  immediate  relationship  of  God  to 
Emperor — a  doctrine  fiercely  denied  by  the  Popes  since  the 
evolution  of  the  Hierarchy — he  based  it  on  the  miracles  of  his 
own  career,  obvious  to  all  and  far-renowned,  which  proved  as 
nothing  else  could  do  that  God's  immediate  choice  rested  on 
his  imperial  person,  if  not  on  his  imperial  office.  This  personal 
element  could  be  reinforced  by  doctrine,  such  as  the  teaching 
of  a  certain  supernatural  character  inherent  in  the  imperial 
majesty.  Before  the  great  breach  Pope  Gregory  had  written 
that  God  had  installed  the  Emperor  as  a  Cherub  ;  he  had  been 
elevated  "  not  as  a  Seraph  but  as  a  second  Cherub,  as  a  token 
of  resemblance  to  the  only-begotten  son,"  so  they  wrote  later. 
This  angelic  character,  which  Pope  Innocent  had  claimed  for 
himself — "  less  than  God,  but  more  than  man  " — was  alluded 
to  by  Frederick  in  the  words  wherewith  he  announced  the  im 
perial  triumph  in  Jerusalem  to  the  world  at  large.  Immediately 
after  the  coronation  Frederick  made  a  public  speech  to  the 
assembled  pilgrims,  while  Hermann  of  Salza  repeated  the 
Emperor's  words  in  Latin  and  in  German.  The  same  speech, 
greatly  expanded  and  enriched,  formed  the  basis  of  a  manifesto 
which  was  to  announce  the  glory  of  this  day  to  all  the  world  : 
magniloquent  pathos  in  which  the  Emperor's  more  than  mortal 
voice  should  make  itself  heard  throughout  the  entire  orbis 
terrantm.  "  Let  all  that  are  of  righteous  heart  rejoice  and 
give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  who  hath  taken  pleasure  in  his 


200  JERUSALEM  MANIFESTO  iv 

people  as  they  praised  the  Emperor  of  Peace.  Let  us  praise  him, 
whom  the  angels  praise.  .  .  ."  The  very  first  phrases  place 
Frederick  in  the  due  proximity  to  God  amongst  the  angels,  like 
them  aloft  above  the  people,  and  now  through  the  Emperor's 
rnouth  is  heard  the  very  voice  of  God  himself  making  known 
to  the  peoples  the  deeds  of  the  Emperor  as  his  own:  "God 
he  is  the  Lord,  and  it  is  he  alone  who  worketh  great  wonders, 
it  is  he  who  mindful  of  his  own  mercy  renews  in  our  day  the 
marvels  that  he  wrought  of  old,  as  it  is  written.  For  God  when 
he  would  make  known  his  might  hath  need  neither  of  chariots 
nor  of  horses  :  he  hath  shewn  his  power  by  the  small  number 
of  his  instruments,  that  all  peoples  might  see  and  know  that  he 
is  terrible  in  his  might  and  glorious  in  his  majesty  and  mar 
vellous  in  his  planning  beyond  all  the  sons  of  men.  For  in  these 
few  last  days,  more  by  the  power  of  his  wonders  than  by  men's 
courage,  he  hath  happily  caused  that  work  to  be  accomplished 
which  for  long  times  past  many  princes  and  many  mighty  of  the 
earth  with  the  multitude  of  their  peoples  have  all  essayed  in 
vain." 

Thus  Frederick  ascribes  to  God  what  he  himself  had  done, 
and  while  the  Emperor  praises  the  triumph  of  the  One  God  he 
skilfully  (with  God)  praises  himself.  Then,  after  an  appeal  to 
the  nation,  he  bursts  out:  "See  ye,  now  is  the  day  of  that 
salvation  .  .  .",  and  the  manifesto  proceeds  to  recount  the  won 
derful  proofs  of  God's  counsel  and  help  displayed  from  the 
beginning.  The  pitiable  plight  of  the  pilgrims  in  Jaffa  is 
pictured  when  suddenly  the  storms  have  cut  off  all  supplies  and 
when  thereupon  fear  and  murmuring  waxed  strong  amongst 
them.  God  commanded  the  winds  and  the  sea  and  a  great 
calm  fell,  and  all  men  cried  "  How  great  is  he  that  commandeth 
the  winds  and  the  waters  and  they  obey  him."  The  Emperor 
then  related  other  difficulties,  all  of  which  God  and  his  Son 
had  miraculously  solved  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  Emperor. 
How  the  hostile  Sultans  had  lain  at  the  distance  of  but  one  day's 
journey,  and  how  Christ  himself,  having  witnessed  from  on  high 
the  Emperor's  patience  and  long  suffering,  so  directed  the  nego 
tiations  that  the  Holy  City  was  yielded  to  the  Emperor  and  the 
treaty  was  ready  for  confirmation  on  the  very  day  of  our  Lord's 
resurrection.  Finally,  the  scene  in  Jerusalem  was  briefly  painted 


KING  OF  JERUSALEM  201 

when  the  excommunicated  Emperor  donned  the  crown,  "  For 
Almighty  God  from  the  throne  of  his  majesty  in  the  plentitude 
of  his  grace  hath  exalted  us  above  all  the  princes  of  the  earth, 
that  all  may  know  that  the  hand  of  the  Lord  hath  done  this. 
And  all  who  revere  the  True  Faith  shall  proclaim  far  and  wide 
that  'the  blessed  of  God  hath  visited  us  and  hath  wrought 
salvation  for  his  people  and  hath  exalted  a  horn  in  the  house 
of  his  servant  David.' " 

Beneath  the  appearance  of  humble  devotion  all  this  ascription 
of  each  success  to  God  served  but  to  exalt  the  Emperor  himself. 
This  was,  moreover,  the  first  time  that  Frederick  II  had  adopted 
the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  about  the  Son  of  God  and  applied 
them  to  his  own  Majesty  :  through  the  God-Kingship  of  David 
approaching  the  Saviour.  There  was  nothing  sensationally 
new  in  this.  All  the  Emperors  since  Charlemagne  had  held 
themselves  to  be  the  heirs  and  successors  of  King  David,  the 
Chosen  of  God,  and  this  was  an  argument  for  the  ancient  claim 
of  the  imperial  immediacy.  The  coronation  formula  has  this 
in  mind,  "  David  thy  son  thou  hast  exalted  to  the  summit  of 
Kingship."  The  claim,  however,  was  one  thing  ;  its  actual 
realisation  was  another.  For  Frederick  II  was  not  merely 
claiming  intellectually  the  inheritance  of  David,  but  claimed 
miraculously  to  have  entered  into  actual  possession  of  his 
inheritance,  and  showed  himself  to  all  the  world  as  King  of 
Jerusalem.  Men  sang  the  praises  of  the  Emperor,  "  David 
wast  thou  in  Jerusalem,"  and  Frederick  himself  wrote  "  It  fills 
us  with  joy  that  our  Saviour  Jesus  of  Nazareth  also  sprang  from 
David's  royal  stock."  Similar  thoughts  were  in  the  mind  of  a 
German  poet  who  celebrated  the  Emperor's  triumphs  of  these 
days  in  pompous  hexameters  comparing  Frederick  to  Jeru 
salem's  other  King  : 

Jerusalem  gaude  nomen  Domini  venerare 

Magnifica  laude  :  vis  ut  dicam  tibi  quare  ? 

Rex  quia  magnificus  Jesus  olim,  mine  Fridericus, 

Promptus  uterque  pati,  sunt  in  te  magnificat!. 

Obtulit  ille  prior  semet  pro  posteriori 

Et  pro  posterior  sua  seque  prioris  honore.  .  .  . 

Both  ICings  of  Jerusalem,  in  Christian  times  Christ  the  first, 
Frederick  the  last,  the  Saviour  and  the  Emperor,  both  thought 


202  VOW  REDEEMED  iv 

of  together  as  the  successors  of  David,  as  the  Son  of  God,  the 
spirits  like  unto  angels  that  mediate  between  God  and  man. 
Godfrey  and  his  successors  on  the  throne  of  Jerusalem  had 
rejoiced  in  no  such  connection,  but  then  they  had  not  been 
Roman  Emperors,  Rulers  of  the  World. 

"  Christus  vincit,  Christus  regnat,  Christus  imperat,"  the 
historic  coronation  cry  of  the  Sicilian  kings,  dating  from  the 
earliest  days  of  Christianity,  when  still-surviving  paganism 
represented  Christ  in  the  figure  of  Apollo,  was  more  than  ever 
the  watchword  of  the  triumphant  world  ruler.  Frederick  II 
was  fain  to  compare  himself  wielding  the  swords  of  justice  and 
of  power  with  the  royal  and  victorious  Christ,  the  hero  of  the 
Germanic  peoples,  as  the  old  Saxon  poem  of  the  Heliand 
depicted  him,  the  warrior  Lord  with  his  battle  companions. 
This  was  Kaiser  Frederick's  limit.  Quite  expressly  this  Ful- 
filler  of  the  Law  had  been  called  "  a  token  of  similarity  to  the 
Only-Begotten  Son  as  second  Cherub  not  a  Seraph.  .  .  ."  But 
the  "  Other  "  had  become  man  once  more :  Francis  of  Assisi  had 
again  incarnated  the  seraphic  Christ,  the  Redeemer,  the  Sufferer. 

While  still  a  boy  Frederick  II  had  offered  himself  to  God 
after  his  first  triumph  in  Aix.  Fifteen  years  later  in  the  prime 
of  life,  in  his  thirty-fifth  year,  he  had  in  Jerusalem  made  good 
his  boyish  vow,  and  in  a  second  triumph  united  himself  with 
God.  The  distant  future  held  a  third  triumph  in  store. 
Frederick's  triumphs  were  always  of  the  kind  that  opened  to 
him  new  spheres.  A  critical  change  is  to  be  noted  :  in  the 
Puer  Apuliae  the  Church  herself,  and  with  her  Pope  Innocent 
III,  had  triumphed  ;  in  the  godlike  triumph  of  the  excom 
municate  Emperor  in  Jerusalem  the  Church  had  neither  part 
nor  lot — through  the  fault  of  the  irreconcilable  High  Priest. 
Not  one  word  of  Frederick's  manifesto  alludes  to  the  Church 
triumphant ;  the  Victor  was  God,  was  the  Saviour  and  through 
God  the  Emperor.  Their  deeds  are  one  and  the  relation  of  the 
miracles  bring  thereof  the  clearest  proof ;  they  display  Frederick 
in  tune  with  God,  much  as  Caesar's  tale  of  portents  on  the 
day  of  Pharsalia,  showed  Caesar  in  harmony  with  the  Roman 
Pantheon.  Not  through  the  Church,  but  alongside  and  with 
out  the  Church,  Frederick  II  had  consummated  his  triumph 
as  it  were  an  unio  mystica.  It  is  not  irrelevant  to  note  how 


A  NEW  ERA  203 

the  Emperor's  great  antagonist,  St.  Francis,  through  deepest 
humiliation,  achieved  outside  the  Church  his  union  with  God. 
Neither  the  glorious  triumph  of  the  Emperor  nor  the  un 
exampled  humility  of  St.  Francis  could  in  fact  find  a  place  within 
the  Church ;  as  Spirits,  as  Cherub,  and  as  Seraph  they  might 
serve  the  Church  with  sword  and  palm  in  her  strife  against 
infidel  and  heretic,  but  both  had  outgrown  the  mediation  of 
the  Church,  and  as  immediately  in  touch  with  God  they  both 
were  driven  to  create  :  the  one  a  following,  an  Order  of  his 
own,  the  other  a  State. 


The  Emperor  Frederick's  self-coronation  at  the  Saviour's 
tomb  serves  as  a  tangible  expression  of  this  immediacy.  He 
already  shared  the  atmosphere  of  romance  and  fatefulness  that 
surrounded  the  Khalifs ;  he  now  wore  the  divine  halo  of  an 
eastern  potentate.  As  the  sibylline  saying  had  foretold — 
though  in  far  other  wise  than  the  world  had  understood — the 
rulers  of  East  and  West  were  united  in  Jerusalem  in  the  one 
person  of  Frederick  II,  and  the  Holy  City  was  free.  With 
Frederick,  the  only  emperor  who  in  Jerusalem  wore  the  crown 
of  Jerusalem,  the  epoch  of  a  Christian  Empire  was  ended.  A 
new  era  was  dawning.  Out  of  the  East  Frederick  brought  back 
not  the  renewal  of  a  Christian  Empire,  but  the  birth  of  Western 
"  Monarchy."  His  was  the  last  figure  round  which  the  double 
glory  played :  the  old  Christian  majesty  and  sanctity  and 
the  new  western  secular  monarchy.  The  Prankish- Germanic 
feudal  kingship  which  sanctified  blood  and  race,  the  Hohen- 
staufen-Roman  Empire  of  Barbarossa,  which  sanctified  the 
office,  had  been  further  exalted  under  Frederick  II  by  the 
eastern  conception  of  despotism  which  worshipped  the  actual 
wielder  of  power  as  such,  the  person  of  the  ruler  as  the  Homo 
Dei,  a  god-man,  a  son  of  God,  himself  divine.  This  fourth  and 
last  coronation  marked  the  end  of  Frederick's  personal  "  de 
velopment,"  his  purely  individual  rise  to  power :  no  further 
growth  was  possible  to  him  as  a  man,  save  with  and  through 
his  states.  The  question  was  whether  he  could  awaken  an  echo 
in  some  nation,  whether  some  people  could  comprehend  him, 
as  the  divine  power  within  him  seemed  to  portend. 


204  INVASION  OF  SICILY  iv 

The  eastern  successes  began  to  act  with  steadying  force  on 
the  Emperor's  tottering  position  in  the  West ;  at  first  only  in 
Germany,  where  the  papal  machinations  had  all  along  carried 
but  little  weight,  while  the  reports  of  the  Emperor's  victories 
had  carried  much.  Duke  Albert  of  Saxony  immediately  issued 
the  joyous  manifesto  to  the  Germans  in  Reval,  while  Count 
Adolfus  of  Holstein  dated  his  documents  "  in  the  year  of  the 
reconquest  of  the  Holy  Land  by  Frederick  the  uncenquered 
Roman  Emperor." 

In  Sicily,  on  the  other  hand,  the  prospect  was  blacker  than 
ever.  In  spite  of  the  zeal  of  the  Lords  of  Aquino,  and  the  Chief 
Justice  Henry  of  Morra  and  the  Regent  Reginald  of  Spoleto  and 
the  Saracens — showing  for  the  first  time  their  full  worth — the 
kingdom  was  proving  not  nearly  so  invulnerable  as  Frederick 
had  hoped,  particularly  in  the  absence  of  its  king.  The  im 
perial  forces  were  divided  ;  one  detachment  lay  in  the  Abruzzi, 
the  other  in  Capua.  The  Pope's  Soldiers  of  the  Keys,  under 
the  leadership  of  John,  quondam  King  of  Jerusalem,  had  suc 
ceeded  in  invading  the  kingdom  and  reducing  the  majority  of 
the  continental  provinces.  The  Church  played  her  favourite 
role  of  "  Liberator  of  the  Oppressed."  The  yoke  of  Frede 
rick  II  had  been  no  light  one ;  the  Pope  spread  rumours  of 
the  Emperor's  death,  and  freed  Sicilian  subjects  from  their 
allegiance.  These  combined  causes  hastened  the  downfall  of 
the  imperial  rule  in  the  peninsula.  Nevertheless,  a  faithful 
few  retained  their  loyalty  and  looked  for  Frederick's  return  as 
eagerly  as  the  Papalists  feared  it.  John  of  Brienne,  the  Pope's 
general,  had  secretly  given  orders  to  watch  the  ports  of  Apulia 
and  take  the  Emperor  prisoner  in  the  moment  of  landing. 
Suddenly  in  early  June  1229 — in  spite  of  all  these  precautions 
— the  rumour  arose  that  the  Emperor  was  in  Apulia. 

Before  quitting  the  Holy  Land  Frederick  had  had  some 
further  unpleasant  experiences.  In  his  address  to  the  assembled 
pilgrims  after  his  coronation  in  Jerusalem  he  had  been  most 
scrupulous,  in  accordance  with  the  line  he  had  adopted  from 
the  first,  to  use  only  conciliatory  phrases  in  speaking  of  the 
Pope.  Instead  of  raising  complaints  against  Gregory,  which 
would  have  been  easy,  he  took  pains  to  find  excuses  for  him. 
It  was  no  less  in  harmony  with  the  whole  conduct  of  the 


RE-EMBARKATION  AT  ACRE  205 

Papalist  party  that  they  redoubled  their  hostile  activities  and 
intrigues  as  his  success  increased.  The  Pope  had  dubbed 
Frederick  a  "  pirate  "  and  refused  to  recognise  his  crusadership. 
The  patriarch  Gerold  had,  therefore,  full  assurance  that  none 
of  his  perfidious  schemes  would  rouse  the  disapproval  which 
Frederick  had  prophesied  to  the  pilgrims.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  Frederick's  eventful  stay  in  Jerusalem  lasted  only  two  days  : 
he  entered  on  a  Saturday,  crowned  himself  on  Sunday,  and 
quitted  the  town  on  Monday.  For  Gerold  had  not  only  ordered 
a  Dominican  to  renew  the  Pope's  excommunication,  but  had 
actually  laid  the  Holy  City  under  an  interdict — to  the  inde 
scribable  wrath  of  the  pilgrims.  They  could  not  offer  their 
prayers  in  the  holy  places  which  the  Emperor  had  restored  to 
them  and  felt  themselves  befooled  by  Church  and  Pope.  The 
Emperor  forthwith  left  Jerusalem  after  a  smart  encounter  with 
Templars  and  clergy — the  Templars1  plot  to  betray  him  falls 
chronologically  here.  For  the  rest,  his  advice  to  the  pilgrims 
was  to  join  him  and  embark  with  him  from  Acre. 

There  was  nothing  now  to  detain  Frederick  in  the  Holy  Land. 
Bad  news  from  Sicily  had  reached  Acre.  He  looked  impatiently 
forward  to  the  return,  and  had  ordered  his  admiral,  Henry  of 
Malta,  to  be  ready  by  Easter  with  the  galleys  in  Acre.  The 
wildest  and  most  shameful  scene  was  to  come  before  he  left 
Palestine.  In  spite  of  Frederick's  veto  the  Patriarch  had  en 
listed  troops  in  the  Emperor's  own  kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  This 
defiance  of  the  imperial  authority  was  the  more  flagrant  that 
the  troops  could  only  be  wanted  to  serve  against  the  Emperor 
himself,  since  a  truce  existed  with  the  Saracens.  In  retaliation 
the  imperial  troops  shut  up  the  Patriarch  and  the  Templars  in 
their  own  quarters  in  Acre,  cut  off  their  supplies,  blockaded  the 
town,  tore  from  the  pulpits  and  thoroughly  thrashed  a  couple 
of  mendicant  monks  who  were  preaching  against  Frederick  and 
stirring  up  disorder.  This  was  not  all.  As  the  Emperor  on 
the  early  morning  of  the  appointed  day  was  preparing  to  embark, 
the  populace,  incited  by  the  Papalists,  pursued  him,  throwing 
filth  at  him  and  his  followers.  With  a  curse  upon  his  lips 
Frederick  left  the  Holy  Land. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  unexpected  happened  in  Apulia. 
Outdistancing  the  other  Crusaders  Frederick  II  landed  on 


2o6  RE-APPEARANCE  IN  SICILY  iv 

June  loth  in  Brindisi — "  God  keep  it,"  he  wrote  to  the  Amir 
Fakhru'd  Din.  His  arrival  was  so  surprising  that  the  towns 
people  could  not  conceive  what  it  meant  when  they  saw  the 
imperial  standard  unfurled.  They  had  long  been  mourning 
their  Emperor's  death.  Not  till  they  had  seen  him  with  their 
own  eyes  did  they  realise  the  papal  treachery.  Then  they 
hastened  to  welcome  their  master  with  joyful  acclamation. 
The  news  of  Frederick's  return  spread  like  wildfire  through 
Sicily.  The  whole  situation  was  changed.  The  Emperor  went 
immediately  to  Barletta  and  issued  a  stirring  proclamation 
announcing  his  unexpected  return,  exhorting  the  Capua  detach 
ment  to  hold  out  and  preserve  their  loyalty.  He  despatched 
Count  Thomas  of  Aquino  to  their  help  and  promised  to  follow 
shortly  in  person.  In  the  meantime  he  speedily  assembled 
troops,  yet  avoided  undue  haste.  His  adherents  poured  in  from 
all  sides  ;  Reginald  of  Spoleto  from  the  Abruzzi  with  his  de 
tachment,  the  Chief  Justice  with  his  Saracens  and  all  other 
Sicilians  who  had  remained  faithful.  A  fortunate  coincidence 
turned  to  Frederick's  advantage.  A  severe  storm  had  com 
pelled  a  large  body  of  Teutonic  Knights  to  land  in  Brindisi  on 
their  way  back  from  the  Holy  Land.  They  forthwith  declared 
themselves  willing  to  join  Frederick.  Some  Pisans  also  made 
their  appearance.  If  the  Emperor  once  more  pointed  to  the 
direct  intervention  of  Divine  Providence  and  God's  active 
miracles  on  his  behalf  he  had  every  right  to  do  so. 

It  was  a  remarkable  army  that  assembled  around  Frederick  II : 
Sicilians,  German  Crusaders,  imperial  Saracens  fighting  side  by 
side  against  the  Lombards  and  the  soldiers  of  the  Pope.  Or, 
rather,  prepared  to  fight  against  them  ;  for  matters  did  not 
progress  so  far.  The  mere  terror  of  the  Emperor's  name,  the 
realisation  of  the  Pope's  deceit  in  spreading  false  news  of  his 
death,  arrears  of  pay,  bad  leadership,  and  in  the  Lombards'  case 
a  strong  disinclination  to  be  caught  in  open  treachery  and  re 
bellion  against  their  overlord  :  all  this  chased  the  Army  of  the 
Keys  in  complete  demoralisation  back  to  the  frontiers  of  the 
Papal  States.  The  appearance  of  the  Emperor,  his  mere  name, 
had  acted  like  a  paralysing  charm.  Here  and  there  the  papal 
soldiers  succeeded  in  making  a  stand,  but  when  the  Emperor 
set  out  for  Capua  at  the  end  of  August  no  stronghold  could 


BLOODLESS  VICTORY  207 

retain  the  warriors  of  the  Holy  See  :  without  waiting  to  be 
attacked  they  fled  across  the  border.  In  vain  the  papal  legate 
seized  the  Church  treasures  of  Monte  Cassino  and  San  Germano 
to  pay  the  troops.  What  indignation  when  one  day  Frederick  II 
did  the  like  ! 

Such  was  the  famous  rout  of  the  Soldiers  of  the  Keys  and 
their  expulsion  from  Sicily.  That  ended  the  campaign  and  left 
the  world  full  of  admiration  for  the  Emperor,  who  once  again 
had  won  a  bloodless  victory.  The  Muslims  compared  him  to 
Alexander ;  the  Greek  Emperor  of  Nicaea  sent  an  embassy,  and, 
later,  costly  gifts  and  a  large  sum  of  money  for  his  help.  Simul 
taneously  the  Emperor's  supporters  in  Northern  Italy  succeeded 
in  conquering  the  Lombard  League.  Within  four  days  two 
hundred  towns  had  declared  for  the  Emperor.  Very  few  still 
held  out.  It  had  become  important  to  make  a  deterrent  ex 
ample  ;  the  town  of  Sora,  which  was  still  in  rebellion,  was 
besieged  by  the  Emperor  in  person,  conquered  and  reduced  to 
ashes,  and  was  to  remain  uninhabited  for  all  time.  The  plough 
should  furrow  the  site  of  the  faithless  city  as  of  old  the  site  of 
Carthage,  so  Frederick  later  phrased  it.  It  may  easily  be  con 
ceived  that  the  Emperor  exercised  extreme  severity  towards  a 
few  traitors  and  faithless  officials.  Any  who  had  hoped  for 
elevation  through  the  Emperor's  fall  should  now  enjoy  an  extra 
lofty  gallows — the  chronicler  tells  us.  As  penalty  for  the 
treachery  of  the  Templars  in  Palestine  Frederick  confiscated 
all  the  Sicilian  goods  and  possessions  of  the  Templars  and  the 
Knights  of  St.  John. 

What  was  the  Pope's  attitude  to  it  all  ?  He  was  in  a  most 
difficult  position  :  the  hatred  of  the  nobles  kept  him  banished 
from  Rome  ;  his  supplies  of  cash  and  war  material  were  ex 
hausted  ;  the  Lombards  had  left  him  in  the  lurch  ;  his  cries  to 
the  western  kings  for  help  were  unheeded.  Yet  not  one  of 
the  Emperor's  numerous  embassies  to  Gregory  IX  met  with  the 
smallest  success.  It  was  not  he,  defeated  though  he  might  be, 
who  was  going  to  give  in.  The  Emperor  must  yield.  Frederick 
had  a  clear  field  ;  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  his  conquering 
the  entire  papal  territory  and  compelling  the  Pope  to  make 
peace — as  he  did  on  a  later  occasion.  Yet,  at  the  frontier  he 
halted  with  his  forces,  most  prudently  still  preserving  the 


208  POPE'S  INTRANSIGEANCE  iv 

unimpeachable  tone  of  moderation  and  placability  which  he 
had  from  the  first  maintained.  He  was  well  aware  that  in  the 
present  state  of  affairs  he  did  the  Pope  more  harm  by  this  sub 
missive  approach  than  by  any  show  of  violence.  He  made  the 
Pope  from  first  to  last  the  sole  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Europe, 
and  he  reaped  more  advantage  from  that  than  from  a  temporary 
occupation  of  Church  lands,  a  continuation  of  the  ban  and  the 
martyrdom  of  the  spiritual  overlord  of  Christendom.  Just  now 
the  Empire  sorely  needed  new  organisation  and  settlement. 
So  the  German  Grand  Master,  who  had  already  sued  in  vain 
for  peace,  was  sent  again  to  Gregory.  A  section  of  the  College 
of  Cardinals  disapproved  of  the  papal  policy,  and  so  a  truce  at 
least  was  concluded.  The  Pope  agreed  most  reluctantly,  though 
he  was  the  sole  gainer.  As  for  Frederick,  a  beginning  had  been 
made  towards  peace. 

Negotiations  dragged  on  for  the  best  part  of  a  year,  and  throw 
a  remarkable  light  on  the  overwhelmingly  strong  position  of 
the  Church.  The  victorious  Emperor  was  suppliant  for  peace, 
while  the  defeated  Pope  refused  every  concession  and  sought  to 
dictate  the  terms  of  a  peace  which  he  did  not  desire.  This 
demonstrates  how  small  an  element  in  the  Pope's  power  was 
military  strength,  and  how  unassailable  was  the  Head  of  the 
Roman  Church.  It  lay  in  Gregory's  competence  to  release 
Frederick  from  the  ban,  or  not,  and  Frederick  remained  a  dis 
obedient  child  of  the  Church  until  he  had  surrendered  in  every 
detail.  Pope  Gregory  was  entirely  undisturbed  by  the  fact  that 
the  basis  of  the  excommunication  lay  in  the  non-fulfilment  of 
the  Crusader's  vow,  and  that  this  had  now  become  completely 
meaningless.  Gregory  had  sought  to  ruin  the  hated  Emperor, 
and,  since  he  had  failed  in  his  main  object,  the  Emperor  must 
purchase  his  release  all  the  more  dearly  by  concessions  in  Sicily. 
Thus  it  was  the  Emperor,  not  the  Pope,  who  needed  peace. 
Threats  of  war  did  not  alarm  the  Pope  :  they  gratified  him 
rather.  During  the  whole  course  of  the  negotiations  Frederick 
displayed  an  incredible  patience,  an  almost  inconceivable  sub- 
missiveness,  and  it  was  not  his  fault  that  war  almost  broke  out 
afresh.  At  this  point  the  Emperor  summoned  the  German 
princes  to  use  their  influence  on  the  Pope,  and  they  were  so  far 
successful  that  they  achieved  an  understanding,  after  themselves 


1230  BAN  LIFTED  209 

guaranteeing  the  Emperor's  good  faith,  which  left  Gregory  no 
conceivable  pretext  for  refusing  peace.  He  was  loth  to  lift  the 
ban,  if  only  because  this  stultified  his  whole  previous  procedure. 
It  undoubtedly  created  a  remarkable  impression  when  the  Pope, 
in  the  summer  of  1230,  again  greeted  as  the  "  beloved  son  of 
the  Church  "  the  Emperor  whom  he  had  so  recently  condemned 
as  a  "  disciple  of  Muhammad."  The  world  was  not  blind  to 
the  effect.  One  contemporary  stigmatises  the  whole  course  of 
events  that  opened  with  the  Treaty  of  San  Germano  and  ter 
minated  in  the  Peace  of  Ceperano  as  a  "disgrace  to  the  Church.3' 
A  troubadour  expressed  himself  still  more  forcibly  when  he 
cursed  the  Pope  and  breathed  threats  against  the  papal  capital : 
"  It  is  my  comfort,  Rome,  that  you  will  plunge  to  ruin,  when 
the  rightful  Emperor  comes  to  his  own  again  and  acts  as  he 
ought." 

It  was  with  a  view  to  restoring  his  fortune — that  is  :  his  power 
— that  Frederick  was  willing  to  accept  the  terms  of  this  most 
unfavourable  peace.  He  granted  an  amnesty  to  the  Pope's 
partisans  in  Sicily,  restored  all  Church  property  confiscated 
during  the  war,  including  that  of  the  Templars  and  of  the 
Knights  of  St.  John,  and  these  were  the  least  of  his  concessions. 
The  chief  place  was  taken,  as  of  course,  by  the  questions  of  the 
Church's  personnel  in  Sicily,  for  Pope  Gregory  was  no  longer 
content  with  the  Concordat  of  Queen  Constance.  It  seemed 
to  contravene  all  Frederick's  principles  that,  for  the  sake  of 
escaping  from  the  excommunication  he  was  prepared  to  make 
the  most  sweeping  concessions:  the  Sicilian  clergy — with  a 
few  exceptions — should  no  longer  be  amenable  to  secular  law, 
should  no  longer  be  subject  to  general  taxation,  and  in  the 
matter  of  episcopal  elections  it  would  seem  that  the  Emperor 
went  so  far  as  to  renounce  the  right  of  consent  he  had  hitherto 
exercised.  Very  different  opinions  have  been  held  about  this 
treaty,  so  wholly  at  variance  with  Frederick's  victories,  but 
historians  have  on  the  whole  tended  to  overvalue  the  rights 
surrendered.  It  is  clear  from  the  quarrel  with  Pope  Honorius 
III  that  the  Emperor's  right  of  consent  had  been  in  practice  of 
extremely  little  use  ;  the  question  of  taxation  and  secular  courts 
for  the  clergy  had  always  been  points  at  issue.  As  long  as  the 
Emperor  was  on  good  terms  with  the  Pope  such  difficulties 


2io  RECONCILIATION  iv 

could  be  got  over.  In  case  of  war,  which  Frederick  after  his 
recent  experiences  must  have  felt  to  be  very  imminent,  all  such 
agreements  fell  to  the  ground.  The  most  important  thing  for 
the  Emperor  at  the  moment  was  to  gain  time  to  reorganise  his 
kingdoms,  to  concentrate  his  scattered  powers,  and  then  to  sub 
due  Lombardy.  With  a  view  to  this  it  was  vital  to  have  even 
a  few  years  of  peace,  and  it  was  even  of  greater  importance  to 
have  the  Church,  in  spite  of  her  collusion  with  the  Lombard 
League,  as  a  neutral,  or  better  still  an  ally,  in  this  struggle 
against  rebels  and  heretics.  The  moment  was  favourable. 
For  in  the  Sicilian  campaign  the  Lombards  had  not  supported 
the  Pope  to  anything  like  the  degree  he  had  wished,  and  all 
Frederick's  relations  to  Gregory  for  the  next  few  years  were 
intended  to  demonstrate  how  immensely  more  advantageous  in 
the  three-party  struggle  was  an  alliance  of  Pope  and  Emperor 
against  Lombards,  than  one  of  Pope  and  Lombards  against 
Emperor.  This  unity  of  the  two  powers  of  Church  and  Empire 
was  always  dear  to  Frederick's  heart ;  he  was  wholly  sincere  in 
seeking  it,  and  he  had  the  world  behind  him :  it  represented 
the  God-ordained  constitution.  In  this  outlook  Frederick  was 
completely  reactionary  ;  he  sought  eagerly  to  secure  the  Curia 
at  any  price,  to  wean  her  from  the  Lombard  confederacy, 
to  re-awaken  all  the  aristocratic  elements  in  the  Church  in  order 
to  re-establish  the  old  traditional  unity  of  the  two  powers.  He 
might  be  for  a  time  successful,  and  for  the  moment  the  Pope 
considered  an  alliance  with  Frederick  useful  on  other  grounds, 
for  his  position  between  Emperor  and  Lombards  was  an  uneasy 
one.  All  three  parties  were  in  sore  need  of  a  breathing  space, 
yet  the  more  all  three  recovered  their  strength  the  more  ominous 
and  oppressive  to  the  world  at  large  was  the  thunderous  atmos 
phere  of  threatening  storm. 

Thus  ended  Frederick  IPs  first  great  fight  with  the  Curia,  and 
for  nearly  ten  years  to  come  the  strife  was  latent  only.  The 
newly  established  accord  between  Emperor  and  Pope  was  osten 
tatiously  manifested  to  the  world.  Frederick  paid  a  visit  to 
Pope  Gregory  in  his  paternal  home  in  Anagni,  where  they 
sealed  their  pact  "  with  holy  kisses  "  as  Frederick  reported. 
The  Pope  and  the  Emperor  dined  tete-a-tete  in  the  presence  of 
one  man  only,  whose  mission  in  life  it  was  to  strive  for  the 


PEACE  211 

honour  of  Church  and  Empire,  and  to  whose  efforts  the  con 
clusion  of  peace  was  in  no  small  measure  due  :  Hermann  of 
Salza,  the  German  Grand  Master. 

Now  the  Emperor  set  to  work  to  build  up  his  power  :  first 
in  Sicily,  later  in  Germany. 


V.  TYRANT  OF  SICILY 

Influence  of  Eastern  success Affection  for  Sicily 

Three  emperor  models Constitutions   of  Melfi,  1231 

Expectation  of  Golden  Age  and  End  of  World 

Augustales    minted Frederick's    birthday    a    public 

holiday. 

I. 

Liber   Augustalis Cult   of    Justitia Invocation    of 

imperial   name "  Crown   Prosecution  *' Theory  of 

the  "  Fall  " Necessitas Dante's  de  Monarchia 

The  Divine  Comedy. 

II. 

Pope  Gregory  and  the  Liber  Augustalis Relation  of 

Church  and  State Zeal  against  heretics Muslims 

and  Jews State  organisation  :   justiciars,  notaries 

Conditions     of    service Treatment    of    suspects 

Rebellious  towns Augusta Uniformity  and  simpli 
fication  of  government Town  creation  ;  frontier  pro 
tection Monopolies — - — Customs  and  revenue 

Weights    and    measures Fairs    and    markets The 

Emperor  as  trader Taxation Commercial  agree 
ments Overseas  consuls  and  embassies A  Sicilian 

nation Marriage  ordinances. 

III. 

Triumph  of  lay  culture Petrus  de  Vinea  (Piero  della 

Vigna) — —-Frederick's       public       speaking Frederick 

amongst  intimates Youthfulness  of  Sicilian  court 

Frederick's  retainers  ;    menagerie Famous  families  in 

his    service Thomas    Aquinas Valetti    imperatoris 

Frederick's    sons Chivalry    at    court Foggia  : 

banquets,    revelry Michael    Scot Sicilian    poetry  ; 

use  of  vernacular Intellectual  thought  at   court 

Learning     at     court Astronomy     and     Astrology- 


Hebrew   scholars Spirit  of  Enquiry  ;     Ibn   Sabin   of 

Ceuta Research  and  experiment De  arte  venandi 

cum  avibus The  art  of  seeing  "  things  that  are,  as  they 

are  " Frederick's  personal  appearance. 


V.  TYRANT  OF  SICILY 

IT  was  no  accident  that  Frederick  IFs  founding  of  the  first 
absolute  monarchy  of  the  West  followed  his  triumph  in  the 
East.  This  event  had  brought  about  a  metamorphosis,  as  when 
a  mythic  hero  becomes  suddenly  aware  of  his  divine  origin  and 
the  god  in  him  springs  visibly  to  life.  Proclaiming  himself  the 
son  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  grandson  of  Venus  Genetrix,  or  some 
other  emanation  of  a  Godhead,  he  gradually  achieves  his  own 
apotheosis.  From  the  moment  that  the  divine  sonship  is  pro 
claimed  the  career  of  the  monarch  takes  a  new  direction :  from 
the  phase  of  mere  personal  activity  and  self-assertion  he  grows 
in  stature,  obeying  the  eternal  law  of  his  being  by  creative 
activity  in  empire  and  in  state. 

The  Jerusalem  coronation  obviously  marked  such  a  turning 
point  in  Frederick's  career.  The  Puer  ApuUae  had  circled 
round  Palermo,  Aix  and  Rome,  and  now  as  German-Roman 
Emperor,  embraced  the  Orient.  The  whole  was  in  his  grasp. 
This  last  and  outermost  circle  bordered  on  the  dreamlike  and 
the  infinite  and  set  bounds  to  all  further  personal  ambition. 
No  higher  office  lay  ahead,  no  new  crown  was  waiting,  nothing 
could  now  exalt  him  further.  For  the  first  time  the  Hohen- 
staufen  Emperor  had  f ocussed  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world — the 
Christian  West  and  the  Muslim  East — on  the  Imperator  of 
Christendom.  For  the  first  time  he  had  proved  his  mettle 
in  a  world  enterprise,  as  leader  of  a  crusading  army.  For  the 
first  time  God  himself — in  the  great  Jerusalem  manifesto — had 
spoken  to  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  and  through  the  Emperor's 
mouth  proclaimed  the  Emperor  his  instrument.  In  the  East 
Frederick  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  wider  horizons  ;  he  returned 
to  the  narrower  spaces  of  the  West,  and  transplanting  thither 
the  conception  of  oriental  autocracy  he  proceeded  to  grow 
anew — with  his  states. 

Piling  the  eastern  David-kingship  on  the  Germanic  feudal 
overlordship,  and  both  on  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Princeps, 

215 


216  HOHENSTAUFEN  ACHIEVEMENT  v 

the  Hohenstaufens  had  succeeded  in  raising  the  medieval 
Christian  Empire  of  the  Caesars  to  a  unique  pinnacle.  It  was 
Frederick's  unexampled  good  fortune  to  find  at  this  point  a 
willing  and  receptive  people  in  whom  he  could  confide — despite 
his  greatness — and  who  were  able  to  comprehend  him,  the 
dangers  of  his  majesty  notwithstanding.  It  was  his  luck  to  have 
a  people  of  his  own  with  whom  he  could  feel  at  one.  The 
medieval  Emperor  had  hitherto  held  a  remarkably  detached 
position  ;  though  he  held  the  torch  for  all  the  Western  peoples 
as  lord  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  he  had  possessed  no  land 
or  people  of  his  own,  in  whom  his  being  and  personality  could 
be  merged,  as  theirs  in  him,  who  would  devote  themselves  to 
him  with  all  their  strength  of  mind  and  body  and  lend  him  the 
poise  and  weight  that  the  "  provincial  kings  "  possessed  as  lords 
of  the  soil.  The  Emperor  was  of  course  the  leader  of  Christen 
dom,  alongside  the  Pope,  but  only  in  certain  circumstances, 
during  a  Crusade  for  instance,  did  Christianity  as  a  whole  centre 
in  him.  There  was  no  one  "  Christian  people,"  and  if  folk  used 
the  phrase  it  was  a  mere  expression  of  faith. 

The  Imperator  was  Roman  Emperor  and  Roman  King,  but 
the  ancient  Populus  Romanus,  that  once  had  ruled  the  world, 
was  dead,  and  only  its  empty  shell  still  supplied  the  mould  for 
imperial  feasts  and  formulas.  And  what  of  the  Imperator  as 
ruler  of  the  Germans  ?  A  unity  of  German  people  was  never 
more  than  a  momentary  flash :  no  conception  existed  of  a 
German  nation,  no  common  German  activity  was  possible  save 
in  the  service  of  Empire  or  of  Church.  The  Saxon,  Frank  and 
Swabian  Emperors  had  found  their  support,  not  in  a  German 
nation,  but  each  in  his  individual  race.  The  Emperor  knew  no 
one  land,  no  one  nation  in  which  he  could  rule  untrammelled 
as  a  God.  Many  an  Emperor  had  craved  for  it  and  sought  it, 
always  hi  Italy,  especially  that  imperial  boy  who  was  the  first 
before  Frederick  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  uttermost  heights  of 
priestly-imperial  power  :  Otto  III.  But  he  found  no  popular 
support  in  the  degenerate  citizens  of  Rome,  and  the  inspired 
vision  faded  while  the  lad  himself,  only  a  "  Wonder  of  the 
World, "  died  an  early  death — a  kindred  figure  to  the  poet-boy 
Conradin,  who  sought  a  kingdom  and  found  a  scaffold  :  the 
last-born  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen. 


NEED  OF  A  PEOPLE  217 

Frederick  II  alone,  the  last  Germanic  prince  to  found  a  state 
on  Italian  soil,  was  granted  the  fulfilment  of  German  dreams. 
His  success  was  based  not  on  his  Sicilian  people  alone,  but  also 
on  the  Empire,  and  on  Divine  Providence — as  he  habitually 
stated — and  finally,  and  chiefly,  on  himself.  He  also  might 
have  faded  out  as  a  mere  visionary,  a  sublime  imperial  ghost, 
had  he  not  had  his  roots  in  reality  and  his  feet  firmly  planted 
on  mother  earth,  had  he  not  wisely  understood  the  art  of  draw 
ing  more  and  more  on  her  reserves  of  strength,  while  he  reached 
up  to  steal  the  fire  from  Heaven.  Frederick  II  found  a  land 
of  people  that  believed  in  him  and  understood  him,  though  his 
majesty  might  frown  threateningly  down  on  them  from  distant 
regions,  a  people  prepared  to  follow  him  blindly — whether  from 
love  or  fear. 

Every  great  ruler  needs  such  a  basis,  a  land  in  which  his  life 
is  rooted,  a  land  which,  be  it  never  so  limited  and  small,  yet 
begets  men  of  his  own  stamp  whom  he  can  make  lords  of  the 
world.  Thus  the  Macedonian  nobles  held  sway  in  Asia,  the 
Spanish  Grandees  throughout  the  wide  Hapsburg  lands  of 
Charles,  and  under  Napoleon  the  Marshals  of  France  rode 
Europe  on  a  curb.  Earlier  Emperors  lacked  a  nation,  but  they 
had  their  race,  later  Emperors  had  their  households.  The 
strength  of  the  Germanic  races — Saxons,  Franks  and  Swabians 
— was  flickering  out ;  they  had  let  it  stream  from  them  into  the 
outer  world,  into  the  Empire ;  they  had  no  impulse  or  desire, 
perhaps  no  power,  for  further  wanderings  to  follow  the  Emperor 
as  a  whole  clan  wherever  he  might  journey.  As  mercenaries 
they  hired  themselves  to  the  Emperors  in  growing  numbers,  but 
mercenaries  are  not  a  people,  and  their  obedience  is  radically 
different  from  the  devotion  of  deeply-rooted  racial  loyalty. 

Obedience,  unquestioning  devotion,  and  the  mass-strength 
of  a  people  was  a  prime  necessity  for  Frederick  if  he  was  to 
get  new  blood  into  the  Empire.  A  people  and  a  state  were 
peculiarly  necessary  to  him  personally.  An  Englishman  has 
recently  said  of  him  that  this  Hohenstaufen  was  a  man  of  such 
a  personality  that  "  a  whole  community  of  men,  a  sect,  a  party, 
or  a  nation,  could  look  back  to  him  as  their  prophet,  founder 
or  liberator."  Frederick  II,  indeed,  seemed  by  nature  specially 
destined  to  be  the  founder  of  his  own  state.  Only  such  a 


2i8  MOTHER  OF  TYRANTS  v 

creation  of  his  own  could  impose  that  restraint  and  moderation 
that  was  needed  by  a  man  who  had  grown  up  an  orphan  in  a 
strange  land,  without  the  discipline  of  home  or  family  or  clan. 
This  freedom  from  repression,  this  personal  liberty — such  as 
no  predecessor  had  ever  known — was  precisely  what  gave 
Frederick  such  an  immense  advantage  over  the  intellectually- 
fettered  age  in  which  he  lived.  To  it  he  owed  his  clearness  and 
breadth  of  vision,  his  mental  alertness  and  flexibility,  his  know 
ledge  of  tongues  and  absence  of  prejudice,  and  that  immediate 
personal  relation  to  God  which  enabled  him  to  outgrow  the 
bonds  of  the  Church  and  left  him  free  to  stride  along  the  shortest 
path,  heedless  of  everything  save  state  necessity.  The  unique 
endowments  of  this  Emperor,  if  they  were  not  to  be  frittered 
away  in  dangerous  versatilities,  needed  some  firm  framework 
within  which  to  ply  their  creative  tasks,  needed  a  firmly  organised 
state  of  his  own  devising,  whose  laws  were  his  laws,  and  whose 
laws,  for  the  sake  of  this  state  he  had  begotten,  he  himself  must 
willingly  obey.  A  ruler  of  this  type  could  submit  to  no  fetters 
but  those  of  his  own  forging.  His  beloved  Sicilian  inheritance, 
the  ancient  kingdom  of  his  Norman  ancestors,  offered  him  the 
opportunity  to  make  what  laws  he  would. 

"  Sicily  is  the  Mother  of  Tyrants."  Almost  cynically — for 
in  Christian  eyes  the  "  tyrant  "  was  the  embodiment  of  Satan 
— Frederick  II  wrote  this  phrase  of  Orosius  at  the  head  of  one 
of  his  later  edicts.  With  sound  instinct  for  the  practical,  rather 
than  from  conscious  wisdom,  first  the  followers  of  Guiscard 
and  now  the  Hohenstaufens  harked  back  in  many  points  to  the 
statecraft  of  the  old  Greek  tyrants  of  Sicily.  Now  was  the 
moment  when  a  wise  despot  was  more  sorely  needed  than  ever 
before  in  history. 


The  geographical  unity  of  the  Sicilian  peninsula,  bounded  on 
three  sides  by  the  sea  and  bolted  and  barred  oi\  the  North  by 
Frederick's  chain  of  fortresses,  was  the  only  unity  he  found  to 
hand.  Corresponding  to  this  we  may  reckon  the  unity  of  will 
and  power  in  her  ruler,  the  Emperor  himself.  The  most  im 
portant  link  between  the  Ruler  and  the  Land  was  missing  still 
— the  unity  of  the  nation :  which  demanded  as  a  condition 


RULER-WORSHIP  219 

precedent  a  unity  of  blood  and  speech,  of  faith  and  feast,  of 
history  and  of  law.  The  most  wonderful  task  that  can  be  set  to 
a  creator  here  awaited  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor  :  the  Crea 
tion  of  a  People — that  is  the  creation  of  people — a  task  impos 
sible  to  any  but  a  tyrant,  and  a  tyrant  who  believes  himself 
divine,  and  who,  more  important  still,  can  make  other  men 
believe  him  to  be  God.  For  every  command  and  every  utter 
ance  of  the  godlike  majesty  must  be  sacred  and  the  popu 
lace  must  sink  into  the  dust  before  his  "  oracles,"  a  word 
Frederick  II  himself  employed  at  times. 

Such  a  state  of  affairs  was  only  possible  in  Sicily,  for  Sicily 
was  accustomed  to  it,  and  this  rich,  fertile  soil  peaked  and  pined 
without  her  tyrants.  The  Sicilians — half  oriental  in  origin — 
worshipped  their  ruler  as  a  God,  and  rightly  so,  for  in  a  land, 
as  indolent  by  nature  as  luxuriant,  the  tyrant  was  in  fact  the 
Saviour  too. 

When  the  Emperor  Henry  VI  entered  Palermo  in  solemn 
state  with  his  victorious  army  the  people  flung  themselves  down 
with  their  faces  to  the  ground,  shunning  the  sight  of  their  Lord's 
majesty.  Under  the  reges  fortunati,  the  Norman  kings,  pro 
stration  had  been  the  custom,  and  it  may  have  persisted, 
strengthened  under  Arab  rule,  since  Narses,  the  Conqueror  of 
the  Goths,  had  brought  the  country  under  Byzantium.  Sicily 
then  was  well  accustomed  to  fall  on  her  knees  to  any  wielder  of 
power ;  it  is  easy  to  imagine  how  this  ruler- worship  would  gain 
in  intensity  when,  instead  of  a  Norman  Count  or  ordinary 
prince,  these  glorious  days  brought  her  the  Roman  Emperor 
for  her  King.  According  to  Roman  Law  the  Emperor  was 
Dims,  in  whose  person  the  whole  Empire,  from  of  old,  wor 
shipped  the  symbol  of  the  Godhead,  and  before  whom  even  the 
Christian  knights,  the  Templars  and  their  brothers  of  St.  John 
were  wont  to  bow  the  knee.  In  Sicily,  therefore,  Frederick  II 
could  count  on  finding  the  willing  self-surrender  that  he  needed. 

Sicily  had  been  the  dream-paradise  of  the  Germanic  tribes, 
Goethe  still  terms  it "  the  key  to  everything."  Sicily,  therefore, 
with  Apulia,  was  the  Land  of  Promise  to  an  Emperor  who 
sought  to  realise  his  dreams.  When  Frederick  II  crossed  the 
sea  on  his  crusade  and  saw  Palestine  and  Syria,  the  "  promised 
land  "  of  Holy  Scripture,  he  remarked — with  his  characteristi- 


220  LOVE  OF  SICILY  v 

cally  blasphemous  wit — that  Jehovah  could  not  have  seen  his 
own  hereditary  Sicily,  Apulia,  and  the  Terra  Laboris.  If  he 
had  he  could  not  so  greatly  have  overrated  this  land  that  he  was 
giving  to  the  Jews.  The  south  Italian  kingdom  where  Frederick 
had  spent  his  childhood,  which  he  had  known  from  infancy, 
remained  through  life  his  one  true  love.  He  would  converse 
with  "  his  Apulia  "  as  with  a  living  person,  a  beloved  woman, 
and  only  in  the  lap  of  his  hereditary  land  could  he  feel  himself 
at  home.  When  Napoleon  said  "  I  have  only  one  passion  and 
one  love  :  France.  I  sleep  with  her,  never  has  she  forsaken 
me,  she  pours  forth  blood  and  treasure  on  my  behalf  .  .  ."  he 
was  expressing  kindred  feelings.  Frederick  II  addressed  to  the 
land  he  loved,  who  gave  herself  to  him,  words  of  affection  and 
of  imagery  from  the  Bible,  and  the  poetry  of  his  time  and  from 
the  lyrics  of  the  Orient.  His  southern  kingdom  is  the  "  apple 
of  his  eye " ;  "  the  loveliness  of  his  land  exceeds  all  earthly 
sweetness  " ;  "  it  is  a  haven  amidst  the  floods  and  a  pleasure- 
garden  amidst  a  waste  of  thorns31;  to  it  he  turns  "full  of 
yearning,  when  he  sails  to  and  fro  upon  the  Empire's  seas." 
"  Yet  a  little  while  to  assure  the  highest  victory  to  our  titles 
and  an  end  to  your  burdens  and  we  promise  our  assured  return ; 
then  rejoicing  in  our  mutual  love  we  shall  gratify  you  with  our 
constant  presence  whom  now  we  can  only  caress  intermittently 
with  letters."  Thus  he  once  wrote  from  Upper  Italy.  And 
again  :  "  Though  the  multitude  of  peoples  who  happily  breathe 
an  atmosphere  of  peace  under  our  rule,  preoccupy  our  thoughts 
without  intermission,  yet  impelled  by  a  certain  privilege  of 
love  we  shall  vigilantly  devote  constant  thought  to  our  own 
beloved  people  of  Sicily,  whose  inheritance  is  more  glorious 
in  our  eyes  than  all  our  other  possessions,  that  she  may  be 
graced  with  peace  and  may  flourish  in  the  days  of  Caesar 
Augustus." 

Such  was  Frederick's  attitude  to  Sicily.  "  Sicily,"  in  his 
mouth,  always  embraces  the  "two  Sicilies";  not  island  Sicily 
alone,  but  also  Apulia  and  the  southern  half  of  the  Italian 
peninsula.  With  the  Sicilians  he  feels  himself  completely  at 
one.  As  the  Jewish  God  out  of  the  multitude  of  peoples  on  the 
earth  chose  himself  one — it  is  not  possible  to  exaggerate  the 
exactness  with  which  Frederick  pressed  home  the  analogy — so 


A  MAN  OF  APULIA  221 

the  Emperor,  King  of  Kings,  Lord  of  the  Imperium,  chose  him 
the  Apulian-Sicilian  people.  Sicily  is  his  promised  land,  her 
people  are  his  chosen  people,  on  whom  he  leans  "  as  the  head 
on  a  cushion  for  repose";  "the  radiance  of  their  faithfulness 
surrounds  us  like  a  star  whose  light  grows  brighter  still  as  time 
flows  by."  He  professes  that  sympathy  with  the  Sicilians 
"  which  springs  from  the  graciousness  of  tender  love  which  a 
father  bears  his  sons  " — the  word  is  worth  noting ;  the  hack 
neyed  phrase  "  Father  of  his  people  "  dates  from  Frederick. 
A  later  writing  expresses  more  completely  the  living  unity  of 
ruler  and  ruled  :  "  We  have  chosen  our  domain  of  Sicily  for 
our  own  amongst  all  other  lands,  and  taken  the  whole  kingdom 
as  the  place  of  our  abiding,  for  we — radiant  with  the  glory  of 
the  title  of  the  Caesars — yet  feel  it  no  ignoble  thing  to  be  called 
*  a  man  of  Apulia.'  Borne  hither  and  thither  as  we  are  on 
imperial  floods  far  from  the  havens  and  harbours  of  Sicily,  we 
feel  ourselves  a  pilgrim  and  a  wanderer  from  home.  .  .  .  Ever 
have  we  found  your  wishes  one  with  ours  ;  your  willing  and 
not-willing  ever  like  unto  our  own."  These  were  no  light 
words.  The  assurances  of  love  for  Sicily,  however,  of  identity 
with  her  people  would  have  remained  words  had  Frederick  not 
cemented  them  with  deeds. 

His  early  years  as  king  had  betrayed  little  of  all  this,  and  no 
such  expressions  then  fell  from  him.  As  befitted  his  youth  he 
had  then  faced  the  task  of  purging  his  kingdom  of  the  vampires 
and  parasites  who  were  draining  it  of  blood  and  marrow.  By 
force  and  guile  he  had  combated  many,  if  scattered,  forces  and 
brought  a  preliminary  order  out  of  chaos.  He  had  provided  a 
scaffolding  and  framework  for  the  state,  prescribed  the  lines  of 
future  development,  outlined  the  external  unity  of  the  state  and 
laid  the  foundation  of  much  else.  But  all  this  was,  as  it  were, 
the  preparation  of  the  soil  in  which  ten  years  later  he  was  to 
sow  the  seed.  The  second  state  was  the  work  of  the  mature 
philosopher  and  lawgiver,  who  "  wove  of  the  whole  the  warp 
and  weft,"  who  impregnated  the  living  state  with  his  spirit  and 
his  law  and  called  his  creature  into  life — "  as  the  soul  creates  a 
body  for  itself,"  to  quote  from  a  Mirror  of  Princes.  Having 
created  a  space  in  which  to  work,  Frederick's  scheme  was  to 
fill  it  with  himself  as  the  law-giving  Caesar,  who  followed  the 


222  A  LAW-GIVER  v 

deed  of  force  by  the  deed  of  love  .  .  .  the  "  prime  love,"  as 
Dante  extols  it  in  the  Law-Giver  Justinian. 


Here  was  the  opportunity  for  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor  to 
equate  himself  for  the  first  time,  not  in  dignity  and  office  alone, 
as  Law  Giver  with  the  Roman  Caesars.  He  could  frankly  not 
compete  in  deeds  of  war.  But  the  Caesars  had  excelled  also  in 
intellectual  deeds  and  acts — their  activity  is  summed  up  in  the 
formula  arma  et  leges — and  in  this  he  could  approach  them  as 
no  western  Christian  potentate  had  done. 

From  the  beginning  Frederick's  position  had  been  unique 
in  linking  the  Roman  Empire  with  Sicily.  Both  the  Hohen- 
staufens  and  the  Norman  Bangs  were  far  in  advance  of  other 
European  princes  in  emulating  the  Roman  and  Byzantine 
Emperors.  But  however  much  Guiscard's  heirs,  as  kings  and 
despots  of  Sicily,  might  deck  themselves  with  Justinian's 
imperial  formulas,  the  plumes  were  obviously  borrowed,  the 
splendid  mantle  was  a  size  too  large  ;  till  the  day  came  when 
no  mere  Norman  kinglet  but  a  Roman  Emperor  sat  upon  the 
throne  of  Sicily.  On  the  other  hand  :  however  vigorously 
Barbarossa  might  assert  the  absolute  validity  of  Roman  Law, 
however  effectively  Henry  VI  might  impose  the  feudal  system 
throughout  the  Roman  world,  however  these  two  Emperors 
might  reach  the  highest  summits,  upborne  by  the  glamour  of 
the  imperial  name,  neither  had  its  root  in  earth.  In  all  their 
gigantic  Imperium  there  was  not  the  tiniest  province  in  which 
they  could  rule  with  the  unconditional  authority  of  a  Norman 
King.  Barbarossa  deduced  the  theory  of  unconditional  im 
perial  authority  from  Roman  law  and  no  one  questioned  his 
abstract  idea — but  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  Germany  there 
was  no  single  village  in  which  he  could  have  put  his  theory 
into  practice. 

Frederick  II  had  never  laid  such  emphasis  on  the  pronounce 
ments  of  Roman  law  and  their  recognition.  The  Normans  had 
made  their  validity  in  Sicily  a  matter  of  course,  and  the  Em 
peror's  availing  himself  of  them  attracted  no  comment.  The 
unique  and  fortunate  coincidence  that  the  heir  of  Norman 
despots  was  at  the  same  time  Roman  Emperor,  and  that  a 


i23i  CONSTITUTIONS  OF  MELFI  223 

medieval  Christian  Imperator  not  only  claimed  but  exercised 
the  intimate  despotic  power  of  an  absolute  monarch  over  a  real 
land  and  real  people,  enabled  Frederick  II  to  employ  Roman 
imperial  titles,  formulas  and  gestures  with  unaffected  freedom 
and  sangfroid.  He  differed  from  his  predecessors  not  so  much 
by  a  greater  mass  of  knowledge  or  a  more  exact  acquaintance 
with  the  writers  of  antiquity,  as  by  the  fact  that  in  his  case  the 
premisses  fitted  the  facts.  It  is  by  no  means  accidental  that 
Frederick's  first  really  close  approximation  to  the  Caesars 
occurred  in  Sicily.  There  were  three  Roman  Emperors  whom 
he  explicitly  took  as  his  models  :  Justinian,  Augustus,  and 
Julius  Caesar. 

The  Middle  Ages  took  Justinian — with  Scipio  perhaps,  and 
Cato  and  Trajan — as  the  symbol  of  Justice,  the  minister  Domini 
who  codified  Roman  Law  ;  Dante  treats  him  as  a  sacred  figure, 
and  he  was  the  inevitable  pattern  for  Frederick  the  Law-Giver. 
Immediately  after  concluding  peace  with  the  Pope  the  Emperor 
set  himself  to  unify  the  laws  of  Sicily.  In  August  1231,  at 
Melfi,  he  published  his  famous  Constitutions — the  fruit  of 
strenuous  and  prolonged  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Imperial 
High  Courts.  This  collection,  representing  a  sort  of  State  Law 
and  Constitutional  Law,  was  based  first  on  ancient  Norman 
ordinances,  some  of  which  had  been  collected  orally  from  the 
lips  of  aged  inhabitants,  secondly  on  earlier  legislation  of 
Frederick's,  and  finally  on  a  large  body  of  new  laws  (further 
increased  at  a  later  date),  all  blended  into  one  coherent  whole 
by  the  Emperor  and  his  colleagues.  The  great  codification  of 
a  state's  constitutional  law — the  first  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  in 
deed,  the  first  since  Justinian — was  deservedly  admired  by  the 
world,  and  annotated  by  scholars  as  a  work  that  would  be 
authoritative  for  centuries.  Its  influence  on  the  later  legislation 
of  the  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe  can  by  no  means  be 
ignored.  The  emulation  of  Justinian  was  of  course  obvious  in 
the  mere  fact  of  collecting  laws,  but  it  was  even  more  potent 
in  the  whole  conception  and  arrangement  of  this  amazing  work. 
The  spirit  of  Justinian  informed  the  whole  and  communicated 
itself  to  his  Hohenstaufen  successor.  The  Late-Roman  had 
still  a  vivid  feeling  for  firm  construction  and  chastened  form, 
side  by  side  with  an  intensified  Byzantine-Christian  pomp, 


224  LIBER  AUGUSTALIS  v 

which  betrayed  itself -in  the  details  as  well  as  in  the  whole. 
Justinian  opened  his  digest  with  a  rehearsal  of  his  titles  as 
Triumphator,  "  Alanicus,  Goticus,  Vandalicus  " — which  the 
Middle  Ages  speciously  took  to  mean  a  recounting  of  conquered 
races.  Similarly  the  Frederick's  Book  of  Laws  bore  the  mag 
nificent  and  haughty  title  : 

IMPERATOR  FRIDERICUS  SECUNDUS. 

ROMANORUM  CAESAR  SEMPER  AUGUSTUS. 

ITALICUS  SICULUS  HIEROSOLYMITANUS  ARELATENSIS. 

FELIX  VICTOR  AC  TRIUMPHATOR. 

This  had  weight  as  well  as  style.  It  indicated  not  alone  a  claim 
to  equality  with  Justinian  but  also  the  immense  importance 
which  Frederick  attached  to  his  work  and  to  himself,  though 
his  Lawbook  was  to  serve  the  Sicilian  kingdom  only,  not 
the  Empire.  The  imitation  of  Justinian  was  evident  too  in 
the  solemn  Prooemium  with  which  the  book  was  prefaced  ; 
in  the  rehearsal  of  the  origin  of  rulers'  and  judges'  powers ; 
in  the  dedication  of  it  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  God  of  the  State ;  in 
the  devotion  of  the  first  laws  to  heretics  and  Church  protection ; 
and  in  many  other  details  on  the  Justinian  model. 

After  Justinian,  the  Emperor  of  Law,  Frederick  IPs  next  hero 
was  Augustus,  renowned  as  Emperor  of  Peace.  The  Augustan 
age  was  the  scriptural  "  fulness  of  time  J>  and  the  only  aurea 
aetas  of  peace  since  Paradise.  For  the  Son  of  God  had  desired 
to  be  born  under  the  rule  of  Augustus,  Prince  of  Peace,  to  live 
as  man  under  his  laws,  to  die  under  his  decree  as  Roman 
Emperor.  In  the  days  of  this  great  Emperor,  the  contemporary 
of  Christ,  himself  celebrated  as  the  Saviour,  the  Redeemer,  the 
SOTER,  the  constitution  of  the  world  had  been  perfect,  because 
Augustus  had  rendered  to  every  man  his  own,  and  Peace  had 
therefore  reigned. 

Frederick  II  conceived  it  his  peculiar  mission  to  bring  again 
this  Augustan  peace-epoch  and  the  divine  organisation  of  the 
world.  If  this  order  could  once  more  be  restored  his  own  day 
would  again  be  the  "  fulness  of  time,"  in  which  pax  etjustitia, 
the  only  end  of  earthly  rule,  would  reign  over  the  whole  earth 
as  in  the  days  of  Augustus.  This  faith  was  not  unnatural. 


AUGUSTALES  225 

The  thirteenth  century  awaited  daily,  as  no  other  had  ever  done, 
the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  prophecies  foretold  :  the  end  of 
the  world  should  be  middle  and  beginning,  should  be  alike 
redemption  and  creation.  People  hoped  therefore  that  the 
Golden  Age  was  at  hand  and  the  peace-era  of  Augustus,  and 
Frederick  II  exerted  himself  therefore  that  his  hereditary  king 
dom  "  might  be  graced  with  peace  and  might  flourish  in  the 
days  of  Caesar  Augustus." 

Frederick  felt  another  bond  with  Augustus  apart  from  world 
peace.  Once,  and  once  only,  the  Saviour  himself  had  recog 
nised  the  Roman  Empire  as  rightfully  existing,  when  he  said 
"  Render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's/'  Solemnly 
Frederick  pointed  therefore  to  that  moment  as  the  justification 
of  his  imperial  office,  when  our  Lord  "  looking  on  the  portrait 
of  the  coin  for  the  payment  of  tribute  indicated  in  sight  of  all 
other  kings  the  lofty  height  of  the  imperial  destiny."  Accord 
ing  to  the  interpretation  of  the  day  the  coin  most  probably  bore 
the  image  of  Caesar  Augustus,  the  Saviour  Emperor.  Augustus 
coins  were  also  in  fact  struck  under  Tiberius,  bearing  the  Roman 
eagle  on  the  reverse.  When  Frederick  II,  therefore,  now  re 
organised  the  Sicilian  currency  he  minted  gold  coins  which  he 
not  only  termed  "  Augustales,"  but  in  which  he  deliberately 
imitated  the  coins  of  Augustus.  The  obverse  shows  Frederick's 
head  and  shoulders,  wearing  the  imperial  mantle,  a  diadem 
of  laurel  or  of  rays  crowning  his  head,  and  the  circular 
legend  IMP  /  ROM  /  CESAR  /  AUG.  On  the  reverse  the  Roman 
Eagle,  a  perfect  replica  it  seems  of  that  on  the  Augustan  coins, 
and  round  it  the  name :  FREDERICUS.  Frederick  was  following 
Augustus  in  the  smallest  details,  and  the  name  Augustus  was 
repeated  on  the  eagle-side.  Frederick's  love  of  form  no  doubt 
prompted  him  for  purely  aesthetic  reasons  to  revert  to  the 
antique,  but  a  far  stronger  motive  was  his  sober  practical 
sense,  so  strangely  wedded  to  his  love  of  speculative  thought : 
if  his  Was  the  "  ftilness  of  time  "  then  everything  must  be  as 
far  as  possible  identically  as  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  redemption. 
This  renewal  of  the  antique  was  for  Frederick,  as  also  for  the 
Renaissance,  the  practical  expression  of  a  sincere  conviction  : 
namely,  that  the  age  of  Christ,  and  with  it  the  age  of  Augustus, 
had  come  again. 


226  PAX  ET  JUSTITIA  v 

That  Frederick,  with  all  this,  possessed  the  independence  to 
substitute  his  own  portrait  for  that  of  the  Soter-Emperor,  while 
otherwise  exactly  copying  the  coins  of  Augustus,  is  the  most 
amazing  phenomenon  of  all.  And  from  one  coinage  to  the  next 
it  is  clear  and  clearer  that  he  did  so,  and  that  he  modified  the 
eagle  with  the  retracted  claws  to  express  something  of  the 
greater  restraint  and  tension  of  his  own  day.  He  dared  in  fact 
to  be  Roman,  simply  and  naturally,  after  his  own  fashion.  It 
will  be  a  question  to  be  answered  later  what  significance  under 
lay  this  "  portrait  "-likeness,  and  why  it  was  indispensable. 
One  point  is  obvious  already  :  these  beautifully  stamped  coins 
with  their  exquisite  high  relief — the  most  lovely  mintage  of  the 
Middle  Ages  till  far  on  into  Renaissance  times — instead  of  a 
symbolic  impersonal  head,  instead  of  a  Christ,  or  a  Lamb,  or  a 
Cross,  such  as  are  usual  on  other  coins  of  the  period,  bear  in 
unmistakable  lines  the  likeness  of  the  reigning  Caesar  Augustus 
and  the  whole  eagle  skilfully  wrought  in  gold  (a  metal  which  had 
almost  ceased  to  be  used  for  specie).  In  all  ages  of  faith  the 
value  of  a  coin  has  been  guaranteed  in  one  way  or  another  by 
th.6  State  God  in  whom  people  believed:  amongst  primitive 
folk  the  money  bore  the  Totem-animal ;  amongst  the  Greeks 
the  God  of  the  Polis  ;  correspondingly  in  Rome  the  Divine 
Emperors,  and  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  Saviour  himself,  under 
one  of  many  signs  and  symbols,  stood  surety  for  the  value  of 
the  coin.  On  these  golden  Augustales  of  Frederick  II  is  not 
the  smallest  Christian  sign,  not  the  tiniest  of  crosses  on  sceptre, 
orb,  or  crown  ;  independent  of  the  Christian  God  there  reigns 
here  a  Divus  who  summons  men  to  faith  in  him,  like  a  new 
Caesar  Augustus. 

Justinian,  Emperor  of  Law;  Augustus,  Emperor  of  Peace, 
were  Frederick's  models  ;  peace  and  law  ;  "  two  sisters  in 
close  embrace " ;  pax  et  justitia,  a  formula  which  in  endless 
variation  eternally  recurs,  defining  the  purpose  of  a  State. 
This  Two-in-one-ness  permeates  the  whole  Sicilian  Book 
of  Laws  :  after  the  preliminary  introduction  the  first  and 
weightiest  section  is  divided  into  two  distinct  parts,  the  first 
concerns  internal  peace  :  Pax ;  the  second  legal  jurisdiction : 
Justitia.  The  Lawbook  itself  Frederick  called  the  ''Liber 
Avgustalis  "  in  honour  of  Augustan  majesty ;  and  the  book, 


NATIONAL  FEAST  DAY  227 

which  was  published  in  September  1231,  bears  on  it  the  date 
of  August. 

Justinian  and  Augustus  were  for  Frederick  embodiments  and 
symbols  of  certain  features  and  organisations  of  the  State,  but 
another  figure  hovered  before  him,  more  human  than  Pax  or 
Justitia,  a  man  and  a  ruler  of  men :  Julius  Caesar.  In  later 
years  Frederick  apostrophises  "  yon  glorious  Julius,  first  of 
Caesars."  Whether  intentionally  or  by  accident  Frederick  was 
following  the  example  of  the  genial,  open-hearted  Julius,  when 
he  commanded  that  his  birthday,  which  immediately  followed 
the  Saviour's,  should  be  observed  as  a  public  holiday  through 
out  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Sicilian  kingdom.  Julius 
Caesar  had  been  the  first  to  make  his  birthday  a  festival — the 
omission  to  observe  which  is  said  to  have  been  punishable  with 
death.  Perhaps  this  was  in  the  Hohenstaufen's  mind,  perhaps 
he  also  had  visions  of  Caesar's  legendary  hospitality.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  the  Emperor  will  have  fed  tens  of  thousands  on  his 
birthday,  for  at  the  festivities  in  the  little  town  of  San  Germano 
alone,  over  500  had  been  entertained  with  bread  and  wine  and 
meat  in  the  open  market-place.  Bible  precedents  may  have 
influenced  him  also.  In  any  case  the  Emperor's  birthday  was 
the  first  feast  day  common  to  the  whole  Sicilian  people  :  to 
Greek  and  Saracen,  to  Christian  and  to  Jew. 

Law — Order — Humanity — typified  in  the  three  Caesar- 
figures,  a  trinity  that  embraces  every  function  of  a  State.  The 
Emperor's  Sicilian  Lawbook,  the  Liber  Augustalis,  teaches  what 
forces,  the  virtutes,  are  potent  to  produce  these  three.  True, 
they  are  obscured  by  scholastic-juristic  conventions  of  expres 
sion,  but  they  are  nevertheless  undoubtedly  forceful.  For 
these  basic  influences  went  to  create  the  first  purely  secular 
state,  freed  from  the  bonds  of  the  Church.  This  was  the  be 
ginning  of  State-making  and  its  influence,  though  blunted  and 
obscured,  has  come  down  to  us  to-day  through  autocracy  and 
bureaucracy.  Dante  immortalises  the  picture  of  the  Sicilian 
imperial  State  in  his  lofty  doctrine  of  the  monarchic  unity  of 
the  world  and  the  divine  kingdom  upon  earth  which  this  most 
spiritual  of  poets  fought  for,  with  a  passion  as  great  as  that 
which  inspired  this  most  gifted  of  Emperors,  his  forerunner. 


228  AGE  OF  LAW  v.  i 


In  the  case  of  a  document  so  important  as  the  Lawbook  of 
Melfi,  which  has  even  been  styled  "  The  Birth  Certificate  of 
Modern  Bureaucracy/'  the  moment  of  birth  must  challenge 
attention.  The  function  of  all  secular  rule  in  the  Middle  Ages 
was  defined  in  the  recurrent  formula  Pax  etjustitia.  If  Justice 
reigned  there  was  Peace  ;  if  Peace  existed  it  was  the  sign  that 
Justice  reigned.  All  rule  was  directed  to  the  securing  of  justice; 
justice  was  an  absolute  thing,  a  gift  of  God,  an  end  in  itself. 
The  earthly  State — a  product  of  the  Fall — existed  with  one  task 
before  it :  to  preserve  this  gift  of  God.  This  vitally  distin 
guishes  the  medieval  from  the  later  commonwealth  ;  justice  did 
not  exist  to  preserve  the  State,  but  the  State  existed  to  preserve 
justice.  To  quote  St.  Augustine  "  true  justice  reigns  only  in 
that  State  whose  founder  and  ruler  is  the  Christ.'*  Such  a 
State,  whose  raison  d'etre  was  justice,  was  now  completely 
transcended. 

It  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Hohenstaufen  Em 
peror  lived  at  the  end  of  the  millennium  which  conceived  justice 
to  be  the  sole  object  of  a  State — an  object  to  which  Renaissance 
statesmen  were  notoriously  somewhat  indifferent — in  the  zenith 
of  the  "  century  of  jurisprudence,"  which  marked  the  close  of 
that  millennium,  and  which  left  its  mark  on  Frederick,  as 
surely  as  he  left  his  on  jurisprudence.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  his  visit  to  Bologna  ;  Roffredo  of  Benevento  ;  the  foun 
dation  of  the  University  of  Naples.  The  designation  of  the 
hundred  years  that  ended  the  Middle  Ages,  1150-1250,  as  the 
"  age  of  law  "  is  amply  justified.  Since  the  days  of  Gratian  and 
Irnerius  and  the  memorable  resumption  of  Roman  Law  by 
Barbarossa  which  was  symbolic  of  the  spirit  of  the  time,  the 
world  has  never  shown  such  genuine  interest  in  any  intellectual 
sphere  as  then  in  the  science  of  jurisprudence.  It  is  true  that 
this  passion  ultimately  merged  in  madness.  In  the  late  thir 
teenth  century  men  began  to  versify  Justinian's  Institutes,  as  in 
our  day  they  have  rhymed  Kant's  Critique  of  Pure  Reason. 
Such  follies  at  least  indicate  that  there  was  little  left  for  serious 
study  to  do.  Jurisprudence  by  no  means  ceased  with  the 


SECULAR  JURISPRUDENCE  229 

century,  but  the  material  was  diligently  sifted  by  the  industry 
of  commentators  who  became  progressively  more  sterile.  The 
dawning  Renaissance  opened  up  spheres  of  knowledge  so 
infinitely  varied  and  so  urgently  important  that  secular  learning 
was  no  longer  almost  synonymous  with  legal  learning,  as  it  was 
in  Frederick's  day.  Jurisprudence,  the  study  of  law,  indicates 
the  beginning  of  secular,  non-theological,  education. 

The  Church,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  her  lead  even  in 
the  pursuit  of  jurisprudence  :  all  the  important  Popes  of  this 
century — Alexander  III,  Honorius  III,  Gregory  IX,  Innocent 
IV — were  jurists ;  a  knowledge  of  canon  law  came  to  absorb 
theology,  or  rather  :  theology  and  law-mongering  came  to  be 
dangerous  rivals  within  the  Church,  and  jurisprudence  even  be 
came  seriously  harmful.  Hence  Dante  wrathfully  calls  curses 
on  the  collection  of  Decretals,  because  from  poring  eternally 
over  the  thumbmarked  manuscripts  Pope  and  Cardinals 
had  forgotten  Nazareth.  Numbers  of  law-collections  now 
began  to  appear.  A  beginning  had  long  ago  been  made  with 
the  small  but  important  Assize  Collection  of  the  Norman 
King,  Roger  II.  The  great  papal  collection  of  Decretals  which 
Innocent  III  had  begun  and  which  was  published  by  Gregory 
IX  in  1234 — "  following  the  example  of  Justinian  "  and  "  omit 
ting  the  superfluous  " — was  almost  contemporaneous  with 
Frederick's  great  codification  of  his  first  state  and  constitutional 
law. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  an  age  which  hourly  expected  the  end 
of  the  world  should  have  seen  legal  erudition  the  fashion  every 
where,  as  if  a  knowledge  of  law  could  avert  the  Last  Judgment. 
In  all  the  welter  of  law-study  there  was  only  one  work  really 
outstanding  and  pre-eminent :  Frederick's  Liber  Augustalis. 
Certain  hypotheses  were  here  so  fused  that  Justitia  herself 
celebrated  her  apotheosis  in  the  Sicilian  Book  of  Laws.  In 
virtue  of  his  office  as  Emperor  and  Supreme  Judge,  Frederick  II 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  whole  Justitia  movement, 
creating  by  this  means  a  purely  secular  State,  which,  while  free 
from  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Church,  should  present  a 
complete  whole  vitalised  by  spiritual  forces. 

Corresponding  to  the  duality  of  Temporal  and  Eternal  that 
dominated  the  Middle  Ages,  people  recognised  as  a  matter  of 


230  THE  MEDIEVAL  GOD  v.  i 

course  two  irreconcilable  types  of  law  :  an  eternal  law  of  God 
and  Nature  and  a  positive  or  human  law,  always  at  variance 
with  the  former.  This  human  law  valid  in  earthly  states,  im 
perfect  as  are  all  earthly  things,  was  based  in  part  on  the 
traditional,  customary  and  popular  law  ;  in  part  on  the  precepts 
of  Holy  Writ,  which  as  revelations  from  God  approximated 
more  nearly  to  Divine  law  ;  thirdly,  in  more  recent  times  on 
Roman  law  which  was  sanctified  and  recognised  because  the 
Saviour  had  submitted  to  it.  The  princes'  business  was 
primarily  to  maintain  peace,  and  since  any  alteration  in  the  law 
inevitably  injured  somebody  and  brought  disorder,  the  princes 
as  guardians  of  the  peace  had  the  secondary  task  of  upholding 
the  law.  Necessary  alterations  of  the  law  were  therefore  pre 
ferably  based  on  a  renewal  of  old  laws  that  had  been  forgotten 
or  misused,  and  princely  edicts  were  represented  rather  as  the 
restoration  or  enforcement  of  old  forgotten  laws  ;  no  one  would 
have  dared  to  claim  that  he  himself  evolved  a  "  new  law."  The 
medieval  state  was  therefore  "  law  maintaining,  law-conserving, 
but  scarcely  law-creating,"  and  this  substantially  describes  the 
ruler's  duties  :  above  all  things  to  maintain  and  conserve  the 
laws. 

According  to  the  graduated  constitution  of  the  medieval 
world,  the  Emperor  was  quite  particularly  called  to  exercise  this 
preservative  function.  The  correct  phrase  was  "  What  God  is 
in  Heaven  that  is  the  Emperor  on  Earth."  From  the  days  of 
Charlemagne  the  Roman  Emperors  were  the  image  of  God  the 
Father  ;  the  summit  of  earthly  authority,  an  image  of  the  Ruler 
of  the  Hierarchy  of  Heaven,  and  as  protectors  and  preservers 
of  earthly  law  an  image  of  the  God  who  sustains  the  eternal, 
immutable  Law  of  Nature. 

The  Christian  Emperor  of  the  Middle  Ages  appeared  there 
fore  as  the  image  of  God  the  Father,  Ruler  and  Preserver  of  the 
World.  What  was  to  be  done  when  suddenly  into  this  serene 
and  image-like  repose,  there  burst  a  new,  young,  stirring  force  ? 
When  a  spark  from  Heaven  suddenly  leaped  out  upon  the 
Emperor  enthroned  in  clouds,  and  he  who  had  been  an  image 
of  God  the  Father  suddenly  became  an  image  also  of  the 
Divine  Son,  the  Mediator  and  Judge,  yea  the  Redeemer  !  No 
longer  guardian  and  preserver  only,  but  bringer  and  inter- 


FOUNTAIN  OF  JUSTITIA  231 

mediary,  source  of  divine  and  natural  law,  the  Emperor  brought 
God's  Law  into  his  State,  brought  Heaven  down  to  earth  as 
Holy  Law,  as  Justitia.  It  remained  the  Church's  service  to 
dispense  the  Holy  Spirit. 

An  old  Germanic  proverb  had  it  that  God  is  the  beginning 
of  all  law,  and  St.  Augustine  taught  that  "  God  is  the  fount  of 
Justice."  If  the  theorists  of  the  days  that  followed  the  last 
Hohenstaufen  had  substituted  the  "  Emperor  "  in  these  two 
sayings  that  would  exactly  describe  the  actual  teaching  of 
Frederick's  Liber  Augustalis.  The  Ruler,  in  virtue  of  Justitia, 
as  the  Priest  in  virtue  of  Grace,  is  mediator  between  God  and 
Man.  Or,  to  express  it  differently,  Justitia  is  the  link  between 
God  and  the  Emperor  as  between  Emperor  and  people,  for 
"  earthly  law  lies  below  the  ruler,  as  divine  law  lies  above  him." 
This  expresses  more  cumbrously  what  is  concisely  implied  in 
the  illuminating  phrases  of  the  "  Constitutions  "  with  which 
Kaiser  Frederick  introduced  some  seventy  laws  concerning  the 
new  order  of  things  :  "  The  Emperor  must  therefore  be  at 
once  FATHER  AND  SON,  LORD  AND  SERVANT  of  Justitia"  This 
can  bear  no  other  interpretation — in  the  light  of  the  whole 
doctrine  of  the  Logos — than  that  the  Emperor  had  compre 
hended  and  represented  the  living  God  as  Right  and  Law,  as 
Justitia.  According  to  the  revived  Roman  Law  the  Emperor 
was  indubitably  the  "  lex  animata  in  terris"  Nothing  less  than 
this  mystic  identity  of  the  Emperor  with  the  living  God,  the 
Fountain  of  Justitia^  qualifies  him  to  propound  law  and  so 
expound  right.  The  learned  Roffredo  of  Benevento,  Frederick 
IPs  legal  authority,  formulated  it  thus :  "  the  Emperor  bases  his 
right  on  a  gift  of  grace  bestowed  by  heaven,"  and  the  Emperor 
himself,  following  the  Codices  of  Justinian,  frequently  proclaims 
that  he  "  receives  his  impulse  (motus)  from  heavenly  reflection." 
The  Emperor  thus  becomes  himself  the  fountain  of  Justitia  in 
the  State  :  through  God  and  like  unto  God  ;  he  is  the  creator 
of  law,  not  only  the  preserver  of  law  ;  he  is  the  "  Founder  of 
a  new  Law,"  for  he  declares  that  new  law  is  begotten  of  him 
daily,  and  requires  that  in  all  directions  throughout  the  kingdom 
the  standard  of  law  shall  flow  from  the  Emperor's  court  as 
streams  flow  from  a  spring.  He  is  the  proclaimer  of  kws, 
whose  tongue  is  unloosed.  The  concluding  words  of  the  whole 


232  NATURE'S   LAW  v.  i 

collection  run  :  "  Posterity  must  believe  of  us  in  centuries  to 
come  that  we  collected  this  Book  of  Laws  not  merely  to  serve 
our  own  renown,  but  rather  to  wipe  out  in  our  day,  the  injustice 
of  earlier  times  during  which  the  voice  of  justice  has  been 
silent."  Frederick  here  referred  not  merely  to  the  injustice  of 
earlier  times  but  to  the  actual  "  dumbness  "  of  justice,  the  lack 
of  law-creation,  as  is  clear  from  the  introductory  words  which, 
as  in  other  works  of  art,  constitute  a  dedication  to  God  and 
an  appeal :  "  We  hope  therefore  to  render  to  God  from  whom 
we  hold  all  that  we  possess,  the  talent  he  hath  entrusted  to  us 
increased  an  hundredfold,  and  finally  we  render  homage  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  we  bring  him  a  sacrifice  of  our  lips  by  the 
statutes  of  law  and  the  cult  of  justice." 


That  Frederick  II  felt  his  life  and  tongue  set  free  to  proclaim 
the  law  is  thus  almost  an  act  of  personal  grace.  Frederick 
certainly  possessed  a  peculiar  personal  aptitude  for  law-giving. 
His  enormous  knowledge  and  his  untiring  research  into  the 
eternal  laws  of  nature  lent  him  a  unique  qualification  for  taking 
the  mean  position  between  the  divine  law,  the  law  of  nature, 
and  the  positive  law,  the  law  of  man.  The  Emperor  frequently 
boasts  that  he — in  contrast  to  those  who  judge  "  without  glanc 
ing  at  the  facts  of  Nature  " — has  himself  "  studied  the  true 
science  of  Nature's  laws."  His  knowledge  of  natural  law  now 
reinforces  his  unity  with  God  and  further  established  his  in 
fallibility  ;  for  he  goes  on  to  say  "  therefore  we  scorn  to  err." 
The  Pope  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be 
infallible  in  matters  of  faith,  similarly  the  Emperor  "  overfilled 
byjustitia  "  is  infallible  in  matters  of  law.  In  accordance  with 
this  imperial  infallibility,  Frederick  adopted,  as  the  Norman 
Kings  before  him  had  done,  the  sentence  of  Roman  Law  :  "  to 
discuss  the  Emperor's  judgments,  decrees,  and  statutes  is 
sacrilege,"  a  sentence  that  was  so  vital  to  the  constitution  of  the 
whole  state  that  Frederick  boldly  quoted  it  to  the  Pope  when 
he  ventured  to  criticise  some  measure  of  the  Emperor's. 

The  Emperor  was  the  pinnacle  of  the  world's  structure,  who 
received  directly  unto  himself  the  rays  of  "  Justiiia  looking  down 
from  Heaven  "  and  radiated  them  forth  again  on  judges  and  jurists 


A  SECULAR  TRINITY  233 

— hence  he  issued  Sicilian  laws  as  Emperor,  not  as  Sicilian  king 
— and  by  his  knowledge  of  Nature's  laws  he  was  able  to  interpret 
the  divine  and  natural  law  :  yet,  the  relation  of  God  to  Emperor 
created  no  circuit.  In  the  electric  relation  of  creditor  and 
debtor  the  surety  is  a  necessary  third  if  power  is  to  be  trans 
mitted.  Frederick  II  now  sought  his  third  source — beside  God 
and  Nature — in  the  earth-born  right  of  the  people,  which  he 
focussed  in  his  own  person  by  the  Roman  lex  regia.  In  such 
majestic  Latin  as  had  not  for  centuries  been  heard,  in  which  the 
deep  Christian  rhythm  blended  with  the  lofty  dignity  of 
the  Roman  Caesar  he  wrote  the  almost  untranslatable  words  : 
"  Non  sine  grandi  consilio  et  deliberatione  perpensa  condendae 
legisjus  et  imperium  in  Romanum  Principem  lege  regia  transtulere 
Qwrites." 

Contemporaries  and  commentators  did  not  fail  to  be  im 
pressed  by  the  grandiose  diction  of  these  words  in  which  the 
Emperor  recalled  that  according  to  Roman  royal  law  the  Roman 
people,  the  Quirites,  handed  over  to  the  Princeps  the  entire 
power  and  the  right  of  making  laws.  Reverting  thus  to  the 
critical  procedure  at  the  establishment  of  the  Roman  empire, 
Frederick  II — the  last  Caesar  in  this  akin  to  the  first — obliterates 
the  people's  own  authority  and  lawgiving  power  or,  more 
exactly,  absorbs  it  into  himself ;  himself  the  divine  source  of 
Justitia.  All  dignities  and  powers  and  mights  :  God's,  Nature's 
and  the  People's,  Frederick  thus  accumulated  in  his  own  person 
and  united  in  himself.  God,  People,  and  Emperor  were  the 
origins  of  Law  which  united  in  Frederick  and  informed  him. 

God  ;  the  Emperor  as  emanation,  as  Son  of  God  ;  Justitia  ; 
this  was  the  new  secular  trinity  which  dominated  the  state  of 
Frederick,  without  prejudice  to  the  Church — and  which  found 
in  the  Emperor  its  living  representative,  "  Law  incarnate  upon 
earth."  The  whole  juristic  official-state  of  Frederick  II  was 
based  on  the  cult  of  this  trinity  and  here  we  begin  to  gain  a 
preliminary  glimpse  of  the  Hohenstaufen's  great  achievement. 
God,  who  for  over  ten  centuries  had  manifested  himself  only 
in  miracles,  and  as  spirit  had  permeated  space,  was  now  captive 
to  this  Emperor,  and  as  far  as  the  state  was  concerned  was 
converted  from  an  intangible  omnipotent  Benevolence  into  a 
tangible,  comprehensible  state  law,  Justitia  .  .  .  had  become  a 


234  ECCLESIA  IMPERIALIS  v.  i 

"  State  God,"  much  as,  in  the  time  of  Constantine  Christ  had 
been  elevated  into  the  State  God  in  succession  to  Mithra. 
Frederick  II  had  wedded  the  God  of  the  other  world  to  the 
Justitia  of  this  :  Deus  et  Justitia  is  the  recurrent  formula  ;  and 
thus,  and  thus  alone,  was  it  possible  to  comprehend  the  one 
universal  God  as  a  particular  God  of  the  state — to  represent 
him,  appeal  to  him,  worship  him — without  the  Church's  aid. 
God  had  been  forcefully  brought  down  into  the  state,  not  merely 
the  state  exalted  to  a  world-shunning  universal  Deity. 

Now  that  God  as  Justice  had  become  a  state  Godhead  in  the 
narrowest  sense,  it  behoved  the  Emperor  to  transform  the 
state  judicial  service  into  worship.  Pope  Innocent  had  averred  : 
"  God  is  honoured  in  us,  when  we  are  honoured  "  ;  Kaiser 
Frederick  countered  this  with :  "  our  subjects  serve  and  please 
God  and  the  Emperor  when  they  serve  Justice  "  ;  almost 
exactly  as  Roman  law  had  formulated  it :  "He  who  honours 
Justitia,  does  homage  to  the  holy  things  of  God."  This  dic 
tated  certain  observances  of  outward  service.  The  law  entitled 
Cultus  Justitiae  begins  : "  The  Cult  of  Justice  demands  Silence." 
While  popes  and  priests  dispensed  God  as  Grace  to  the  people 
in  wonder  and  magic,  the  Emperor  and  his  judges  were  to  the 
faithful  the  channels  of  God  as  Law,  as  Rule,  thus  actualising 
the  theory  quoted  by  the  Normans  from  the  Roman  digests  that 
judges  and  jurists  were  "  Priests  of  Justice."  It  was  com 
pletely  justified  therefore  when  people  not  only  spoke  of  the 
Empire  as  the  "  Temple  of  Justice,"  but  went  so  far  as  to  talk 
of  the  Imperial  Church,  imperialis  ecclesia.  Down  to  the 
smallest  details  this  imperial  Justice- State  mirrors  the  clerical 
God-State  which  Innocent  III  had  erected  with  his  elaborate 
hierarchy.  Out  of  the  Pope's  plenitudo  potestatis  God's  Grace 
is  conveyed  to  the  people  through  bishops  and  priests  ;  even 
so  from  the  Emperor  God's  Justice  through  judges  and  officials. 
A  living  power  of  immediately  divine  origin  thus  coursed 
through  the  veins  of  the  State. 

All  the  metaphors  of  the  Book  of  Laws  point  in  the  same 
direction.  The  Emperor  was  the  sole  source  of  Justice,  and 
on  the  throne  of  Justice  he  who  weaves  the  web  of  Justice  takes 
the  highest  seat.  His  Justice  flows  as  in  a  flood  ;  with  the 
scales  of  Justice  he  weighs  to  each  his  right ;  he  interprets  the 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  STATE  235 

law  and  resolves  the  problems  of  the  jurists  and  issues  laws  to 
end  their  differences.  He  must  find  new  remedies  daily  for 
new  vices,  for  amid  the  changes  of  time  and  circumstance  the 
ancient  laws  do  not  suffice  to  pulverise  the  vicious  with  untiring 
hammer  blows.  From  him  Justice  flows  through  the  kingdom 
hi  rivulets  and  those  who  distribute  his  rule  throughout  the 
State  are  the  imperial  officials  who  take  the  helm  in  the  Emperor's 
stead,  and  are  themselves  the  Emperor's  image,  even  as  he  him 
self  is  the  image  of  God. 

These  officials  were  no  longer  feudal  retainers  of  varying 
degree,  but  men  selected  by  the  Emperor's  favour  from  every 
rank,  who  held  their  posts  not  as  a  beneficium,  a  fief  to  possess, 
but  as  an  officium,  a  service  to  fulfil ;  in  Church  phraseology  : 
they  discharged  the  service  of  God.  Since  these  law-learned 
officials  were  appointed  by  a  special  act  of  the  Emperor's  grace, 
which  only  the  Emperor  could  exercise — the  "  co-knowers  of 
our  knowledge  JJ — he  called  them — the  purchase  of  office  in 
the  State  was  forbidden  as  simony.  The  official  remains  an 
official,  as  long  as  the  Emperor  considers  him  worthy  and  the 
charisma  rests  on  him,  irrespective  of  his  personal  worthiness 
or  unworthiness.  "  It  is  sacrilege  to  debate  whether  that  man 
is  worthy  whom  the  Emperor  has  chosen  and  appointed/' 

The  choice  of  officials  appertains  to  the  Emperor  alone  and 
their  offices  are  not  transferable  to  others.  There  exist  no 
hereditary  offices.  None  may  dare,  without  the  Emperor's 
permission,  to  appoint  an  official,  and  the  severest  penalties 
wait  on  any  attempt  to  do  so  :  the  town  in  which  such  a  deed 
occurs  is  destroyed  for  ever,  the  inhabitants  are  reduced  to 
servitude  and  the  office  holder  is  beheaded.  The  Emperor, 
however,  will  see  to  it  that  there  shall  be  officials  enough  and 
to  spare  that  justice  may  be  freely  available  to  all  and  that  the 
Emperor's  "  sacred  wishes "  may  be  made  known.  The 
officials  were  to  celebrate  divine  service,  the  cult  of  Justice  by 
which  they  rendered  service  to  God.  The  service  of  the  Courts 
which  officials  held  daily,  and  the  Emperor  himself  three  times 
a  week  was  a  sacred  act  and  therefore  commands  silence,  while 
the  officials  worship  Justice  and  sacred  justice  is  meted  to 
petitioners.  This  service  is  rendered  free  of  cost,  as  the 
Church  renders  her  services  of  grace,  for  the  Emperor's 


236  JUSTITIAE  MYSTERIUM  v.  i 

generosity  and  graciousness  supplies  salaries  for  the  officials 
who  conduct  thejustitiae  mysterium. 

There  is  absolutely  no  justification  for  taking  at  less  than 
its  face  value  the  awed  solemnity  which  breathes  from  every 
line  of  the  Book  of  Laws.  There  are  ample  witnesses  who 
describe  the  Emperor  himself  when  he  celebrated  the  sacratis- 
simum  mtnisterium,  as  was  his  custom  in  later  years.  Every  new 
cult  evolves  new  rites,  and  so  we  find  here  forms  and  ceremonies 
and  customs  which  have  never  before  been  seen  in  the  West, 
and  have  never  prevailed  anywhere  in  this  combination.  The 
Sacra  Majestas  of  the  Emperor  was  enthroned  on  inaccessible 
heights,  over  his  head  was  suspended  a  gigantic  crown  ;  all  who 
approached  must  prostrate  themselves  ;  the  whole  public  re 
mained  prostrate  for  a  time  before  the  Divus  Augustus,  who 
remained  in  the  background  like  the  very  Godhead.  His  voice 
was  seldom  heard  ;  before  him  stood  the  Logothetes,  who 
announced  the  order  which  the  Emperor  confirmed  by  a  gesture 
of  his  hand.  This  spokesman  played  the  oracle  to  the  Em 
peror's  sacred  and  inspired  decision,  which  was,  in  certain 
circumstances,  accompanied  by  the  tinkling  of  a  bell.  Such 
was  the  "  most  sacred  service  "  and  mystery  :  the  High  Court 
— like  the  High  Mass — of  the  Justice-God-Emperor. 


This  is  a  suitable  moment  to  recall  the  fore-runners  of 
Frederick  II  and  his  remarkable  Cult  of  Justice.  King  Roger  II 
and  Barbarossa  contributed  both  to  the  ritual  and  to  the  con 
ception  :  the  Norman  by  the  retention  of  Byzantine  ceremonies 
and  by  his  creative  achievements  as  lawgiver  in  a  newly- 
conquered  country  :  the  Hohenstaufen  by  his  sanctification 
both  of  the  Emperor  and  his  office,  deduced  from  Roman  Law. 
After  Barbarossa  it  became  usual  to  designate  the  Empire  as 
"  Holy/'  and  "  Holy  "  too  the  palaces,  documents,  and  edicts 
of  the  Emperor ;  the  Emperor  became  Sacra  Majestas, 
PerenmtaSy  Nwnen  ;  his  predecessors  Divi.  Frederick  owed 
most,  however,  in  this  respect,  to  Pope  Innocent  III.  For 
Innocent  had  dinned  into  the  ears  of  the  world  that  judge  and 
priest  are  one  ;  priesthood  is  royal,  and  kingship  is  priestly. 
Innocent  was  the  first  to  imbue  judgeship  and  kingship  with 


HIERARCHY  OF  LAW  237 

the  spirit  of  the  High  Priest,  which  Frederick  now  turned  to 
secular  account.  This  Pope  who  was  himself  a  verus  imperator 
had  reduced  the  Emperor  to  a  priestly  go-between,  and  had 
obliterated  the  idea  of  the  Emperor's  figure  as  image  of 
God  which  had  prevailed  till  Barbarossa.  Finally  Innocent's 
emancipation  of  the  Priest  State  from  all  secular  tutelage  showed 
the  way  in  which  a  secular  Law  State  might  be  erected,  spiritu 
ally  emancipated  and  independent  of  the  Church — whereby  the 
gulf  between  yawned  deeper  than  before.  The  domain  of  the 
non-material,  which  hitherto  had  belonged  wholly  to  the 
Church,  had  now  been  rent  asunder  by  Frederick,  and  while 
the  domain  of  the  soul  remained  finally  with  the  Church,  the 
New  State  claimed  the  mind.  Over  against  the  Church's 
Hierarchy  of  Grace  was  set  the  State's  Hierarchy  of  Law. 

Another  interesting  possibility  suggests  itself.  Roman  law, 
it  is  true,  called  the  judge  also  a  priest ;  but  with  Frederick's 
most  unusual  knowledge  of  Muslim  customs,  in  all  his  lengthy 
conversations  with  Fakhru'd  Din,  it  cannot  have  escaped  his 
notice,  that  amongst  Mussulmans  the  holy  men,  the  eulama, 
were  jurists  and  priests  in  one.  An  innovation  in  Western  speech 
also  contributed.  Since  about  the  beginning  of  the  "  juristic 
century  "  the  word  "  layman  "  had  come  to  be  used  not  only 
as  the  opposite  of  priest  (sacerdos)  ;  it  began  to  mean  the  man 
who  is  not  learned  in  the  law  and  to  indicate  the  opposite  also 
of  clerk  (clericus).  It  was  as  a  nursery  for  such  law-clerks  that 
the  Emperor  Frederick  had  founded  the  University  of  Naples. 

Frederick  thus  gathered  together  in  a  fortunate  moment 
many  existing  tendencies  and  evolved  the  triumphant  solemn 
cult  of  Justice,  God  of  the  Secular  State.  Justice  was  of  course 
not  the  "  whole  God,"  but  she  was  one  emanation  of  God,  the 
state  manifestation  of  the  Deity.  The  full  importance  of  this  is 
obvious  if  we  reflect  on  the  scholastic  problem  of  the  day — the 
antithesis  between  Faith  and  Knowledge.  Justice  becomes  that 
manifestation  of  God  which  is  comprehended  by  reason  and  by 
knowledge,  and  which  is  operative  within  the  state  as  Living 
Law.  Grace,  on  the  other  hand,  comprehensible  by  faith 
alone,  remains  the  Church's  manifestation  of  the  same  God. 
The  mental  revolution  effected  by  Frederick  II  is  self-evident. 
There  are  two  possible  spiritual  cults  of  the  Deity — Law  or 


238  JUSTICE  AS  LIVING  POWER  v.  i 

Magic.  After  the  reign  for  over  one  thousand  years  of  a  God 
manifesting  himself  mainly  in  wonders  and  miracles,  a  God 
begins  to  appear  in  full  daylight,  outside  and  alongside  the 
Church,  a  God  who  can  only  be  recognised  by  wide-awake 
intelligence,  as  Law.  Here  the  whole  tension  is  expressed 
between  Church  and  Empire,  both  immediately  related  to  God, 
a  tension  which  reaches  its  culmination  in  Dante. 

The  Deity  was  no  longer  solely  dependent  on  the  priest- 
wrought  miracle  for  his  appearance  in  the  flesh  in  the  Civitas 
Dei,  the  Church ;  he  was  also  summoned  into  the  State,  and 
there  by  the  Emperor  rendered  incarnate  in  the  Law.  The 
radically  new  element  in  this  conception  was  the  fact  that  the 
operation  of  Justice  was  conceived  not  as  a  rigid,  written,  un 
alterable  law,  but  as  a  living,  omnipresent  power.  "  Since  we 
cannot  be  present  in  all  corners  of  the  world  to  execute  justice 
in  person — though  our  power  is  present  everywhere — we  have 
chosen  some  from  the  trusty  ones  of  our  kingdom  ...  in  order 
that  what  we  effectively  perform  through  their  agency  may 
suffice  for  the  consummation  of  Justice/*  These  are  the  words 
in  which  contemporaries  record  Frederick's  conception  of  the 
inner  meaning  of  the  State  and  its  officials  and  his  conception 
of  Justice  as  a  power  to  be  received  and  handed  on.  They 
confirm  what  Frederick  himself  says  elsewhere  :  he  receives 
his  impulse,  his  motus  from  divine  reflection  and  passes  it  on 
as  instruction  and  command  by  which  he  evokes  in  the  re 
cipient  "  a  stirring  of  the  inner  man  (motum  interioris  hominis) 
whereby  the  commands  of  the  original  motive-force  are  carried 
into  execution." 

This  unmistakeable  Aristotelian  doctrine  :  the  Emperor  con 
ceived  as  the  thought-centre  and  power-centre  of  the  State 
was  implied  in  the  wording  of  every  law.  This  penetration  of 
the  civttas  terrena  by  an  independent  force  immediately  of  God, 
demonstrates  at  once  the  distinction  between  "  state  "  and 
"  empire  " — for  the  Empire  was  an  inactive  abstraction  based 
on  an  idea,  and  received  its  spiritual  force  through  the  Church. 
The  State  with  its  finite  boundaries  is  no  abstraction  based  on 
an  idea  but  a  living  principle,  active  and  potent  to  its  uttermost 
boundary.  The  Justice-God,  conceived  by  the  Emperor  as  a 
power  working  in  accordance  with  law,  is  the  characteristic 


INVOCATION  OF  EMPEROR  239 

symbol  of  the  Sicilian  State.  Herein  is  the  answer  to  a  riddle  : 
Kaiser  Frederick,  in  relation  to  the  Empire,  where  his  role  like 
that  of  his  predecessors  remained  pre-eminently  that  of  the 
guardian  and  conserver  of  Pax  etjustitia,  appears"  medieval," 
while  in  relation  to  his  Sicilian  State  he  is  felt  to  be  "  modern," 
because  he  is  a  power  at  work.  Caution,  however,  is  necessary 
here.  The  true  "  modern  "  has  nothing  in  his  make-up  of  the 
image  of  God  which  Frederick  II  knew  himself  to  be  in  Sicily. 
This  dual  role — to  be,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  image  of 
God  and  a  living  force — this  is  what  makes  the  whole  Sicilian 
rulership  of  Frederick  II  unique. 

This  new  alertness,  this  conception  of  God  as  a  constant 
force  independent  of  the  Church,  links  the  new  State  with  the 
Renaissance.  Here  we  are  again  compelled  to  think  of  St. 
Francis — at  every  turn  the  Emperor's  counterpart — who  in 
exactly  similar  fashion,  without  the  Church's  aid,  proclaimed 
God  as  power.  The  simple-minded  saint  saw  this  power  as 
ever-active  Love,  a  divine  pneuma  which  breathed  in  man  and 
beast  and  herb  ;  the  learned,  almost  over-intellectual,  monarch 
recognised  the  divine  power  in  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  science ; 
the  one  perceiving  the  earthly  manifestations  of  the  Deity  by 
the  mind,  the  other  by  the  soul — each  after  his  kind. 


Two  important  innovations  of  the  Emperor's  will  show  the 
practical  application  of  all  this  to  statecraft.  A  remarkable  law 
which  the  commentators  term  "  a  new  law  "  expounds  the 
Emperor's  omnipresence  in  the  State  :  the  Emperor  is  present 
everywhere  to  help  the  weak,  who  is  often  unjustly  oppressed 
by  the  stronger.  By  a  protective  law,  the  Emperor  empowered 
every  innocent  subject  if  attacked  to  "  defend  himself  against 
the  aggressor  by  the  INVOCATION  of  our  name  "  and  in  the 
Emperor's  name  forbids  the  aggressor  to  continue  his  attack. 
Any  man  who  fails  to  respect  this  invocation  of  the  imperial 
name  will  be  summoned  direct  before  the  highest  court,  from 
which  there  is  no  appeal.  The  command  was  valid :  thou 
shalt  not  take  the  name  of  God  in  vain  ;  anyone  who  abused 
the  invocation  of  the  Emperor's  name,  using  it  perhaps  solely 
to  his  own  advantage,  was  most  severely  punished.  What  a 


24o  CROWN  PROSECUTION  v.  i 

mentality  is  thus  revealed !  In  the  last  extremity  a  man  must 
call,  not  on  God,  but  on  the  more  direct  and  potent  power  of 
the  Emperor,  the  incarnate  Justice,  the  Helper  and  Avenger. 
No  precedent  for  this  law  is  known. 

An  innovation  which  Frederick  II  was  the  first  to  introduce 
into  secular  law  revolutionised  the  whole  legal  procedure  of  the 
West  and  shows  the  active,  nay  the  aggressive  nature  of  the 
imperial  Justice :  the  Inquisition-prosecution.  The  general 
view  prevailed  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  a  criminal  prosecution 
implied  a  plaintiff  :  where  none  accused,  none  judged.  For 
certain  capital  offences  Frederick  II  definitely  abolished  this 
principle.  Where  the  crime  in  question  was  the  gravest  one, 
high  treason,  an  investigation  could  be  set  in  motion  on  behalf 
of  the  State,  without  any  plaintiff,  without  delay,  without 
special  imperial  authorisation,  simply  by  the  proper  authorities 
on  the  spot.  For  other  serious  crimes  an  official  prosecution 
without  plaintiff  required  the  Emperor's  authorisation.  In  the 
case  of  capital  crimes  therefore  it  no  longer  depended  on  the 
caprice  of  a  potential  plaintiff  to  drop  the  accusation  or  come 
to  terms  :  serious  crime  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
accuser  and — it  might  be  against  his  will — investigated  and 
pursued  officially  by  the  State.  Here  is  the  first  embryonic 
appearance  of  a  "  Crown  Prosecution/*  a  thing  at  variance  with 
all  medieval  modes  of  thought,  so  that  the  commentator  remarks 
on  the  edicts  in  question  :  "  this  provision  may  be  said  to 
embody  a  new  law."  He  styles  the  Emperor  a  "  tyrant,"  and 
it  must  have  borne  an  appearance  of  tyranny  :  imperial  justice 
put  into  action  not  in  order  to  secure  his  rights  to  an  injured 
party,  but  as  vengeance,  as  an  end  in  itself — to  propitiate  the 
State-God,  to  secure  satisfaction  for  the  transgression  of  state 
ordinances.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Pope  Innocent  III, 
not  Frederick  II,  was  the  inventor  of  this  procedure.  It  was 
he  who  first,  with  his  Inquisition,  introduced  spiritual  disci 
plinary  courts,  independent  of  plaintiffs,  to  avenge  every  insult 
or  injury  offered  by  heresy  to  the  sacred  mysteries.  The 
matter,  however,  assumed  a  totally  different  complexion  when 
this  extra-ordinary  procedure,  designed  to  protect  the  sacred 
mysteries  against  blasphemers  and  unbelievers,  was  unre 
servedly  applied  to  the  secular  law  of  the  secular  State.  We  are 


THE  FALL  241 

entitled  to  consider  this  either  as  a  mere  secularisation  of  a 
spiritual  procedure  or  as  the  recognition  of  the  existence  of 
State  mysteries  no  less  sacred  than  the  spiritual  ones,  and 
demanding  similar  protection.  Quite  logically,  the  State- 
Inquisition  was  primarily  directed  against  traitors  who  were 
the  "  unbelievers  "  of  the  state,  exactly  corresponding  to  the 
"  heretics  "  of  the  Church.  The  "  High  Court  "  prosecution 
was  carried  through  with  a  special,  solemn  ceremonial.  This 
"  Crown-Prosecution  "  indicates  a  feeling  that  the  worldly 
state  upheld  a  sacred,  spiritual  order,  not  less  divine  than  the 
Civitas  Dei,  the  Church. 

This  self-sufficiency  of  the  State  is  implicit  in  another  preg 
nant  act  of  Frederick  II.  If  God  is  present  on  earth,  not  only 
within  the  Church's  realm  of  grace,-  but  has  condescended  to 
reveal  himself  as  Justice  in  unconsecrated  precincts,  the  State 
can  no  longer  be  conceived  as  "  sinful  "  ;  a  relative  good  amid 
the  total  evil  of  the  world  ;  but  becomes  forthwith  an  absolute 
good  in  its  own  right,  for  God  has  entered  in.  The  need  for 
redemption  is  not  at  an  end,  for  redemption  deals  with  the 
future  life  of  the  individual  soul  in  another  world  :  a  matter  of 
little  moment  to  the  Emperor.  His  sphere  of  action  was  the 
Here  and  Now,  and  so  large  bulked  the  present  in  his  eyes  that 
men  whispered — not  perhaps  without  good  cause — that  he 
completely  denied  a  future  life.  His  new  Divine  State  raised 
another  question  to  at  least  equal  importance  with  redemption  : 
salvation  after  death  was  a  divine  and  holy  thing — not  less 
divine  and  holy,-  the  fulfilling  of  God's  will  in  this  life  here 
on  earth. 

Frederick  evolves  the  importance  of  the  State  as  an.  end  in 
itself,  attributes  to  the  State  a  divine  power  of  healing  fully 
equal  to  the  healing  power  of  the  Church.  In  the  Preface  to 
the  Liber  Augustatis,  Frederick  relates  the  story  of  the  creation 
beginning  with  his  own  cosmology  (which  we  shall  expound 
later)  and  repeats  it  again  later  in  certain  warrant-diplomas  of 
his  officers.  For  the  most  part  he  sums  up  the  current  belief 
of  the  day  in  a  few  sentences,  till  he  comes  to  the  most  important 
point — the  Fall.  In  the  days  of  innocence  and  immortality 
when  natural  law  prevailed  and  man  rejoiced  in  perfect  freedom, 
in  the  golden  age  of  Paradise,  Kings  and  States  were  superfluous. 


242  RULER'S  MISSION  v.  i 

Only  the  Fall  imposed  the  "  yoke  "  of  government  on  man. 
The  Middle  Ages  derived  the  whole  theory  of  the  State  from 
the  Fall.  Perhaps  that  is  why  Dante  symbolised  the  Roman 
Empire  as  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  in  the  Earthly  Paradise. 
That  is  highly  suggestive  :  for  Dante  held  it  to  be  the  Emperor's 
noblest  task  to  lead  man  back  to  the  highest  wisdom,  to  the 
Tree  of  Knowledge  growing  at  the  entrance  to  Paradise,  back 
to  the  moment  when  man  still  was  innocent.  After  this  point 
the  Church  took  up  the  task,  reintroduced  man  into  Paradise, 
into  eternal  bliss,  and  redeemed  him  from  the  curse  of  mortality. 
From  the  Fall  onwards  Frederick  slightly  modified  myth,  legend 
and  dogma  for  his  own  purposes.  From  the  Fall  the  Church 
deduced  Original  Sin  which  imposed  on  men  the  yoke  of 
princes  and  kings  as  a  penalty  for  the  sin  of  their  primeval 
ancestor.  The  Emperor  brushed  these  moralisings  aside.  For 
him  the  first  men  were  simply  transgressors  of  a  law,  of  a 
commandment,  according  to  the  Bible  ;  as  a  punishment  for 
which  they  were  driven  from  Paradise  and  forfeited  their 
immortality.  That  was  the  Fall.  Mortal  man  retained  the 
tendency  to  lawbreaking  of  his  God-created  first  father,  and 
mutual  hate  had  sprung  up  amongst  the  people  who  in  such 
great  numbers  now  populated  the  earth.  For  this  there  was 
one  remedy — the  Ruler,  the  State,  Justice.  Following  classical 
lines  of  thought,  Frederick  deduced  from  the  Fall,  a  perfectly 
practical,  non-moralising,  conclusion,  which  took  cognisance  of 
actual  human  nature  and  of  "  things  which  are,  as  they  are," 
namely  that  Paradise  being  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  men  being 
now  inclined  to  crime  and  hate,  they  would  destroy  and  anni 
hilate  each  other  but  for  the  restraining  hand  of  a  Ruler. 

Princes  are  therefore  established,  we  observe,  not  as  a  moral 
punishment  for  sin,  but  as  a  practical  expedient  to  prevent 
mutual  annihilation.  The  Emperor's  deduction  continues  .  .  . 
if  the  human  race  had  perished,  then,  the  subordinate  lacking 
the  superior  to  which  it  was  subordinated,  "  everything  else 
would  have  perished  also,  for  it  would  have  served  no  further 
need  of  anyone."  Nature  having  been  designed  to  serve  man, 
would  have  had  no  further  ratson  d'etre  and  would  have  passed 
away — a  current  conception  that  may  perhaps  be  traced  back 
to  Aristotle — a  truly  imperial  picture  of  the  world.  For  logic- 


FULFILLER  OF  THE  LAW  243 

ally  pursued  the  implication  is,  that  without  the  Emperor,  the 
highest  superior,  the  whole  human  race  and  the  whole  realm 
of  Nature  would  perish.  This  gives  some  conception  of  the 
almost  inconceivably  dizzy  heights  of  responsibility  on  which 
an  Emperor  was  enthroned.  Hence  the  stern  punishment  of 
treason  :  the  Emperor  was  frequently  heard  to  say  "  the  bodies 
of  others  were  dependent  on  his  life — the  traitor  imperilled  the 
fabric  of  the  world.3> 

Without  rulers  men  would  have  destroyed  themselves,  and 
therefore  :  to  rescue  the  human  race  and  to  avert  the  danger 
of  world  catastrophe,  "  compelling  Necessity,  no  less  than  the 
inspiration  of  Divine  Providence,  created  the  rulers  of  the 
peoples,"  or  as  it  is  later  more  briefly  expressed  :  "  Necessity 
created  kings  "  ;  that  is  :  they  were  evolved  to  meet  a  natural 
need,  not  imposed  as  a  punishment  for  sin.  Frederick's  great 
art,  of  turning  negatives  into  affirmatives  is  manifest  here  : 
rulers  and  states  are  not  a  disciplinary  scourge  for  sinful  men, 
but  the  upholders  of  a  world-preserving  principle,  they  have 
become  "  an  article  of  salvation  as  were  Church  and  priests  for 
the  salvation  of  souls.11  Christ  himself  had,  of  course,  re 
deemed  souls,  but  "  neither  the  waters  of  the  Flood  nor  the 
waters  of  baptism  have  washed  away  the  practical  effects  of  our 
first  father's  imprudent  transgression  of  the  Law,35  said  Frederick 
once,  not  denying  the  scheme  of  salvation  but  relegating  it  to 
its  proper  sphere  of  souls  in  a  future  world.  Man  on  earth  was 
still  unsaved  and  could  only  be  redeemed  by  the  ruler  and  the 
state,  and  brought  back  to  a  condition  of  innocence,  or  more 
exactly  of  "  correctiveness  "  by  the  power  of  Justice,  "  the 
regulator  of  human  life."  Justice  thus  becomes  a  world- saving 
force. 

Thus  the  Emperor,  the  Divus  Augustus^  the  visible  bearer 
of  healing  power,  becomes  like  the  Roman  Augustus  the  Soter, 
the  World  Redeemer,  the  World  Saviour.  What  had  been  the 
teaching  of  St.  Augustine  ?  "  True  Justice  exists  only  in  the 
state  whose  founder  and  leader  is  Christ."  When  the  time 
came  Frederick  did  not  blench  but  boldly  accepted  the  con 
clusion  :  he  would  appear,  like  unto  the  Son  of  God,  not  only 
as  Judge  and  Mediator  but  also  as  Saviour  and  Fulfiller  of  the 
Law.  His  Empire  aspired  to  the  Justice  of  Heaven,  nay  more 


244  LIVING  LAW  v.  i 

was  founded  by  her,  "  Justice  looking  down  from  Heaven  hath 
set  up  her  throne  amongst  the  peoples,"  the  throne  of  the  Roman 
Emperor,  recalling  the  divine  saying  :  "  Render  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  Caesar's." 


Frederick  II  issued  his  new  Book  of  Laws  like  new  tidings 
of  great  joy  in  which  the  long-silent  tongue  of  Justice  again 
found  voice.  He  wished  these  statutes  to  be  read  as  a  new 
code  of  ethics  and  behaviour,  and  at  the  close  he  apostrophised 
the  faithful :  "  May  our  people  welcome,  to  the  glory  and 
honour  of  God,  this  work  begun  in  the  hope  of  Divine 
Favour  and  completed  under  the  guidance  of  Divine  Grace. 
It  is  adorned  with  the  superscription  and  name  of  Augustus  in 
reverence  for  the  Sublime  Augustus  and  for  the  honour  of  the 
Royal  Dignity.  Receive  these  laws  with  thankfulness,  O  ye 
peoples,  make  them  your  own  both  within  the  law  courts  and 
without  .  .  .  that  with  the  victory  of  your  new  King  a  new  rod 
of  Justice  may  bourgeon  and  grow."  And  it  was  in  very  truth 
tidings  of  joy  that  Frederick  brought.  Predecessors  and  con 
temporaries  conceived  state  order  as  consisting  partly  in 
punishment,  partly  in  unfulfilled  striving  towards  an  eternal 
far-off  Law  of  God  and  Nature,  a  perfection  unattainable  on 
earth.  The  Emperor  taught  that  the  State  herself  daily  begets 
afresh  the  only  true  and  valid  Law  of  God  ;  that  the  living  law 
of  the  temporal  world  is  the  Living  God  himself.  That  the 
Eternal  and  the  Absolute  must  themselves  adapt  and  change 
with  time  if  they  are  to  remain  living.  This  was  a  decisive 
break  with  the  past. 

"  In  no  wise  do  we  detract  from  the  reverence  due  to  earlier 
Rulers,  when  we  beget  new  laws  to  meet  the  peculiar  needs  of 
the  new  time,  and  find  new  medicines  for  new  ills.  The  im 
perial  dignity  carries  this  illustrious  privilege  as  an  inevitable 
condition  of  rendering  service  :  daily  to  conceive  new  methods 
to  reward  the  virtuous  and  to  pulverise  the  vicious  under 
repeated  blows  of  punishment,  when  the  old  human  laws  under 
the  changes  wrought  by  time  and  circumstance  no  longer 
suffice  to  eradicate  vice  and  to  implant  virtue."  Justice  is  here 
revealed  in  new  activity  ;  no  longer  merely  a  radiation  of  living 


NECESSITAS  245 

power  flowing  from  God  over  the  State,  but  herself  informed 
by  another  force  and  varying  from  day  to  day  in  accordance 
with  the  ever-changing  needs  of  the  State.  As  the  Emperor 
was,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  both  "  father  and  son  of  Justice," 
so  Justice  was  the  founder  of,  and  founded  in,  the  State.  The 
State  was  in  itself  an  end,  a  means  of  salvation,  the  needs  of  the 
State  were  therefore  divine  and  necessary  to  salvation.  Where 
with  the  circuit  of  power  was  complete  in  the  reverse  direction  : 
divine  Justice  begofcjearthly  law  and  earthly  necessity  begot  the 
divine  Justice.  The  old  far-off  immutable  Justitia  lost  her 
immobility  ;  filled  with  life,  linked  with  time's  changes,  she 
could  in  truth  represent  the  "  Living  God  "  of  the  State,  and 
by  her  means  the  Emperor  became  indeed  "  Incarnate  Law 
upon  the  earth."  The  second  active  force,  the  force  of  Life 
itself,  is  here  revealed — Necessitas. 

The  "  necessity  of  service  "  gave  the  Emperor  the  right  to 
alter  law  and  statute.  The  legal  Machiavellianism  of  Frederick 
II  rested  on  the  fact  that  the  form  of  divine  Justice  could  be 
modified  by  the  Emperor  to  meet  the  varying  needs  of  men. 
He  represented  and  he  proclaimed  "  State  Law."  Relying  on 
the  phrase  of  Caesar's  :  "  si  violandum  est  jus,  regnandi  gratia 
violandum  est.  .  .  ."  King  Manfred  came  to  speak  of  a  "  Viola 
tion  of  Law,"  and  finally  Machiavelli  defended  the  thesis  :  the 
needs  and  the  necessities  of  the  State  and  of  the  Prince  over-ride 
every  moral  law  (i.e.  every  divine  and  natural  law).  Not  so 
Frederick.  Unscrupulous  as  he  was  in  his  choice  of  means, 
his  ruling  principle  was  :  the  need  of  the  State  is  the  divine  and 
natural  law.  For  Frederick  II  this  was  true — though  no  longer 
true  for  the  Renaissance  princes.  The  fate  of  all  "  imperial 
Europe  "  hung  on  the  heeding  or  non-heeding  of  the  tiniest 
State  necessity  ;  hence  each  present  need  of  the  state  rightly 
assumed  an  immense  importance  in  the  Emperor's  eyes  till  it 
became  a  cosmic  need,  a  part  of  the  world-plan  of  God  and  of 
divine  Providence.  The  needs  of  the  State  were  absolute  ;  not 
opposed  to  the  divine,  but  themselves  divine,  and  hence  potent 
to  determine  law  and  modify  divine  Justice. 

"  Machiavellianism  was  born  of  Aristotelianism  "  declared 
Campanella  kter,  and  in  so  saying  he  does,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
reveal  vital  relationships.  For  it  is  clear  that  some  outside 


246  MARRIAGE  LAWS  v.  i 

influence  was  bound  to  enter  into  and  disturb  the  medieval 
conception  of  the  world  and  cause  a  radical  revision  of  medieval 
thought.  The  vision  of  the  imperial  lawgiver  is  a  vision  of  a 
philosopher  formed  by  Arabic  and  Hellenistic  wisdom.  It  is 
amazing  to  see  how,  with  one  single  word,  Frederick  II  trans 
formed  the  whole  medieval  conception  of  a  State  and  filled  it 
with  active  life.  While  the  times  were  discussing  whether  the 
earthly  State  was  of  God  or  of  Satan,  of  Good  or*  of  Evil, 
Frederick  II  soberly  announced  :  the  Ruler's  office  was  born 
of  natural  necessity.  Necessitas  as  an  independent  active  force, 
as  a  living  law  of  Nature  Belongs  to  Aristotle's  thought,  and  to 
the  Arab  disciples  of  Aristotle.  It  is  the  new  axiom  which  the 
Emperor  flung  into  the  medieval  State  philosophy  of  the  West 
to  revolutionise  the  State.  In  the  introduction  to  the  Sicilian 
Book  of  Laws  he  writes  :  the  people's  princes  are  created  "  by 
the  imperative  necessity  of  things,  not  less  than  by  the  inspira 
tion  of  the  Divine  Providence."  In  later  documents  even  more 
briefly  :  Justitia  has  erected  the  rulers'  thrones  necessitate — 
of  necessity.  In  interpreting  the  evolution  of  the  imperial 
office  the  Emperor,  in  this  passage,  renounces  all  supernatural 
unfathomable  designs  of  divine  Providence  and  points  simply 
to  the  Master's  words  at  sight  of  the  coin.  The  Emperor 
frequently  employed  "  natural  necessity  "  to  make  dogmas  and 
sacred  institutions  intelligible  to  reason.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
State,  so  the  sacrament  of  marriage  for  instance — without  dis 
paragement  of  its  God-given  sanctity — is  a  "  necessity  of 
nature  "  for  the  preservation  of  the  human  race.  He  made  it 
clear  that  he  rated  the  natural  necessity  of  marriage  higher  than 
its  sacramental  sanctity,  when  in  defiance  of  dogma  he  intro 
duced  the  most  thorough-going  and  revolutionary  changes  into 
Sicilian  marriage,  with  the  intention  of  improving  the  breed. 
These  precedents  were  pregnant  with  consequences.  By  nar 
rowing  down  scriptural  and  ecclesiastical  conceptions  and 
theories  and  giving  scope  to  natural  ones,  the  State  was  not 
driven  back  on  mere  force  and  the  power  of  the  sword,  but  was 
led  forward  to  another  spiritual  conception,  with  which  the 
Church  had  no  concern,  Nature  recognised  as  spiritual  and 
law-abiding.  Metaphysics,  one  might  say,  was  supplanting 
Transcendentalism. 


APOSTLE  OF  ENLIGHTENMENT  247 

Necessitas  was  indispensable  to  the  Emperor's  new  gospel, 
as  a  basis  for  the  secular  state  which  appealed  to  reason  and  not 
to  f$ith.  The  emotional  assertion  of  earlier  rulers  that  the 
state  was  an  institution  of  God's,  might  indeed  be  believed,  but 
could  not  compel  belief.  The  need  of  the  ruler  could  be 
grasped  by  reason — without  him  the  human  race  would  have 
destroyed  itself.  When  Dante  wished  to  prove  that  a  world 
monarchy  was  indispensable  he  took  up  the  Emperor  Frederick's 
argument  in  the  same  sense,  preaching  belief  in  the  saving 
mission  of  the  State.  Pope  Boniface  taught  that  for  his  soul's 
salvation  every  human  creature  must  subordinate  himself  to  the 
Pope.  Dante — speaking  almost  as  representative  of  the  Hohen- 
staufen  Caesars,  in  the  absence  of  an  existing  Emperor — retorted 
with  the  great  imperial  gospel :  that  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world  each  human  creature  must  subordinate  himself  to  the 
Roman  Emperor.  Dante's  whole-hearted  endorsement  of  the 
earthly  State  is  frequently,  even  in  its  methods,  a  continuation 
of  Frederick's  imperial  outlook  and  teaching.  The  first  book  of 
the  de  Monarchia,  in  which  he  develops  the  peculiar  divinity 
of  the  State  and  its  divine  mission  of  salvation,  bears  the  title  de 
Necessitate  monarchiae.  He  expounded  the  natural  necessity 
of  monarchy  for  the  preservation  of  life,  and  almost  every 
chapter  of  the  first  part  closes  with  the  recurrent  exclamation  : 
"  Thus  Monarchy  is  necessary  for  the  safety,  for  the  advantage 
of  the  world."  Emperor  and  poet  were  in  this  at  one  :  hi 
defiance  of  Church  and  Scholasticism,  they  attached  so  much 
importance  to  the  earthly  State,  that  they  declared  it  part  of  the 
scheme  of  salvation,  necessary  to  the  realisation  of  the  "  better 
nature  "  of  man  and  of  the  world  at  large  which  God  designed. 

What  was  there  so  significant  in  this  doctrine  of  Necessity, 
which  contemporaries  labelled  as  a  peculiar  Ghibelline  inven 
tion,  and  took  to  be  a  slogan  of  the  Hohenstaufen's  court,  so 
characteristic  that  forged  letters  and  exercises  in  style  which 
sought  to  catch  the  note  of  the  Hohenstaufen  chancery  rarely 
forgot  to  drag  in  the  necessitas  rerum?  People  have  often 
dubbed  Frederick  II  an  Apostle  of  Enlightenment.  He  was 
the  most  many-sided  man  of  his  age  and  unquestionably  also 
the  most  learned,  a  philosopher  and  dialectician  trained  not  only 
in  scholastic  and  classical  learning  but  also  in  the  learning  of 


248  MAGIC  AND  MIRACLE  v.  i 

Aristotle,  Avicenna,  and  Averroes.  In  Frederick's  scheme  of 
State- Wisdom,  Necessitas  represents  the  essential  watchword 
necessary  to  every  movement  of  enlightenment,  to  every  effort, 
that  is,  to  break  asunder  mental  bonds  felt  to  be  repressive  and 
against  nature — Necessitas,  the  implicit  inevitability  of  things, 
which  weaves  the  threads  of  Fate  in  accordance  with  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect ;  the  Law  of  God,  the  Law  of  Man,  the  Law 
of  Nature,  in  sum  the  fitness  of  things.  How  revolutionary  this 
doctrine  was,  needs  no  emphasis.  As  long  as  Miracle  held 
the  field,  world-creative,  world-preserving,  all  causation  could 
be  abrogated  in  favour  of  the  providential ;  natural  conse 
quences  explained  as  divine  intervention.  No  one  wished  to 
think  it  otherwise — even  if  he  had  had  the  power — for  no 
importance  attached  to  other  things  ;  the  God  he  sought,  the 
God  in  whom  he  believed,  revealed  himself  not  hi  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect  but  in  the  marvels  of  divine  grace.  As  long  as 
the  causal  relationships  of  phenomena  sheltered  behind  the 
miraculous,  man  had  no  perception  of  human  fate  :  the  most 
eventful  life  was  full  of  magic  and  fairy  tale — never  fateful, 
never  ruled  by  its  own  laws,  never  "  demonic." 

The  doctrine  of  Necessity  made  for  enlightenment  in  so  far 
as  the  recognition  of  natural  laws  inherent  in  things  themselves, 
broke  the  spell  of  magic.  In  this  sense  Frederick  II,  the  vir 
inquisitor,  as  his  own  son  terms  him,  may  be  called  an  Apostle 
of  Enlightenment,  or  to  be  more  accurate  :  he  helped  the  cause 
by  raising  knowledge  to  the  same  plane  as  magic.  For  although 
he  began  by  dissolving  magic  and  myth  and  miracle,  he  utilised 
and  realised  them  too,  and  even  created  more ;  he  did  not 
destroy  the  miraculous,  but  he  placed  the  scientific  alongside  it, 
and  thus  called  into  existence  one  of  those  rare  and  priceless 
transition  moments  in  which  all  and  everything  is  valid  simul 
taneously  :  myth  and  insight,  faith  and  knowledge,  miracle  and 
law,  corroborating  yet  belying  each  other,  co-operating  yet  con 
flicting.  Such  was  the  atmosphere  in  which  Frederick  moved 
and  had  his  being — astoundingly  learned  yet  childishly  naive, 
clearsighted  yet  credulous  :  at  once  stark  and  hard  and  pas 
sionate.  Such  too  was  the  air  which  Dante  breathed. 

The  knowledge  of  the  inevitability  of  Law  throughout  the 
whole  realm  of  Nature,  subjected  life  to  these  same  laws 


FATE  INCARNATE  249 

which  governed  the  rest.  When  Frederick  breathed  Necessitas, 
the  unalterable  laws  of  Nature,  as  a  power  unto  the  structure 
of  his  State,  he  evaded,  as  he  had  also  done  in  the  case  of 
Justitia>  the  medieval  conception  of  Nature  as  a  Duality — a 
state  on  the  one  hand  of  mortality  and  sin,  as  far  as  mankind 
was  concerned,  and  on  the  other  of  immortality  and  sanctity  as 
far  as  God  was  concerned.  Frederick  II  never  attacked  this 
conception.  He  demonstrated  the  same  natural  force  and 
natural  law  operative  in  the  higher  and  the  lower  spheres, 
potent  throughout  the  entire  Cosmos — Necessitas.  Where  this 
law  held  sway  there  existed  also  human  fate,  primarily  revealed 
in  the  Emperor  himself  as  he  expounded  and  explained  the 
meaning  of  the  present  need. 

Frederick  II  treated  the  inevitability  of  himself  and  of  his 
state  as  a  matter  of  immense  importance,  an  affair  of  World 
Necessity,  he  himself  becoming  the  Fate  Incarnate  of  his  sub 
jects.  The  imperial  doctrine,  that  without  an  Emperor  the 
world  would  perish  of  self-annihilation,  showed  to  what  degree 
the  Emperor  was  Fate ;  and  Frederick  states  unambiguously  in 
his  laws,  "  the  subjects,  under  God,  draw  breath  only  by  the 
force  of  the  illustrious  Caesar."  The  fideles,  the  faithful  and 
the  true,  had  no  destiny  of  their  own  ;  the  lex  regia  had  com 
mitted  them  into  the  Emperor's  hand  and  their  fate  fulfilled 
itself  in  his,  whose  "  life  was  the  life  of  all."  As  is  inevitable 
in  this  type  of  autocracy  he  was  the  sole  and  only  individual  in 
his  State,  because  he  and  he  only  is  a  "  One,  that  is  not  a  fraction 
of  another  " — to  quote  Dante's  phrase — he  and  he  alone  had 
direct  access  to  God.  On  his  dangerous,  threatening,  icy 
heights  he  alone  perceived  the  free  towering  summit  of  the 
world,  earthly  need  and  earthly  development,  the  rarefied  air  of 
World-Necessity,  the  inexorable  operation  of  the  forces  of  the 
upper  and  lower  spheres  comprised  within  himself.  None  has 
ever  experienced  so  directly  in  his  own  person  as  this  star- 
reading  Hohenstaufen,  the  fates  of  Heaven  and  of  Earth  ;  he 
felt  himself  bound  with  God  and  with  the  stars  in  their  courses 
in  the  march  of  inalterable  law.  He  is  the  mediator,  the  ex 
positor,  the  interpreter  who  observed  the  paths  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  to  ascertain  the  future  of  himself  and  of  the  world,  and 
conversely  to  approximate  the  course  of  finite  things  to  the 


2so  LAW-ABIDING  GOD  v.  i 

courses  of  the  stars.  Such  interplay  between  the  individual 
man  and  the  universal  law  makes  possible  the  beginning  of 
Doom  and  Fate.  All  great  men  who  have  grasped  the  cosmos 
as  one  gigantic  whole  have  been,  each  after  his  kind,  of  the 
same  opinion  as  Frederick  II,  that  "  by  the  indication  of  the 
heavenly  will  the  position  of  the  planets  affects  the  welfare  of 
the  lower  bodies."  It  was  natural  that  this  blending  of  heavenly 
and  earthly  nature  was  accomplished  in  the  Emperor  as  the 
peak  of  the  universal  edifice,  in  the  person  who  because  of  his 
dual  nature  was  accorded  the  character  of  a  kind  of  angel  or 
genius,  whom  men  called  a  "  cherub  "  and  even  compared  to 
the  Saviour.  In  this  blending  of  the  eternal  nature,  the 
"  better  nature  "  as  Frederick  II  styled  it,  with  the  temporal 
nature  of  man,  degenerate  from  the  original  model,  lies  the 
purpose  and  aim  of  the  earthly  state.  The  unity  which 
Frederick  II  strove  to  create,  of  Human  Law,  Divine  Law,  and 
Natural  Law,  which  he  at  first  himself  lived,  is  clearly  expressed 
in  the  words  of  a  chronicler  :  "  This  Emperor,  the  true  Ruler 
of  the  World,  whose  fame  extends  through  the  whole  circuit  of 
the  earth,  was  convinced  that  he  could  approximate  his  own 
nature  to  the  heavenly  nature,  perhaps  by  his  experience  in 
Mathematics." 

It  is  unquestionable  that  Frederick  did  hold  this  belief  :  that 
he  even  strove  to  reverse  the  process  and  to  approximate  the 
nature  of  God  to  his  own  imperial  nature.  He  took  a  much 
more  anthropomorphic  view  of  the  Deity  in  action  than  earlier 
times  had  done.  In  the  Book  of  Laws  he  unhesitatingly  takes 
up  his  position  to  the  philosophical  query  of  the  day  :  Did  God 
create  the  World  or  did  God  only  mould  existing  primeval 
matter  ?  God  fashioned  existing  matter,  he  says — that  is  : 
just  like  the  Emperor  !  In  another  way  he  strives  to  set  God 
his  limits.  The  preface  to  the  Liber  Augustalis  places  in  tense 
proximity  the  two  powers  who  founded  the  ruler's  office,  "  the 
imperative  necessity  of  things  and  not  less  the  inspiration  of 
the  divine  foresight."  No  opposition  was  intended.  The  in 
herent  law  of  Nature  was  not  distinct  in  action  from  the  divine 
foresight.  Nature  obeyed  her  own  law,  the  imperative  necessity 
of  things,  and  if  God  were  not  to  destroy  his  own  creation  he 
could  not  act  against  the  laws  of  Nature  :  God  is  thus  a  slave 


TRIAL  BY  ORDEAL  251 

to  the  law  of  his  own  creation.  This  was  no  denial  of  the 
divine  Freewill  :  for  God  obeyed  no  other  law  than  that  which 
he  had  himself  wished  and  foreseen,  his  own  divine  law.  Here 
was  the  same  mystery  of  obedience  and  freedom  that  was  valid 
for  the  Emperor  who  was  also  "  father  and  son,  lord  and  servant 
of  his  own  laws."  He  would  not  have  submitted  to  the  position 
if  he  had  thereby  ceased  to  be  a  symbol  of  the  Deity.  The 
Emperor's  laws  corresponded  to  the  Necessitas  of  his  creature 
the  State,  as  God's  law  resembled  the  Necessitas  of  the  divine 
creation — Nature.  There  is  here  no  echo  of  the  classical 
thought :  that  even  the  Gods  cannot  fight  against  Necessitas. 
The  mystery  of  freedom  and  law  is  to  be  here  understood  wholly 
in  the  Christian  sense.  A  later  contemporary  of  the  Emperor's 
thus  sets  it  forth  :  The  king — he  says — is  obedient  to  no  man, 
but  to  God  and  to  the  Law.  The  king  ascribes  to  the  Law  only 
what  the  Law  ascribes  to  the  king.  "  And  that  the  king  must 
be  beneath  the  Law,  though  he  stand  in  the  place  of  God,  is 
clearly  demonstrated  by  Jesus  Christ  in  whose  room  the  king 
rules  on  earth,  since  the  Son  of  God  himself  .  .  .  was  willing 
to  be  under  the  Law." 

The  mystery  of  salvation  and  redemption  for  the  Emperor 
and  for  the  earthly  State  lies,  therefore,  in  the  fulfilling  of  the 
Law.  A  capricious  God — however  merciful — working  miracles 
and  not  amenable  to  Law,  would  be  intolerable  ;  an  arbitrary 
Providence,  acting  without  regard  to  reason  or  the  laws  of 
Nature,  would  rend  a  state  asunder.  That  was  perfectly  clear 
to  Frederick.  Though  the  Emperor  would  have  been  loath  to 
forego  the  personal  attentions  of  a  wonder-working  Providence 
which  had  been  ceaselessly  manifest  in  his  own  life,  he  firmly 
denied  the  possibility  of  any  supernatural  power  intervening 
directly  in  the  State  and  not  through  its  head,  an  irresponsible 
miraculous  Providence  acting  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  reason 
and  of  nature.  Frederick  abolished  trials  by  ordeal — not  be 
cause  they  "  tempted  God,"  as  Pope  Innocent  III  expressed  it, 
but  because  they  defied  nature  and  reason.  "  How  could  a 
man  believe  that  the  natural  heat  of  glowing  iron  will  become 
cool  or  cold  without  an  adequate  cause  ...  or  that,  because 
of  a  seared  conscience,  the  element  of  cold  water  will  refuse 
to  accept  the  accused."  Mockingly  the  Emperor  continues : 


252  PROVIDENCE  AND   REASON  v.  i 

"  These  judgments  of  God  by  ordeal  which  men  call  '  truth- 
revealing  '  might  better  be  styled  '  truth-concealing.'  "  Simi 
larly,  he  did  away  with  the  legal  duel,  another  type  of  ordeal,  in 
future  only  permitted  in  case  of  treason.  This  was  only  logical 
and,  moreover,  characteristic,  fo'r  this  duel  was  a  Divinatio  and 
concerned  the  sacred  and  divine  person  of  the  Emperor  himself, 
in  which  case  human  knowledge  did  not  come  in  question, 
and  only  God  could  intervene. 

On  purely  rational  grounds  love-potions  were  forbidden,  and 
many  other  ordinances  were  issued  :  no  miracle  was  tolerated 
in  the  State.  It  would  have  undermined  the  regularity  of  the 
State  if  God's  Providence,  instead  of  being  itself  Law,  had  by 
miracles  disturbed  the  operation  of  Justice,  the  State  God. 

God's  Foresight  as  Law — that  is  :  a  Providence  continuously 
and  actively  aiming  at  a  state  and  world  order  obedient  to  law  ; 
a  Providence  therefore  indistinguishable  from  the  Law  of 
Nature  because  the  natural  order  was  also  the  completely  divine 
order — such  a  Providence  is  called  Reason.  Scholastic  learning 
defined  it :  "  Providence  is  the  Reason  of  a  purposeful  order  of 
things.1'  The  Hohenstaufen  Court  disputed  eagerly  about  the 
"  Aim  in  Nature."  If,  however,  Providence  in  its  working  was 
indistinguishable  from  the  Law  of  Necessity,  we  must  not  be 
surprised  occasionally  in  Manfred's  writings  to  meet  with  Ratio, 
where  in  the  imperial  formularies  of  his  father — at  once  more 
comprehensive,  more  practical  and  more  profound — Necessitas 
still  reigned. 

Familiar  circumstances  repeat  themselves  in  the  question  of 
Pravidentia,  who,  with  Justitia  and  Necessitas,  form  the  trinity 
of  state-creating  forces.  On  the  one  hand  the  image  was 
retained  :  the  Provisio,  the  world  plan  of  God,  was  mirrored 
on  earth  in  the  Provisio,  the  state  plan  of  the  Emperor.  Whereas, 
however,  scholastic  philosophy  rigorously  distinguished  the  two 
and  expressly  designated  the  one  temporal  and  the  other  eternal, 
the  Emperor  set  all  this  aside  and  emphasised  the  practical 
extension  of  Provisio  :  "  as  executors  of  Divine  Providence  the 
rulers  assigned  fate,  share  and  rank  to  the  peoples,  as  befitted 
each."  In  this  also  the  Emperor  was  the  mediator  and  inter 
preter  of  the  divine  plan  who,  as  well  as  Justitia  and  Necessitas, 
embodied  in  himself  the  Divine  Providence  as  far  as  this  aimed 


MOTHER  OF  ALL  LAW  253 

at  the  ordering  of  the  State.  Providence  was  here  conceived  in 
her  specifically  state-creating  capacity,  as  a  continuously-active 
force,  and  correlated  with  the  Emperor.  Yet  Frederick  II 
had  assuredly  not  eliminated  the  Providence  of  God,  active 
in  beneficent  miracle  ;  he  claimed  to  rule  "  by  the  Grace  of 
God  "  like  every  other  medieval  prince.  Divine  Providence 
had  singled  him  out,  him  only,  and  elevated  him  directly  to  the 
throne,  and  the  marvel  of  her  grace  had  enveloped  the  last  of  the 
Hohenstaufens  in  a  mist  of  magic  glory  far  beyond  that  of  any 
other  prince,  far  from  the  ken  of  the  profane.  The  purposeful 
active  Foresight  of  God  did  not  enshroud  the  Emperor  but 
revealed  herself  in  him  as  the  highest  Reason:  " Leader  in 
Reason's  path  "  he  has  been  called. 

It  is  almost  superfluous  to  distinguish  between  this  and  the 
later  rationalism.  Reason  is  here  conceived  as  the  highest 
illumination  of  the  specially  favoured  ones,  the  Emperor  in 
particular,  and  this  is  her  first  appearance ;  she  is  still  a  shy, 
remote,  ultimate  goal  for  man  into  whom  God  might  enter  in 
this  guise.  Reason  was  in  no  wise  merely  a  means  ;  the  goal 
by  no  means  merely  welfare  and  advantage.  The  "  means  "  in 
Frederick's  State  was  Justitia,  which  also  was  once  "  Goal." 
Ratio  therefore  had  value  only  in  relation  to  Law  and  Right. 
"  Justly  and  reasonably  "  (juste  et  rationabiliter)  is  an  age-old 
juxtaposition,  and  the  new  thing  is  this,  that  Justice  and  Reason 
are  now  linked  with  the  Law  of  living  Nature,  with  Necessity. 
It  is  Law  that  first  yields  these  juxtapositions  :  the  strong 
emphasis  on  Ratio  emanates  from  the  jurists  of  Bologna  and  the 
blending  in  Justice  of  Nature,  Reason,  Foresight,  was  a  product 
of  Roman  law.  All  these  equal  forces  frequently  merged  in 
each  other :  "  the  Emperor  receives  his  impulse  from  Provi 
dence  "  is  a  frequent  assertion ;  another  time  "  the  Emperor  is 
impelled  to  action  by  Reason,  not  distinguished  from  Nature." 
Ultimately  it  all  points  to  this  :  Justice  was  the  living  Deity. 
She  varied  with  the  varying  need  of  the  State  and  was  thus 
Jinked  with  mortal  life.  Justice  again  was  subservient  to  divine 
Reason  which  linked  her  to  the  immortal — &  reflection  of  the 
Emperor  himself :  "  Although  our  illustriousness  is  free  of 
every  law,  yet  it  is  not  exalted  above  the  dictates  of  Reason, 
herself  the  Mother  of  all  Law."  The  Emperor  was  thus  the 


254  ANTICIPATIONS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE  v.  x 

image  of  God  by  his  bondage  to  Reason,  above  which  God  does 
not  soar,  for  God  and  Reason  are  one.  With  the  new  Justice, 
incarnate  in  the  Emperor,  and  placed  like  him  between  the  Law 
of  God  and  the  Law  of  Nature,  the  gulf  was  bridged  that  had 
yawned  between  positive  or  human  law  and  the  eternal  divine 
or  natural  law  :  an  emancipating  achievement  of  Frederick  II. 


Before  passing  to  the  goal  of  the  imperial  doctrine  of  salva 
tion  we  must  review  the  whole  magnificent  structure  of  his 
State — like  every  work  of  art,  a  unity.  The  postulates  were  a 
Tyrannis  which  was  part  of  an  Empire,  a  transition  period  be 
tween  two  epochs,  a  philosopher  as  king.  It  is  vain  to  question 
whether  Frederick's  Sicilian  State  belongs  to  the  Middle  Ages 
or  to  the  Renaissance  :  founded  in  the  fulness  of  time  it  belongs 
to  neither — and  to  both.  Sundered  from  the  Middle  Ages  in 
this  :  that  the  State  bore  in  its  own  bosom  its  own  goal  and 
spiritual  meaning,  and  that  the  prince  instead  of  steering  his 
kingdom  with  a  view  to  salvation  in  the  next  world,  drew 
God  down  into  the  earthly  State  and  represented  him  therein. 
Another  innovation  :  this  State  throbbing  with  living  forces, 
associated  with  a  third  strange  power,  the  Law  of  Nature,  with 
the  medieval  duality  of  the  Law  of  God  and  the  Law  of  Man. 
The  State  thus  acquired  depth,  and  the  embodied  trinity  made 
possible  a  living  circulation  of  forces.  All  this  smacks  of  the 
Renaissance.  The  Renaissance  State,  however,  completely 
lacked  the  hieratic  element  of  the  priestly-imperial  Sicily,  and 
lacked  too  the  actual  or  imaginary  breath  and  universality  con 
ferred  by  the  Imperium.  The  Renaissance  State  was  a  means 
and  embraced  no  world  :  the  prince,  the  individual  of  the 
Renaissance,  might  be  cosmopolitan  and  of  cosmic  importance 
—but  not  the  State. 

It  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  we  consider  the  chief 
importance  to  lie  in  Frederick's  adaptation  of  the  conceptions 
of  Roman  law,  or  the  Arab  influx  of  Aristotelian  and  Neo- 
Platonic  ideas,  or  the  adoption  of  the  Christian  priestly 
elements  :  for  all  these  are  welded  into  a  new  unity  ;  firm  and 
stern  and  clear  is  the  imperial  Law-State  based  on  the  three 
world  forces  :  Necessitasy  Justitia,  Providentia.  This  trinity  of 


THE  JUSTICE  STATE  255 

power  pulses  through  the  state  in.  indistinguishable  rhythm, 
recurs  in  every  part  as  the  Three-in-One  of  Natural  Law, 
Divine  Law,  Human  Law.  The  absolute  symmetry  of  this 
construction,  in  which  the  upper  and  the  lower  spheres  are 
related  like  reflections  in  a  mirror  and  yet  together  form  a 
whole,  would,  if  graphically  rendered,  recall  the  architectural 
symmetries  of  the  Renaissance.  For  these  three  forces  rule  in 
the  Universe  as  in  the  State,  stand  above  the  Emperor  and 
below,  flow  as  power  through  the  mediator  from  the  heavenly 
into  the  earthly  kingdom  and  back  again,  fed  upon  by  land  and 
people  :  each  acting  on  the  other  and  acted  upon  by  the  other. 

This  State  was  a  "  work  of  art "  not  because  of  its  skilful 
administrative  methods,  but  because  the  union  of  the  laws  of 
God,  Man,  and  Nature  made  it  an  approximation  to  an  ideal 
original.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  this  new  monarchy 
served  as  a  model  and  a  standard  for  centuries.  This  Justice- 
State  of  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor  almost  seemed  to  be  a  late 
realisation  of  the  picture  that  Plato  had  once  borne  to  Sicily  in 
his  search  for  Dikaiosyne,  and  which  Plotinus  centuries  later 
sought  to  realise  in  Campania  on  the  Platonic  model.  The 
ground  was  strangely  well  prepared,  and  Frederick  II  may  well 
have  felt  that  he  had  created  something  approaching  the  "  ideal 
state  "  when  he  had  the  entry  made  in  his  Book  of  Laws  : 
"  Sicily  shall  be  a  mirror  of  likeness  for  all  who  marvel  at  it, 
the  envy  of  princes,  the  pattern  of  kingdoms." 

Frederick  II  remodelled  Italy  on  the  Sicilian  pattern.  The 
dream  which  was  assuredly  present  in  the  mind  of  the  Hohen 
staufen — to  enforce  these  same  proportions  on  the  whole  earth 
"  throughout  the  Roman  Empire  stretching  from,  sea  to  sea  " 
— was  not  advanced  till  Dante  painted  his  immeasurably 
powerful  picture  of  the  one  Roman  World-monarchy  :  not  by 
a  long  way  so  Utopian  a  dream  as  is  sometimes  supposed.  For 
the  poet's  model  State  had  its  prototype  in  reality,  had  been 
lived,  no  less  than  the  platonic  State  of  Plato.  His  work  is 
called  de  Monardna  not  de  Imperio,  and  in  its  treble  sub 
division  we  see  the  reflection  of  the  triple  power  of  the  Hohen 
staufen  monarchy.  In  the  first  book  of  this  State  Gospel 
Dante  treats  of  "  The  Necessity  of  Monarchy  " ;  in  the  second 
he  seeks  to  prove  that  Justice  has  been  from  the  beginning 


256  FREDERICK'S  GOSPEL  v.  i 

inherent  in  the  Roman  Empire  ;  and  in  the  third  that  the 
Emperor  has  been  immediately  appointed  by  God  as  the  exe 
cutor  of  the  world — directing  Divine  Foresight  and  the  guide 
to  the  highest  reason.  Dante  seeks  proofs,  justification  for 
monarchy.  Frederick  had  created  monarchy,  albeit  on  a 
smaller  scale.  The  three  essential  forces  Necessitas,  Justitia, 
Providentia,  are  identical  in  Dante's  vision  and  in  Frederick's 
State.  True,  the  poet's  writing  exhibits  not  only  the  extension 
of  this  complex  of  power  to  the  whole  world,  but  at  the  same 
time  its  concentration  in  one  single  person,  the  Individual. 
That  is  the  culmination :  the  world  as  one  unified  State  of 
immense  extent  and  therewith  the  unity  and  harmony  of  the 
whole  in  each  unit.  Since  the  days  of  Plato  and  of  Dante  the 
Cosmos  has  never  again  been  so  envisaged  and  so  expounded 
as  a  living  State  and  the  State  as  Cosmos.  Frederick  II,  the 
Man  of  Action,  only  outlined  this  extension,  this  concentration  : 
on  the  one  hand  he  founded  the  colossal  pan-Italian  Signoria, 
on  the  other  he  scarcely  wished  and  certainly  did  not  achieve 
the  concentration  of  the  whole  in  any  individual — except  him 
self.  He  himself  was  the  first  whose  soul  was  saved  by  the 
Sacrament  of  the  State. 

Of  what  nature  was  this  Salvation  which  the  earthly  monarchy 
of  the  Emperor  promised  ?  Which  Dante  with  such  fire 
revealed  anew,  deepened,  extended  ?  In  the  early  days  of 
Frederick  II,  Francis  of  Assisi  in  wandering  and  in  word 
renewed  the  sacred  gospel  of  the  Crucified  :  that  Poverty  and 
Love  lead  to  salvation — love  to  every  creature  into  whom  God 
had  breathed  the  breath  of  life.  With  equal  insistence 
Frederick  II  preached  the  gospel  of  the  Glorified,  who — him 
self  a  king  and  of  kingly  race — pointed  the  path  to  salvation 
when,  in  spite  of  his  divine  Sonship,  he  submitted  to  the  Law 
and  as  man  fulfilled  the  Law.  Such  was  the  Gospel  of  the 
Emperor  :  the  fulfilment  of  Law  is  Salvation  ;  the  service  of 
Law  is  freedom  ;  and  obedience  to  Law  leads  to  the  righteous 
ness  and  uprightness  of  man.  For  Justice  implied  not  only 
the  penalising,  avenging  power  which  guarded  mankind  from 
destruction,  but  was  also  the  corrective  of  degenerate  human 
nature  which  in  the  beginning  God  had  willed  "  upright  and 
simple  " ;  Justice  was  the  power  which  led  to  the  highest  goal ; 


SUBJECT  TO  LAW  257 

to  the  realisation  of  that  better  "  nature  "  possessed  by  godlike 
man  before  the  Fall. 

Hence,  the  Emperor  sets  up  for  "man  incorporating  the 
divine  idea  "  the  dogma  :  that  "  of  necessity  man's  nature  is 
subject  to  Justice,  and  freedom  is  the  handmaid  of  the  Law." 
Only  by  homage  to  the  law  of  Justice  can  man  attain  to  free 
dom  or,  in  Christian  phrase,  to  the  sinlessness  of  Heaven.  For 
Sin  is  slavery. 

Justice,  therefore,  shall  create  again  the  naturally  simple  and 
upright  man,  the  image  of  God.  The  Justice  to  which  it 
behoved  man  to  submit  was  no  abstraction  (as,  for  instance, 
"  conscience  "  later  became)  for — so  said  the  Emperor — it  was 
not  seemly  that  the  Divine  Idea  incarnate  in  man  should  bow 
to  another  order  of  beings  from  elsewhere ;  rather  had  Man 
been  exalted  over  men.  According  to  the  word  of  the  Lord 
the  Emperor  reigned  over  all  men.  He  was  incarnate  Justice, 
to  which  mankind  was  subject,  and  that  man  achieved  freedom 
who  fulfilled  the  Law  of  the  Emperor,  who  alone  was  respon 
sible  to  God  for  the  righteousness  of  that  law.  The  judgment 
of  God  on  the  Emperor  corresponded  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Emperor  on  the  subject.  Since,  however,  Reason  was  inherent 
in  Justice,  the  Emperor  was  the  guide  to  Reason  also.  Piero 
della  Vigna  wrote  in  admiration  of  his  adored  Emperor,  the 
first  who  attained  salvation  through  Justice  and  restored  the 
divine  image :  "  The  path  of  reason  required  him  for  Guide." 
The  Emperors  had,  of  course,  been  long  since  styled  the  imago 
Deiy  but  Frederick  was  God's  image  in  a  special  sense,  for  he 
was  the  first  to  whom  was  granted  that  salvation  through 
Justice  which  he  proclaimed.  Though  "  whatever  the  Em 
peror  decrees  has  the  force  of  Law,"  he  was  above  all  others  the 
servant,  the  debtor,  the  son  of  Justice  ;  more  than  any  other 
he  was  bound  by  and  subject  to  Law ;  and  in  him  therefore 
was  again  incarnate  that  originally  God-like  human  form  which 
the  Saviour  also  wore  :  "  From  the  likeness  of  Jesus  Christ, 
in  whose  stead  the  King  rules  on  earth,  it  is  evident .  .  .  that 
the  King  must  be  subject  to  the  Law  .  .  .  since  the  Son  of  God 
also  of  his  own  will  was  subject  to  the  Law,"  thus  declared  the 
Emperor's  later  contemporary,  and  we  may  here  recall  Goethe's 
phrase  that  there  is  no  freedom  on  the  highest  rung. 


258  THE  NEW  ADAM  v.  i 

Since  Justice  led  back  to  true  freedom,  to  the  state  of  inno 
cence,  a  further  inference  follows  :  the  Emperor  corresponds 
to  the  First  Man  in  Paradise  whom  God  created  after  his  own 
image,  the  still  sinless  Adam  whose  better  nature  was  once 
scarce  inferior  to  the  nature  of  the  angels.  The  Cosmology  in 
the  Preface  to  the  Liber  August alls  points  out :  "  After  the 
Universe  and  its  motion  had  been  created  by  Divine  Provi 
dence,  and  primeval  matter,  which  was  to  realise  the  better 
nature,  had  been  distributed  among  the  primeval  forms,  He 
who  had  foreseen  all  that  was  to  be  accomplished  .  .  .  seeing 
Man  as  the  noblest  of  all  creatures  from  the  sphere  of  the  moon 
downwards  (Le.  on  earth),  formed  after  His  own  image  and 
likeness,  whom  He  created  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  placed 
Man  above  all  other  created  beings  on  the  earth  according  to 
His  well-considered  plan.  Taking  Man  from  a  clod  of  earth 
He  breathed  life  into  him  and  Spirit  and  crowned  him  with 
the  diadem  of  honour  and  fame.  .  .  ."  Adam,  the  first  man, 
created  by  God  himself,  free  as  yet  from  sin,  is  here  taken  by 
the  Emperor  as  a  symbol  of  the  first  World-Ruler ;  he  is  ruler 
over  all  the  creatures  of  the  earth  and  crowned  with  the  diadem 
of  honour  and  of  fame,  is  symbol  also  of  the  first  stainless  man, 
immediately  dependent  on  God,  who  was  free  so  long  as  he  did 
not  transgress  the  "  precept  of  God's  Law."  The  World-King 
was  like  unto  the  First  Man  whom  God  created  :  Frederick's 
office  therefore  and  his  first  predecessor  were  created  when 
God  created  man,  and  existed  therefore  BEFORE  the  Fall,  and 
were  therefore  not  the  consequence  of  the  Fall.  The  Saviour 
on  earth  had  revived  the  first  stainless  world  king,  Adam,  was 
himself  the  "  new  Adam,"  begotten  of  God  himself,  so  that  he, 
like  our  first  father  Adam,  was  free  from  original  sin  :  he  also 
was  a  World  King  and  subject  to  Law.  The  Emperor's  words 
echo  a  text  of  Scripture  :  "  Thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels ;  thou  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and 
honour."  Frederick  added  to  the  text  (which  in  the  Psalm 
applied  to  Adam  and  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  to  Christ) 
one  single  weighty  word  :  "  diadem  of  glory  and  honour  "  is 
Frederick's  phrase — the  diadem  of  the  World  King  which 
Frederick  wore  himself  as  Roman  Emperor  !  Almost  as  if  to 
banish  any  doubt  that  might  exist  of  Frederick's  intention  to 


D I VINA  COMMEDIA  259 

liken  himself  to  the  only  two  men  directly  created  free  from 
sin  by  God — as  Innocent  III  had  likened  himself  to  the  Priest- 
King  Melchizedek — his  most  intimate  friend  in  a  written  eulogy 
directly  styles  his  imperial  master  "  the  stainless  prince  .  .  . 
whom  the  Great  Artificer's  hand  created  man." 

Free  and  stainless  and  innocent  of  sin  are  the  three  World 
Kings,  because  as  men  they  sought  their  own  fulfilment  in 
the  Law.  Another  speculative  thought  arises  which  equates 
the  Emperor  with  Adam  in  Paradise  and  with  the  Saviour  :  the 
belief  that  the  "  Golden  Age  "  is  near  at  hand.  It  was  a  com 
monplace  that  the  Creation  (Adam  in  Paradise)  and  the  Re 
demption  (the  Birth  of  Christ)  were  the  beginning  and  the 
middle  of  an  epoch,  to  which  the  end  should  be  like.  This 
fulness  of  time  had  now  come,  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Emperor 
of  Justice,  Frederick  II,  the  expected  Messianic  ruler  whom 
the  Sibyls  had  foretold.  That  this  World  King  should  re 
semble  the  Saviour  is  no  matter  for  surprise,  and  the  essential 
resemblance  between  Adam  and  the  Messiah  was  set  forth  at 
length  to  the  Emperor  by  an  Arab  philosopher.  This  com 
pletes  the  circle  of  the  Imperial  Gospel :  subjection  to  the 
Emperor's  Justitia  leads  man  on  earth  to  innocence  of  sin,  to 
the  better  nature  of  unfallen  man.  If  the  rest  of  the  world, 
taking  example  by  the  Emperor,  the  first  human  being  to  live 
in  a  state  of  freedom,  would  obey  the  Laws  of  Justice,  then 
Paradise  would  be  realised  on  earth  and  the  Golden  Age  would 
dawn,  whose  Deity  according  to  the  oldest  myths  was  named 
Justitia. 

Let  us  here  recall  Dante — for  all  these  conceptions  are  deep 
imbedded  in  the  Divina  Commedia,  in  which  the  poet  points  the 
way  from  a  state  of  sin  back  to  the  earthly  and  then  to  the 
heavenly  Paradise,  and  to  the  original  God-like  man,  beholding 
God.  In  his  eyes,  too,  the  Empire  is  potent  to  lead  to  purity 
from  sin.  Vergil,  the  poet  of  the  Caesars,  the  representative  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  of  the  highest  Reason  was  the  Guide 
to  the  earthly  Paradise,  till  Dante,  freed  from  all  sin,  with  spot 
less  brow,  was  permitted  as  a  stainless  one  to  enter  the  Garden 
with  the  Tree  of  Knowledge.  Here  Vergil  left  him,  but  not 
before  he  had  crowned  Kim — now  like  unto  the  Emperor  in 
sinlessness — with  mitre  and  with  crown. 


26o  THE  HEAVENLY  PARADISE  v.  i 

The  Guide's  duty  ended  here  for  the  mythical  Dante-king. 
The  actual  Frederick  reckoned  only  with  the  earthly  Paradise  ; 
and  because  of  his  indifference  to  eternal  life  Dante  assigned 
him  a  place  in  the  fiery  sepulchres  of  those  who  despise  im 
mortality,  the  "  Epicureans.*'  Yet  Dante  had  the  most  pro 
found  respect  and  admiration  for  the  Hohenstaufen.  All  his 
life  Frederick  II  was  the  model  of  the  Ruler,  and  Judge,  the 
Scholar  and  Poet,  the  perfect  Prince,  the  "  illustrious  Hero  " 
who — "  so  long  as  his  good  fortune  lasted  " — sought  after  the 
humane,  the  humanum,  and  who  as  a  crowned  monarch  gathered 
round  him  the  noblest  and  most  brilliant  spirits  of  the  earth. 
Frederick  II  figures  in  the  poet's  works,  not  so  much  as  an 
historic  character  but  as  an  ideal  of  the  Justitia  Emperor.  The 
Emperor's  earthly  goal :  to  attain  once  more  the  divine  image 
by  the  fulfilment  of  the  Law  on  earth  and  in  the  State,  was  the 
exact  premiss  of  Dante's  formula  of  faith,  that  in  every  man 
the  contemplative  element  needs  salvation  through  the  Church, 
the  active  element  needs  a  no  less  sacred  fulfilment  on  earth  in 
Law  and  in  the  State  :  "  For  the  ineffable  Divine  Foresight 
has  set  two  goals  before  man  to  enkindle  him  :  the  happiness 
of  this  life  which  consists  in  works  of  his  own  strength  and  is 
represented  in  the  earthly  paradise  .  .  .  and  the  bliss  of  eternal 
life  which  is  the  enjoyment  of  the  sight  of  God  which  man 
cannot  attain  to  by  his  own  strength  without  help  from  the 
divine  light,  and  the  understanding  of  this  is  offered  in  the 
heavenly  paradise." 

In  contrast  to  the  Hohenstaufen,  Dante  conceived  the 
heavenly  paradise  as  accessible  already  on  earth  to  living  men. 
For  man's  powers  are  not  exhausted  in  the  accomplishment  of 
works  of  his  own  strength  and  of  the  highest  Reason:  the 
pastures  of  the  Blessed,  yea  even  the  Deity  himself,  may  be 
perceived  by  the  enraptured  Love  which  animates  the  man 
who  prays :  St.  Francis  and  above  all  St.  Bernard,  the  last 
Guide  to  the  Throne  of  God.  The  loftiest  insight  and  the 
loftiest  deed  were  necessary  if  a  man  was  to  recognise  in  him 
self  the  reflection  of  God  ;  to  see  a  man's  self  in  God  needed 
yet  something  more,  illuminated  by  the  grace  of  the  divine 
light.  Thus,  from  the  first  canto  to  the  last,  the  poet's  path 
was  the  path  of  the  living  man.  The  man  who,  like  the 


GREGORY  AND  THE  LAWS  261 

Emperor,  was  the  imago  Dei,  and  then,  in  spite  of  highest 
knowledge,  remained  capable  of  the  simple  faith  of  the  man 
who  prays  :  to  him  the  Deity  reveals  himself  in  the  vision  in 
which  the  sin-freed  man,  the  image  of  God,  sees  shimmering 
the  features  della  nostra  effige. 


II 

The  Emperor's  law-giving  aroused  the  most  profound  mis 
trust  in  Gregory  IX.  Even  before  the  publication  of  the 
Constitutions  the  Pope  addressed  himself  to  the  Emperor  in  a 
letter  which  clearly  shows  how  accurately  he  appraised  the 
danger  of  the  work.  "  It  has  reached  our  ears  that  thou  hast 
it  in  mind  to  promulgate  new  laws,  either  of  thine  own  impulse, 
or  led  astray  by  the  pernicious  counsels  of  abandoned  men. 
From  this  it  follows  that  men  call  thee  a  persecutor  of  the 
Church,  an  overthrower  of  the  freedom  of  the  State  :  thus  dost 
thou  with  thy  own  forces  rage  against  thyself.  ...  If  thou, 
of  thine  own  motion,  hast  contemplated  this,  then  must  we 
gravely  fear  that  God  hath  withdrawn  from  thee  his  grace, 
since  thou  so  openly  imderminest  thine  own  good  name  and 
thine  own  salvation.  If  thou  art  egged  on  thereto  by  others, 
then  we  must  marvel  that  thou  canst  tolerate  such  counsellors 
who,  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  destruction,  are  bent  on  making 
thee  the  enemy  of  God  and  Man,"  Gregory  expressed  him 
self  not  less  sharply  in  writing  to  the  Archbishop  Jacob  of 
Capua  who  had  co-operated  in  collecting  the  laws.  He  re 
proved  the  Archbishop  sternly  because  instead  of  publicly 
protesting  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be  used  as  the  Emperor's 
"  writing  reed  "  for  these  laws  "  which  have  renounced  salva 
tion  and  conjured  up  immeasurable  ill,"  and  which  the  Pope 
"  will  by  no  means  calmly  tolerate."  The  Pope's  anxieties 
were  well-founded  enough,  but  the  Emperor  was  in  so  strong 
a  position  that  Gregory  was  presently  compelled  to  placate  him, 
for  he  had  been  stirred  to  profound  anger  by  the  papal  letter  : 
it  had  been  no  public  reproof  but  a  confidential  remonstrance 
such  as  no  son  could  take  amiss  on  a  father's  part.  Pope 
Gregory  had  no  illusions,  however,  about  the  Liber  Augustalis. 


262         FREDERICK'S  NEED  FOR  CHURCH         v.2 

It  might  well  seem  as  if  the  new  secular  state,  based  on  Law, 
Nature  and  Reason,  and  entirely  self-contained,  formed  so 
independent  and  complete  a  whole  that  it  had  neither  need 
nor  room  for  the  Church.  Wherever  Frederick  II  held  sway, 
however,  his  motto  was  :  a  secular  state  plus  the  Church, 
One  reason — apart  from  a  thousand  others — was  the  simple 
and  personal ;  the  authority  of  the  Church  was  well-nigh 
indispensable  to  him.  Reason  made  cle^r  the  necessity  for  a 
Ruler,  but  Reason  in  no  wise  proved  the  necessity  of  this 
particular  Hohenstaufen's  being  that  Ruler.  The  belief  in 
Frederick's  person  was  certainly  at  that  moment  still  bound  up 
in  the  authority  of  the  Church.  The  Emperor  had  it  is  true 
to  a  large  extent  emancipated  himself  from  unconditional  de 
pendence  on  the  Church,  by  calling  to  witness  the  wonders 
done  on  his  behalf,  which  proved  his  immediate  call  by  God 
to  his  high  office,  the  amazing  rise  to  power  for  instance  of  the 
Puer  Apuliae,  which  he  once  more  recalled  in  the  Preface  to 
the  Book  of  Laws.  It  was  impossible,  however,  to  sever  faith 
in  his  providential  call  from  the  credulity  demanded  by  the 
Church,  for  the  age  was  not  ripe  to  grasp  the  Hero  as  such,  and 
the  Emperor's  power  singlehanded  to  evoke  faith  in  his  own 
person  was  strictly  limited.  To  enhance  his  unconditional 
claim,  especially  for  more  distant  regions  where  people  rarely 
saw  his  face,  the  consecration  and  endorsement  of  the  Church 
were  necessary.  It  was  a  sufficient  miracle,  and  a  proof  of  the 
personal  magic  of  this  Frederick  that  after  the  second  excom 
munication,  when  the  Curia  sought  by  every  means  in  her 
power  to  shake  the  faith  in  the  mysterious  person  of  the 
Hohenstaufen,  one  half  the  world  still  clung — in  defiance  of 
the  Church — to  its  faith  in  Frederick  II  as  the  Chosen.  But 
in  those  later  days,  when  he  strained  to  the  uttermost  the  powers 
at  his  command  to  outweigh  the  lack  of  the  Church's  consecra 
tion  and  support,  and  when  in  public  he  had  to  minimise  the 
importance  thereof,  his  whole  conduct  proclaims  how  grievously 
he  missed  the  Church's  backing.  The  fact  that,  sorely  against 
his  will,  Frederick  II  provided  the  proof  that  the  Church's 
blessing  was  not  in  fact  indispensable,  was  a  staggering  blow 
to  the  Papacy. 


DEFENDER  OF  THE  FAITH  263 

The  Church  was  to  strengthen  faith  in  the  Emperor's  person. 
More  :  the  bulk  of  Frederick's  laws,  the  whole  cult  o£Justitia> 
presupposed  the  subjects'  religious  faith  ;  however  much  the 
Emperor  might  appeal  to  Nature  and  Reason  as  non-dogmatic 
axioms,  these  yet  were  one  with  the  God  of  the  Church's 
worship.  Thus  it  came  about  that  in  a  certain  sense  the 
Emperor  felt  a  heretic  to  be  more  dangerous  than  a  rebel.  The 
rebel  in  his  folly  offended  against  a  law  of  Reason  and  of  Nature 
by  revolting  against  the  imperial  government,  which  every  wise 
man  must  acknowledge  to  be  necessary.  The  heretic,  in  shak 
ing  the  foundation  of  the  Catholic  Faith,  shook  also  the  faith  in 
the  Emperor's  person  and  the  basis  of  the  Emperor's  laws.  The 
Emperor's  role  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  Protector  and  Guardian 
of  the  Church,  was  dictated  by  immediate  state  necessity. 

Frederick  II  felt  himself  at  one  with  the  Church  in  virtue  of 
this  office  of  Defender  of  the  Faith.  In  the  Preface  he  writes : 
"  The  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords  demands  this  above 
all  at  the  hand  of  a  Ruler,  that  he  should  not  permit  the  most 
holy  Roman  Church,  the  Mother  of  the  Christian  covenant,  to 
be  bespattered  by  the  secret  faithlessness  of  those  who  distort 
the  faith,  and  should  protect  her  by  the  might  of  the  secular 
sword  against  the  attacks  of  the  enemies  of  the  State."  Fol 
lowing  the  example  of  Justinian,  Frederick  II  opened  his  work 
by  an  edict  against  the  heretics,  the  enemies  of  the  state.  At 
the  first  glance  it  would  be  easy  to  overlook  the  skill  and  thought 
which  introduced  this  sole  and  only  allusion  in  the  whole  Liber 
Augtistatis  to  the  relation  between  Church  and  State.  Other 
wise  it  contains  only  casual  instructions  about  the  Sicilian 
clergy.  It  has  been  held  that  the  heresy  edict  was  a  courteous 
gesture  toward  the  Pope  :  it  was  in  fact  almost  the  exact 
opposite.  It  was  intended  to  demonstrate  to  the  Church  that 
she  could  not  dispense  with  the  protection  of  the  State.  This 
reminder  of  the  princely  protectorship  brought  into  relief  the 
one  and  only  relation  in  which  the  Church  showed  dependence 
on  the  State.  The  Emperor  studiously  avoided  mention  of 
any  other  relationship,  for  every  other  would  have  impaired  the 
self-contained  integrity  of  the  State.  There  could  be  no  graver 
misconception  than  to  read  into  the  frequent  emphasising  of 
the  imperial  protectorship  a  weak  amiability  towards  the  Pope, 


264  AGAINST  HERETICS  v.2 

or,  worse,  to  interpret  as  hypocritical  zeal  Frederick  IPs  cam 
paign  of  fire  and  sword  against  the  "  plague  of  heresy."  Other 
things  were  here  decisive.  The  Catholic  Faith  was  conceived 
by  Frederick  as  a  State  Religion  in  an  almost  classical  sense  : 
it  might  be  in  a  wider  sense  a  universal  faith,  immediately, 
however,  it  was  the  religion  of  the  State.  Frederick  followed 
Justinian  in  opening  his  Lawbook  with  an  edict  against  here 
tics  ;  in  each  case  Hohenstaufen  and  Byzantine  meant  no  more 
than  to  set  a  seal  on  the  religion  whereon  State  and  Laws  alike 
were  founded.  The  strictly  state-conception  of  religion  is 
brought  out  much  more  strongly  in  the  phrasing  of  the  edicts 
designed  for  Sicily  than  in  those  relating  to  the  Empire. 
Frederick  II  always  emphasised  the  co-existence  of  Imperium 
and  Sacerdotium  in  the  Roman  Empire — for  here  the  Church 
was  primarily  the  tie  that  bound  in  spiritual  unity  the  many- 
peopled  Empire — while  for  self-contained  Sicily  the  State  was 
not  dependent  on  the  universal  Church,  nor  was  the  Church 
even  co-ordinate  with  the  State,  but  the  State  embraced  the 
Church  as  a  protegee  and  absorbed  her.  In  the  Sicilian  edict, 
therefore,  the  Papacy  is  not  even  alluded  to,  and  the  Roman 
Church  is  only  casually  mentioned  as  the  orthodox  one,  which 
is  to  be  considered  the  head  of  all  other  churches.  For  heresy 
was  for  Frederick  II  not  a  crime  against  the  Church,  but  a 
blasphemy  against  God  and  therefore  treason  against  the  Bong's 
Majesty,  and  a  crime  against  the  State. 

Frederick's  great  predecessor  as  verus  imperator,  Pope 
Innocent  III,  who  was  to  the  marrow  an  imperial  statesman, 
equated  heresy  and  treason  when  he  said  it  was  a  graver  thing 
to  offend  against  heavenly  than  earthly  majesty.  There  is  an 
echo  of  the  Pope's  words  in  Frederick's  Coronation  edicts  of 
1220,  but  this  is  the  first  occasion  of  his  translating  the  doctrine 
into  state  action.  In  the  Sicilian  edict  it  runs  :  "  We  condemn 
most  severely  the  increase  of  heretics  in  Sicily  and  we  command 
for  the  present :  that  the  crime  of  heresy,  the  heresy  of  any  and 
every  accursed  sect — under  whatever  name  the  sectaries  are 
known — shall  be  accounted  a  crime  against  the  State,  as  it  is 
in  the  ancient  Roman  laws.  It  must  be  condemned  as  a  yet 
more  heinous  offence  than  a  crime  against  our  own  Majesty, 
because  it  is  a  manifest  attack  on  the  matter  of  the  Divine 


CRIME  AGAINST  STATE  265 

Majesty,  though  when  the  sentence  is  pronounced  the  one 
punishment  does  not  exceed  the  other."  In  the  whole  edict 
there  is  no  question  of  the  identity  of  the  two  powers.  Heresy 
is  a  direct  crime  against  the  State,  against  God,  against  the 
injured  Majesty  of  the  Emperor.  The  boundary  lines  between 
God  and  Emperor  are  indeed  even  more  fluid  than  usual ;  even 
the  slight  rise  from  the  imperial  to  the  divine  majesty  is  neutral 
ised  by  the  anti-climax  that  in  each  case  the  penalty  is  the 
same,  and,  finally,  the  imperial  majesty  is  not  even  directly 
balanced  against  the  Majesty  of  God.  For  the  phrase  is  the 
"  matter  of  the  Divine  Majesty  " !  Was  God  to  be  understood 
by  this  ? — or  the  Emperor  himself  ?  The  suggestion  that  the 
Emperor  was  meant  must  have  been  possible,  for  Pope  Innocent 
IV  when  he  revived  the  imperial  heresy-edict  in  1254  changed 
the  word  "  materiam  "  into  "  injuriam"  whereby  the  whole  point 
was  lost.  The  clause  now  read  "  an  attack  to  the  injury  of  the 
Divine  Majesty  "  instead  of  "  against  the  matter  of  the  Divine 
Majesty."  It  is  very  clear  that  the  one-sided  relation  of  the 
State  to  God  was  now  counterbalanced  by  the  Deity's  being 
imported  into  the  State  :  the  heretic  injures  God  and  thereby 
the  Emperor,  the  rebel  in  injuring  the  Emperor  commits,  at 
the  same  time,  a  crime  directly  against  God. 

This  position  is  not  nearly  so  clear  when  set  forth  in  the 
imperial  laws  against  heretics ;  the  corresponding  passage 
simply  runs:  "When  our  Illustriousness  is  incensed  against 
contemners  of  our  name,  when  we  condemn  in  their  own 
person  and  by  the  disinheritance  of  their  children  those  accused 
of  treason,  it  is  both  just  and  seemly  that  we  should  be  the 
more  incensed  against  those  who  blaspheme  the  Divine  Name 
and  those  who  lower  the  Catholic  Faith.  .  .  ."  And  even  when 
the  Emperor  poses  as  the  God  of  Vengeance  who  punishes  the 
guilt  of  the  heretic  unto  the  second  generation,  "...  so  that  the 
children,  in  memory  of  their  father's  crime  may  pine  in  misery 
and  know  in  truth  that  God  is  a  Jealous  God,  powerful  to  visit 
the  sins  of  the  father  upon  the  children  .  .  . ,"  he  is  here  an 
image  only  of  the  Deus  zefotes,  not  "  the  matter  of  the  Divine 
Majesty."  The  method  of  heretic  hunting  demonstrates  more 
clearly  than  words  that  it  was  only  in  Sicily  that  heresy  was 
directly  treated  and  pursued  as  a  crime  against  the  State ;  for 


266  HERESY  AND   TREASON  v.a 

the  Sicilian  Inquisitors  were  not  agents  of  the  Church  but 
imperial  officials,  who  interpreting  Frederick's  wishes  did  not 
split  hairs  over  the  distinction  between  heretics,  who  through 
God  injured  the  Emperor,  and  rebels  who  through  the  Emperor 
blasphemed  God,  but  consigned  both  alike  to  the  flames  till 
Pope  Gregory  himself  was  horrified,  and  intervened  to  mitigate 
Frederick's  zeal.  There  is  no  basis  for  the  supposition  that 
the  "  liberal-minded  and  f reethinking "  Hohenstaufen  perse 
cuted  the  luckless  heretics  only  at  the  instigation  of  the  Church  : 
the  "  accursed  sectaries  whatever  they  like  to  call  themselves  " 
had  nothing  to  hope  for  but  a  fiery  death.  It  happened  that 
this  was  one  of  the  few  laws  of  Frederick's  that  really  pleased 
the  Church,  and  Frederick  II  had  no  hesitation  in  gratifying 
the  Church  in  the  matter  on  all  occasions.  In  1238  the  severer 
Sicilian  edict  was  extended  to  the  whole  Empire,  and  in  1254 
incorporated  at  the  Pope's  command  in  the  Statute  Books  and 
Town  Laws. 

As  the  Emperor  himself  pointed  out,  his  whole  heresy 
legislation  was  closely  modelled  on  Roman  law.  Heresy  was 
treason,  for  God  and  Emperor  were  one.  In  imperial  Rome 
there  was  no  crimen  laesae  Romanae  religionis  (Tertullian  first 
evolved  this  conception) ;  under  the  Emperors  religious  crime 
is  treason.  In  accordance  with  this  idea  Frederick  II  described 
heresy  as  "perduellio"  high  treason  against  the  State— in  Sicily 
only.  The  word  is  used  here  only,  and  the  imperial  Chancery 
was  well  skilled,  as  has  always  been  acknowledged,  in  its  choice 
of  words. 

The  heretics  were  guilty  of  high  treason,  plague-carriers, 
enemies  of  the  State,  as  their  interpretation  of  Scripture  proved : 
for  they  held  that  God  was  to  be  obeyed,  rather  than  man ;  a 
doctrine  ill  adapted  to  Frederick's  state,  whose  dogma  ran 
"  over  men  a  MAN  is  set." 


People  have  detected  in  this  an  inner  contradiction,  "the 
Freethinker  legislates  against  heresy."  Even  if  there  is  some 
thing  in  common  between  the  free  mind  of  the  Emperor  and 
the  mind  of  the  heretic,  in  that  both  release  certain  vital  forces, 
the  Emperor  was  lord  over  these  forces,  and  in  his  hands  under 


LIMITS  OF  TOLERANCE  267 

well-defined  conditions  subject  to  well-defined  laws  they 
could  prove  potent  and  beneficent.  The  same  forces  released 
by  unauthorised  persons  were  dangerous  and  destructive. 
For  the  Emperor  personally  the  dictum  might  be  valid  :  the 
Emperor  must  obey  God  and  not  man,  but  no  lesser  indi 
vidual  had  the  right  to  arrogate  to  himself  this,  or  any  other, 
imperial  privilege.  His  whole  life  long,  therefore,  even  in 
his  last  and  bitterest  struggle  with  the  Church,  Frederick 
strenuously  repudiated  any  and  every  sympathy  with  heretics. 
When  he  was  besieged  on  one  occasion  they  approached 
and  offered  help,  but  were  spurned  on  the  instant.  They  were 
destroyers  in  his  eyes  of  that  world  unity  which  he  represented, 
though  in  order  to  preserve  it  he  often  had  recourse  to  anti- 
dogmatic  allies.  Dante  assigns  to  Frederick  therefore  a  place, 
not  among  the  sectaries,  but  among  the  Epicureans,  those 
who  despise  a  future  life. 

Another  contradiction  of  Frederick's  has  been  detected  in 
his  persecuting  heresy  at  the  same  time  that  he  *  tolerated  ' 
Muhammadans,  Jews,  and  orthodox  Greeks.  Frederick's 
relation  to  the  non-Christian  elements  in  his  State  is  one  of  the 
most  instructive  items  in  his  statesmanship,  more  especially 
when  we  study  the  limits  of  his  complaisance.  Compared  with 
the  mixture  of  races  and  religions  and  the  peaceful  co-existence 
in  Norman  times  of  Christians,  Saracens,  and  Jews,  living  side 
by  side  in  harmony,  the  freedom  of  the  non-Christians  had 
been  very  considerably  curtailed  under  Frederick — not  for  the 
sake  of  religion,  or  of  the  Pope  or  of  the  Church,  but  for 
the  sake  of  the  State.  Frederick's  sympathy  for  professors  of 
another  faith,  in  which  he  displayed  a  broadmindedness  shared 
by  very  few  of  his  contemporaries,  extended  only  so  far  as  they 
were  serviceable  to  the  State  and  laid  no  hand  upon  its  sancti 
ties.  To  avoid  any  penetration  by  non-Christians  he  had,  as 
we  have  seen,  segregated  them  completely  from  the  very  first. 
He  removed  the  Saracens  from  the  island  of  Sicily  and  planted 
them  in  Lucera.  After  he  had  thus  neutralised  the  Muslim 
poisons  that  threatened  hostility  and  confusion  to  the  State, 
he  could  afford  to  be  tolerant  of  their  religious  observances,  as 
he  always  showed  himself  tolerant  of  any  good  customs  of 
conquered  rebels. 


268  USURY  v.2 

The  same  principle  governed  his  conduct  towards  the  Jews. 
In  one  of  his  first  ordinances,  issued  after  his  return  from 
Germany,  Frederick  laid  down  that  Jews  must  be  distinguished 
from  Christians  by  their  dress  and  must  grow  their  beards  "  so 
that  the  rites  of  the  Christian  faith  may  not  be  confused."  Any 
offender  was  punished  by  the  confiscation  of  his  goods,  or,  if 
he  was  poor,  by  branding  on  the  forehead — not  from«religious 
intolerance  but  to  preserve  order  in  the  State.  For  the  rest 
the  Jews  were  permitted,  nay  obliged,  to  live  according  to  their 
own  religious  laws  unless  these  were  harmful  to  the  State. 
Many  of  their  religious  practices  were  even  advantageous  and 
some  were  therefore  specified  in  the  Liber  Augustalisi  "We 
exempt  the  Jews  from  obedience  to  our  usury  laws.  They  are 
not  to  be  accused  of  usury  forbidden  by  God,  since — as  is  well 
known — they  are  not  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  blessed  Fathers 
of  the  Church."  The  moment  injury  accrued  to  the  State  the 
Emperor's  toleration  was  at  an  end.  An  alleged  ritual  murder 
by  Jews  was  brought  up  before  the  Emperor.  Thanks  to  his 
astounding  knowledge  of  foreign  rites  he  immediately  saw  the 
baselessness  of  the  accusation,  but  he  declared  that  if  it  had 
proved  that  the  Hebrew  ritual  demanded  such  human  sacrifice 
he  would  be  prepared  immediately  to  massacre  every  Jew  in 
the  Empire.  On  the  other  hand,  he  constantly  intervened 
against  the  Church  on  behalf  of  the  Jews,  but  there  was  a  special 
reason  for  that.  In  the  age-old  dispute  whether  the  Jews  as 
foreigners  came  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  or  as  infidels 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  Frederick  II  naturally 
decided  for  the  former — to  the  intense  annoyance  of  Pope 
Gregory.  On  the  same  principle  he  brought  the  Jews  into  the 
scheme  of  the  State.  In  Norman  days  they  had  been  mainly 
attached  as  serfs  to  churches  and  monasteries.  Frederick  II 
emancipated  them  almost  entirely  from  this  relationship,  and 
rarely  or  never  again  farmed  out  his  rights  over  the  Jews  any 
more  than  his  other  crown  rights  ;  he  insisted  all  the  more 
strongly  on  their  direct  private  bond  to  his  own  person.  Even 
in  the  Empire  the  elected  bishop  of  the  Jews  was  replaced  by 
an  appointed  Jewish  master,  who  was  practically  a  state  official. 
In  order  that  the  State  might  gain  the  maximum  advantage 
from  its  Jewish  subjects,  Frederick  II,  with  unerring  instinct 


JEWISH  MONOPOLIES  269 

contrived  to  link  the  Jew-monopoly  with  the  renewed  trade- 
monopolies,  particularly  the  dye  and  silk  works.  To  his 
private  Jewish  serfs  the  Emperor  entrusted  the  state  dyeworks, 
the  manufacture  of  silk  and  the  commerce  in  silk — matters  in 
which  the  Jews  had  traditional  skill  and  experience — with 
advantage  to  both  parties,  Emperor  and  Jew.  This  had  noth 
ing  whatever  to  do  with  tolerance  ;  it  was  simply  part  of 
Frederick's  usual  policy  to  turn  even  the  smallest  force  to  the 
advantage  of  the  State  and  to  let  nothing  be  wasted. 

This  solution  meant,  in  fine,  that  the  servitude  of  the  Jews 
should  be  so  organised  and  utilised,  that  their  own  industrial 
life  might  directly  benefit  the  State.  The  non-Christians,  on 
the  other  hand,  being  thus  incorporated  in  the  State,  enjoyed 
in  Sicily  and  in  the  other  imperial  territories,  a  State  protection, 
such  as  rarely  fell  to  their  lot  elsewhere.  It  was  clearly  stated 
"  the  master  shall  be  honoured  in  his  servants,"  and  again  "  no 
innocent  man  shall  be  oppressed  because  he  is  a  Jew  or  a 
Saracen."  There  was  no  suggestion  of  equal  citizenship.  An 
assassination  cost  the  guilty  community  100  Augustales  if  the 
victim  was  a  Christian  and  50  if  he  were  a  Saracen  or  a  Jew. 
Conversion  from  Catholicism  to  Islam  or  to  Judaism  was 
severely  punished  according  to  existing  laws.  It  was  of  course 
permissible  for  Jews  or  Muslims  to  seek  baptism.  We  may  be 
permitted  to  doubt  whether  Frederick  II  encouraged  the  step, 
for  he  lost  his  serf  tax  and  his  poll  tax  and  the  birth  and  mar 
riage  tax  and  many  another  imposition.  Whatever  the  under 
lying  reasons,  the  fact  is  incontestable  :  the  Emperor  was,  on 
the  whole,  averse  to  changes  of  faith.  Frederick's  whole  policy 
in  the  Jew  and  Saracen  questions  may  be  summed  up  by  saying 
that  the  true  statesman  finds  no  material  without  its  uses. 

Frederick  II  persecuted  no  man  for  his  belief.  He  had  his 
hands  full  persecuting  rebels  and  heretics  for  their  unbelief. 
It  is  illogical  to  argue  that  toleration  of  other  genera  should 
involve  a  toleration  of  degenerates — for  heretics  were  degene 
rates  in  Frederick's  eyes — who  rent  the  "  coat  without  seam  " 
and  tore  asunder  the  unity  of  the  State.  The  contradiction  lies 
not  with  the  Emperor,  but  in  the  failure  to  recognise  that 
heretics  were  for  Frederick  enemies  of  the  State,  much  more 
than  enemies  of  religion.  The  misunderstanding  is  based 


27o  INTOLERANCE  v.2 

secondly  on  a  false  and  arbitrary  application  of  post- Reforma 
tion  ideas  of  toleration  originating  in  the  days  when  Protestan 
tism  was  an  independent  religion  and  included  sectaries.  The 
misapplication  of  these  ideas  to  Frederick  in  his  relations  with 
sectaries  and  non-Christians,  is  all  the  more  dangerous  as  it 
tempts  to  false  generalisations  about  Frederick's  character, 
representing  him  as  an  enlightened  and  tolerant  potentate — an 
artificial  picture  that  does  not  fit  the  facts. 

In  regard  to  his  personal  inclinations — especially  wherever 
the  sanctities  of  the  State  were  at  stake — Frederick  II  was  in 
fact  probably  the  most  intolerant  Emperor  that  ever  the  West 
begot.  No  Emperor  was  ever,  both  in  claim  and  in  act,  so 
uncompromisingly  the  JUDGE  as  Frederick  II.  As  judge  he 
lived  for  centuries  in  the  memories  of  men,  as  judge  they  awaited 
his  second  coming  as  the  avenger  of  human  degeneracy.  A 
tolerant  judge  is  like  hike-warm  fire. 

The  Emperor,  who  felt  no  hate  to  the  non-Christian,  showed 
himself  in  very  deed  a  "  Jealous  God  "  towards  rebels  and  here 
tics,  offenders  against  the  Deity  Justitia  and  the  sanctified  order 
of  the  State  ;  a  very  fanatic,  obsessed  by  a  primeval  hate  that 
pursued  its  victim  remorselessly  to  the  second  and  third  genera 
tion.  The  most  appalling  punishments  seemed  too  mild  for 
such  offenders.  The  edict  against  those  heretics  who — to 
quote  the  Emperor — called  themselves  "  Sufferers"  Patarenes, 
after  the  "  passion  "  of  the  heroic  martyrs,  closes  with  a  blood 
curdling  taunt :  "  We  therefore  command  by  this  our  law  that 
these  accursed  *  Sufferers  '  shall  in  fact  suffer  the  passion  of 
that  death  they  lust  for  :  that  they  be  condemned  to  the  flames 
and  burnt  alive  in  the  sight  of  all  men  ;  nor  shall  we  regret  that 
we  thus  fulfil  their  own  desire." 

The  Emperor's  mission  as  Protector  of  the  Church  gave  him 
his  only  opportunity  to  draw  the  universal  Roman  Church  into 
his  State,  even  to  subordinate  her  to  the  State  as  in  need  of 
protection.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  was  indispensable 
to  him,  for  his  whole  State  with  its  laws  was  founded  on  the 
Catholic  faith.  This  relationship  of  mutual  dependence  was 
quite  in  harmony  with  Frederick  IPs  conception  of  all  human 
and  divine  relationships,  and  however  greatly  he  might  magnify 
his  protective  office  till  he  even  filled  the  role  of  the  Avenging 


STATECRAFT  271 

God,  he  never  hesitated  freely  to  admit  that  the  Pope  stood  to 
the  Emperor  as  the  father  to  a  child,  or  as  the  Sun  to  the  Moon, 
Even  in  the  heat  of  battle  Frederick  always  conceded  the 
position,  though  reiterating  that  the  moon  was  none  the  less 
an  independent  heavenly  body.  This  was  no  sign  of  weakness. 
It  testifies  to  a  higher  degree  of  inner  freedom,  security  and 
highmindedness,  calmly  to  acknowledge  a  superior  than  to  deny 
him.  Dante  devotes  a  special  book  to  depicting  a  World- 
monarch  whose  independence  of  the  Pope  and  immediate 
relationship  to  God  the  poet  seeks  to  prove.  It  might  be  a 
portrait  of  Frederick.  He  concludes  with  words  that  might 
easily  be  Frederick's  own  :  "  Let  Caesar  evince  that  respect 
for  Peter  which  the  first  born  son  must  display  towards  his 
father,  that  he,  in  the  light  of  the  paternal  favour,  may  more 
radiantly  illumine  the  earth,  over  which  he  is  set  by  Him  alone 
who  is  the  Director  of  all  that  is  spiritual  and  of  all  that  is 
worldly." 


The  "  once  and  for  all  "  factor  in  Frederick's  imperial  meta 
physics  has  already  been  pointed  out.  They  were  centred  in 
the  person  of  just  this  one  Emperor  and  were  valid  only  in  just 
this  one  moment  of  time.  What  the  world,  however,  seized 
upon,  and  what  each  of  the  European  states  sooner  or  later, 
directly  or  indirectly,  adopted  was  the  technique  of  statecraft 
which  Frederick  had  deduced  from  his  metaphysics  :  the 
administrative  body  of  jurists ;  the  bureaucracy  of  paid  officials ; 
the  financial  and  economic  policy. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  pursue  the  development  of  all  this 
nor  its  gradual  modification.  The  ma-gJTng  of  State  in  time 
asserted  themselves  everywhere ;  first,  of  course,  in  the  neigh 
bouring  Romance  kingdoms,  in  France  and  Aragon  as  well  as 
in  divided  Italy,  perhaps  in  Castile  too,  even  before  the  end 
of  the  century.  The  new  system  of  administration  with  its 
officials  in  the  king's  pay  was  inevitable  in  time  to  come.  Such 
a  scheme,  immeasurably  more  amenable  to  the  ruler  than 
the  feudal  degrees,  gave  a  security  hitherto  undreamt  of  and 
the  possibility  of  developing  a  comprehensive  well-planned 
organisation  deriving  from  one  central  authority.  The  feeling 


272  JUSTICIARS  v.2 

was  never  wholly  absent  that  the  Jurist  State  had  had  its  origin 
in  reaction  against  the  Church  while  utilising  Church  methods 
throughout.  What  unholy  danger  threatened  the  Church  in 
this  spiritually  independent  bureaucracy  was  acutely  expressed 
by  Napoleon  during  his  own  struggle  against  Pope  and  Church  : 
"  II  faut  faire  agir  les  tribunaux,  opposer  robe  a  robe,  esprit  de 
corps  a  esprit  de  corps.  Les  juges  sont,  dans  leur  genre,  une 
espece  de  theologiens  comme  les  pretres  ;  ils  ont  aussi  leurs 
maximes,  leurs  regies,  leur  droit  canon.  On  a  toujours  vu 
radministration  echouer  dans  ses  luttes  contre  les  pretres  ;  la 
monarchic  n'a  pu  resister  au  clerge  qu'en  lui  opposant  les 
parlements."  This  mighty  soldier  with  his  eye  for  the  essential, 
got  to  the  root  of  things  when  he  called  on  the  judges  for  help 
against  the  clergy,  as  the  only  group  of  state  officials  in  his  day 
bound  together  by  a  common  spirit. 

This  gives  us  a  measure  of  Frederick's  genius.  He  was  the 
first  to  create  this  intellectual  order  within  the  state  and  to  make 
it  an  effective  weapon  in  his  fight  with  the  Church — bound 
together  from  its  birth  by  sacred  ties  in  the  priestly-Christian 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  uplifted  to  the  triumphant  cult  of  the 
Deity  Justitia. 

The  organisation  of  this  first  western  bureaucracy,  this 
priesthood  of  Justitia,  is  necessarily  hieratic.  Frederick  him 
self  styles  the  body  of  officials  the  "  Order  of  Justitia  "  or  the 
"  Order  of  Officials."  Rigid  precedence  is  clearly  marked  in 
the  most  important  department,  that  of  the  Justiciaries,  as  is 
indicated  by  the  Latin  nomenclature  of  the  highest  grades 
which  are  traditionally  called  the  Magister  Jtistitiarius  and  the 
Magnae  Cwriae  Magister  Justitiarius.  According  to  the  new 
orders  of  1239,  three  grades  are  recognised ;  the  Justiciars, 
governors  of  the  ten  provinces  ;  Master- Justiciars,  governors 
of  the  two  halves  of  the  kingdom — peninsula  and  island — and 
the  Grand  Master  Justiciar,  the  head  of  the  whole  judicial 
administration  who  acted  in  place  of  the  divine  Emperor  as 
Grand  Master  of  the  Order,  much  as  the  German  Grand  Master 
of  the  Teutonic  Order  in  place  of  Christ.  There  is  no  question 
of  Sicily's  having  "  copied  "  the  Order-organisation.  In  those 
days  it  was  inevitable  that  any  intellectual  body  of  men  of  the 
vita  actwa  must  approximate  their  organisation  to  that  of  the 


OFFICIAL  OBLIGATIONS  273 

knightly  orders.  It  was  in  fact  the  case  that  the  Prussian  State 
under  the  Teutonic  Order  was  more  akin  than  any  other  to 
imperial  Sicily,  because  Sicily  and  Prussia  were  the  only  two 
States  whose  constitution  was  based  on  a  rational  system.  It 
is  not  irrelevant  to  compare  the  far-off  State  of  the  Teutonic 
Order ;  if  the  Sicilian  bureaucracy  was  modelled  on  similar 
lines  to  the  Order,  the  office-holders  amongst  the  Teutonic 
Knights  were  speedily  officialised  under  the  influence  of  the 
Sicilian  model,  with  which  the  German  Grand  Master,  Her 
mann  of  Salza,  was  of  course  intimately  conversant.  In  com 
plete  contrast  to  the  Templars  and  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  the 
bearers  of  high  office  amongst  the  Teutonic  Knights — Marshals 
and  Commanders  for  instance — soon  became  "  officials  "  whose 
functions  were  quite  obviously  in  certain  things  under  Sicilian 
influence.  The  Sicilian  bureaucracy,  itself  the  earliest  intel 
lectual  state  corporation  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  at  least  as 
closely  related  to  the  knightly  orders  as  to  the  modern  state 
services  to  which  people  have  retrospectively  compared  it. 


Frederick  II  endeavoured  to  inspire  the  new  body  of  officials 
with  something  akin  to  the  esprit  de  carps  of  the  Orders.  The 
Justiciars  were  to  know  no  other  ties  than  those  that  bound 
them  to  the  Emperor  and  the  service  of  Justitia,  they  must 
have  no  private  interests  in  their  own  province.  They  were 
most  sternly  forbidden  therefore  to  possess  money  or  land 
within  their  official  district,  to  take  part  in  any  sale  or  purchase, 
exchange  or  presentation.  Even  a  son  might  not  possess  pro 
perty  in  his  father's  province.  The  Justiciars  must  be  "  clean 
handed,"  they  must  not  seek  to  enrich  themselves,  by  venality 
or  bribery,  oppression  or  any  other  variety  of  corruption, 
but  must  be  content  with  the  salary  allotted  to  them  by  the 
Emperor's  grace.  When  they  were  holding  courts  in  remote 
corners  of  their  province  they  must  accept  no  hospitality  except 
purely  official  hospitality .  For  the  duration  of  their  office  they 
must  enter  into  no  contract  in  their  province,  nor  betrothal, 
nor  marriage,  nor  any  other.  Inasmuch  as  most  of  the  Justiciars 
were  also  fief-holders  they  could  not,  in  any  case,  marry  without 
the  Emperor's  permission.  They  were  not  even  permitted — 


274  GUARANTEES  v.  2 

certainly  not  in  later  times — to  bring  their  wives  with  them 
into  their  official  districts. 

The  principle  that  the  official  must  be  free  from  all  private 
obligations  is  emphatically  stressed.  The  justiciar  must  not 
be  a  native  of  the  province  under  his  jurisdiction,  after  his 
appointment  he  must  draw  no  servant  from  his  province,  and, 
in  order  to  prevent  any  kind  of  settling  down,  the  offices  must 
be  yearly  interchanged.  Later  it  was  generally  laid  down— in 
accordance  with  ancient  Roman  custom  and  the  practice  of  the 
Lombard  towns— that  all  officials  held  office  for  one  year  only, 
at  the  end  of  which  they  had  to  render  an  account,  after  which 
it  was  in  the  Emperor's  competence  to  reappoint  these  pro 
consuls  and  propraetors  for  a  further  term  of  office. 

This  had  many  advantages  :  on  the  one  hand  the  authority 
of  the  official  was  enhanced  and  his  position  magnified  by  this 
aloofness.  He  became  the  reflection  of  the  Emperor.  On 
the  other  hand  every  possibility  of  treachery  or  venality  wras 
eliminated  by  the  "  wholesome  forethought  "  of  the  Emperor. 
Arrangements  were  made  in  such  a  way  that  the  officials  con 
stituted  a  mutual  check  on  each  other,  and  this  reciprocal 
vigilance  extended  down  to  the  humblest  grades.  Frederick  II 
almost  always  took  further  guarantees  of  various  kinds  for  the 
good  faith  of  his  officials — who  were  in  their  degree  omnipotent. 
They  almost  all  had  landed  possessions  or  relations  in  other 
provinces,  wThom  the  Emperor  could  lay  hands  on  if  they 
played  him  false. 

Except  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  the  justiciars  had  to  sit 
daily — courts  had  previously  been  held  only  once  a  month. 
They  had  no  permanent  headquarters,  for  their  main  duty  was 
continuously  to  tour  their  provinces,  to  hold  courts,  to  oversee 
the  land,  to  keep  a  lookout  for  suspicious  characters,  to  pursue 
traitors  or  secret  rebels.  It  was  no  light  task  to  be  an  imperial 
official.  All  private  life  ceased  for  the  duration  of  the  office. 
In  addition  to  the  current  work  of  their  circuits,  the  speedy 
despatch  of  which  was  their  first  duty — no  case  was  allowed  to 
extend  over  more  than  two  months — almost  every  justiciar 
constantly,  at  times  almost  daily,  received  a  mass  of  special 
orders  and  special  instructions  from  the  Emperor  relating  to 
every  department  of  life  :  law,  finance,  army,  administration, 


CHECKS  ON  OFFICIALS  275 

university,  agriculture,  building,  punishment,  investigation, 
feudal  affairs,  marriage  negotiations,  and  finally  purely  personal 
affairs  of  the  Emperor's,  to  do  with  his  hunting,  his  falcons,  his 
horses,  the  game,  the  extermination  of  wolves  and  vermin,  and 
the  like.  There  were  no  sinecures  in  Frederick's  service  : 
Frederick  II  kept  the  whole  State  breathlessly  on  the  run  even 
when  he  himself  was  at  a  distance.  The  omnipotence  of  the 
officials  and  their  very  considerable  independence  was  to  a 
certain  extent  limited  and  bridled  by  these  direct  interventions 
of  the  Emperor  ;  they  were  responsible  moreover  with  life  and 
property  for  any  injury  to  the  State.  In  addition  to  the  check 
exercised  by  the  one  official  on  the  other,  the  subjects  had, 
twice  a  year,  the  right  to  present  complaints  and  each  official 
was  under  the  supervision  of  his  superior.  The  functions  of 
each  were  clearly  defined  and  strict  subordination  enforced. 

The  Emperor  strove  in  every  conceivable  manner  to  forestall 
any  official  arrogance.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  was  always 
successful,  especially  in  the  later  times,  and  people  have  sought 
to  make  despotism  responsible  for  the  corruptness  of  the 
officials.  The  critics  forget  that  the  existence  of  a  depotism 
and  the  need  of  it  presuppose  a  corrupt  and  undisciplined 
people.  If  dishonesty  and  bribery  took  place  in  spite  of  all 
Frederick  II's  precautions,  that  proves  nothing  in  a  country  that 
had  been  for  thirty  years  without  any  ruler  or  any  government. 
This  exacting  service  was  no  longer  the  quid  pro  quo  of  the 
vassal  in  enjoyment  of  his  fief  (feudal  duties  and  even  direct 
taxes  rested  on  the  officials'  shoulders  in  addition)  and  the 
salaries  were  extremely  modest.  Some  other  attraction  than 
gain  must  have  been  offered  to  these  Sicilian  officials  to  tempt 
them  to  take  service  :  the  honour  it  may  be  of  serving  the 
King  ;  the  opportunity  of  exercising  power  ;  the  prospect  of 
fame  and  the  special  favour  of  the  Emperor  expressed  in  praise 
and  at  times  no  doubt  in  rewards  :  above  all  the  privilege  of 
belonging  to  the  entourage  of  the  Ruler :  for  the  most  part 
immaterial  benefits.  And  this  in  a  country  where  the  aristo 
cracy  was  radically  corrupt  and  the  populace  of  unreliable 
hybrid  stock  !  Frederick  had  first  to  awaken  an  appreciation 
of  such  imponderable  advantages  and  create  the  conditions 
essential  to  every  Service  :  official  honour  and  official  disci- 


276  OFFICIAL  HONOUR  v.2 

pline.  It  is  remarkable  how  all  the  well-known  phenomena  of 
bureaucracy  suddenly  make  their  appearance  here  though  still 
rooted  in  primitive  conditions  and  sanctities.  "  Contempt  of 
court  "  was  based  on  the  theory  that  the  official  was  the  mirror 
of  the  Emperor,  consequently  any  insult  to  an  official  was  an 
insult  to  the  Emperor  and  punishable  as  such.  The  general 
theory  held  that  any  crime  against  a  person  in  the  Emperor's 
employment — whether  serving  as  soldier  or  official  or  in  what 
ever  capacity — was  to  be  twice  as  severely  punished  as  the  same 
crime  against  a  private  individual.  Underlying  this  was  the 
principle  of  Roman  law,  that  an  officer  of  the  Emperor  was 
more  worthy  than  a  private  person.  The  official  was  further 
protected  by  the  edict  which  affirmed  :  "  It  is  sacrilege  to 
debate  whether  that  man  is  worthy  whom  the  Emperor  has 
chosen."  An  intangible  something  was  incorporate  in  the 
official,  with  which  he  was  endowed  by  the  Emperor. 

This  carried  the  converse  obligation  on  the  officials*  side  to 
protect  his  special  endowment  by  worthy  behaviour.  No 
gambler  might  hold  office.  No  one  might  permit  another  to 
officiate  for  him  :  the  penalty  for  both  was  death.  The  pro 
tection  of  the  official  against  injury  was  only  extended  to  him 
by  the  Emperor  while  he  was  in  discharge  of  his  duties,  it  was 
not  valid  in  private  quarrels.  On  the  other  hand  if  an  official 
"  under  cloak  of  his  office  commits  injustice  "  he  is  to  be  driven 
from  it  cum  perpetud  infamid,  because  he  has  placed  the  Em 
peror's  person  in  a  false  light  in  order  to  mask  his  own  wrong 
doing.  The  idea  of  perpetua  infamia  was  borrowed  from 
Roman  Law  :  it  was  the  regular  Roman  penalty  for  unfaithful 
ness  in  office  and  carried  with  it  confiscation  of  property. 
Here  official  honour  is  clearly  outlined.  Each  official  is  in 
structed  by  the  Emperor  in  the  duties  of  his  office. 


"  The  justiciar's  name  and  title  are  compounded  oijus  and 
Justitia^  and  the  closer  the  justiciar's  relation  to  these  the  more 
truly  and  zealously  he  will  honour  them."  Similarly  with 
respect  to  the  highest  officer  of  all,  the  Grand  Master  Justiciar  : 
let  him  be  the  "  mirror  of  Justice  "  and  let  him  be  not  merely 
in  name  the  Master  of  the  other  justiciars,  but  also  their  model 


JUSTICIARS'  TASKS  277 

"  that  the  lower  ranks  may  see  in  him  what  standards  they 
should  themselves  observe."  Here  is  a  hint  of  the  importance 
of  official  precedence  which  is  expounded  elsewhere  in  terms 
of  the  stars  :  "  To  preserve  the  special  honour  due  to  our  High 
Court  we  have  commanded  :  c  when  at  any  time  the  Grand 
Master  Justiciar  visits  any  town  there  to  sit  with  our  Court 
Judges,  the  justiciars  of  the  provinces  who  may  happen  at  the 
same  time  to  be  there,  shall  maintain  silence  as  the  lesser  light 
is  dimmed  when  it  is  overtaken  by  the  greater.'  "  This  was 
indeed  a  new  departure  and  the  commentator  remarks  of  this 
law  that  it  offends  against  common  law,  because  a  lower  officer 
is  by  no  means  bound  to  silence  by  the  presence  of  a  higher. 

The  justiciars,  as  the  King's  commissioners  and  plenipoten 
tiaries,  and  indeed  his  viceroys,  in  the  provinces,  united  not 
only  the  administrative  and  judicial  functions,  but  also  the 
military  :  they  had  to  summon  the  feudal  knights,  to  recruit 
the  mercenary  knights,  and  in  Frederick  IFs  last  decade  when  a 
permanent  state  of  siege  had  resulted  from  the  great  war,  they 
were  army  commanders  in  their  own  province.  It  is  no  cause 
for  surprise  that  these  branches  of  the  service  were  not  differen 
tiated  ;  that  the  justiciars  even  on  occasion  led  troops  to  battle. 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  in  those  days  there  was  no  recognised 
"  art  of  war,"  provincial  governors  must  always  be  in  supreme 
command.  It  was  so  in  ancient  Rome  and  with  Napoleon's 
Marshals,  and  is  always  found  where  State  discipline  is  highly 
developed.  The  merum  imperium>  power  to  command,  cannot 
be  separated  from  the  gladn  potestas,  the  executive  power,  or 
can  only  so  be  separated  in  peaceful  bourgeois  times. 

The  justiciars  had  also  to  exercise  the  highest  powers  of 
police.  Their  police  subordinates  were  presumably  the 
comestabuU.  Special  attention  to  political  police,  such  as 
Frederick  displayed,  is  a  phenomenon  observable  under  every 
dictatorship.  The  detective  service  was,  of  course,  developed 
to  the  minutest  detail,  so  that  even  when  Frederick  was  far  from 
Sicily  on  a  campaign,  he  was  often  better  informed  about  events 
in  the  provinces  than  the  justiciars  themselves.  He  required 
the  aura  of  omniscience  as  urgently  as  that  of  omnipresence. 
In  order  to  keep  political  suspects  under  constant  state  sur 
veillance,  the  Emperor  introduced  a  unique  system  which  had 


278  PROFESSIONAL  LAWYERS  v.  2 

the  merit  of  publicity,  but  for  that  very  reason  was  unques 
tionably  far  more  cruel  than  the  most  suspicious  secret  sur 
veillance.  Every  person  on  whom  suspicion  fell — of  intrigues 
with  the  Roman  curia,  with  exiles,  with  heretics,  or  with  rebels 
— received  from  the  authorities,  a  small  notebook  in  which  the 
details  of  the  accusation  were  entered,  and  also  the  name  of  the 
denouncer.  This  procedure  no  doubt  simplified  the  super 
vision  of  suspects,  the  accused  was  left  in  the  dark  about 
nothing  ;  but  we  can  well  believe  the  chronicler  who  tells  us 
that  this  publicity  led  to  acute  discord  and  mutual  hate  between 
accuser  and  accused. 

As  regards  legal  matters,  the  justiciars  represented  the  royal 
jurisdiction  and  were  presidents  of  the  law  courts.  There  was 
no  room  left  for  feudal  courts — except  for  a  few  insignificant 
survivals.  Now  though  the  justiciars  must  frequently  have 
acquired  considerable  legal  knowledge,  it  was  rare  that  they 
were  jurists  by  education — any  more  than  a  military  governor 
to  be  the  highest  legal  authority,  needs  to  be  a  professional 
lawyer.  They  were  empowered  to  maintain  order  and  preside 
in  the  courts.  Legal  experts,  professional  lawyers,  were  asso 
ciated  with  them  who  formed  the  curia  of  the  justiciar,  the  real 
law  court.  There  thus  existed  a  second  service  side  by  side 
with  the  justiciar  service,  composed  of  a  very  large  number  of 
judges  and  counsel,  as  well  as  notaries  and  chancery  clerks. 
In  this  the  lower  courts  were  small-scale  models  of  the  High 
Court.  The  Emperor  himself  was  always  surrounded  by  a 
large  number  of  law  scholars  who  acted  as  his  permanent 
chancellors,  his  constiiarU  and  were  employed  in  all  kinds  of 
State  work  :  professional  lawyers  instead  of  feudal  retainers  ! 

The  Grand  Master  Justiciar  as  President  of  the  High  Court 
had  four  High  Court  judges  assigned  to  him,  the  Master 
Justiciars  had  two  judges,  each  justiciar  had  one  judge.  Other 
assistant  judges  were  to  be  found  wherever  there  was  a  court, 
since  every  town  had  three  town  judges  and  six  notaries  :  big 
towns  like  Messina,  Naples,  Capua  had  more.  Notaries  existed 
in  great  numbers  down  to  the  humblest  posts  in  the  depart 
ments  of  finance,  army,  fortifications,  domains,  forestry  and 
harbours,  and  had  to  perform  all  the  clerical  work  of  an  ad 
ministration  entirely  based  on  written  documents.  Each 


AN  UNWORTHY  JUDGE  279 

official  had  to  keep  a  considerable  number  of  account  books, 
registers,  diaries,  many  of  them  in  duplicate,  for  they  had  to 
be  submitted  at  stated  intervals  for  examination  by  the  later- 
instituted  Chief  Auditor's  Department.  Every  judgment  had 
to  be  recorded  in  clear  legible  handwriting,  not  in  signs  or 
symbols  of  any  special  script  which  were  most  explicitly  for 
bidden.  As  the  judgments  were  filed,  only  parchment  was 
used  for  them,  though  paper  was  permitted  for  everyday 
vouchers. 


There  were  corresponding  ranks  and  degrees  in  the  legal 
profession,  from  the  High  Court  Judges  and  Counsellors  of  the 
King  down  to  the  humblest  local  judges,  but  all  were  appointed 
and  sworn  in  directly  by  the  Emperor  or  his  representative. 
No  one  might  independently  set  up  as  a  judge,  notary  or 
advocate.  The  judges  had  to  be  men  of  culture  and  education, 
and  the  Emperor  kept  careful  watch  that  no  unsuitable  person 
was  entrusted  with  the  post  of  judge. 

Lists  of  personnel  were  kept  in  every  department,  and  the 
Emperor  kept  himself  informed  at  all  times  of  the  personalities 
of  his  staffs  and  could  usually  avoid  unfortunate  appointments. 
He  wrote  to  Sicily,  for  instance,  from  his  camp  before  Lodi : 

"  To  Thomas  of  Montenero 

Justiciar  of  the  Principato  and  of  Benevento — 

An  amazing  rumour  has  recently  reached  our  illustrious  ears 
which  makes  a  severe  accusation  of  slackness  against  you  and 
justly  challenges  our  attention.  We  learn  namely  that  our  last 
edict  about  the  appointment  of  the  annual  judges  has  not  borne 
fruit  in  our  town  of  Salerno,  where  thou  hast  permitted  the 
appointment  of  one,  Matthew  Curialis,  as  judge,  who  is  an 
illiterate  merchant  and  wholly  unsuited  to  the  position.  And 
this  though  amongst  the  population  of  such  a  town  which 
chiefly  produces  cultured  people  there  must  assuredly  be,  we 
are  certain,  an  educated  man  to  be  found  to  exercise  the  office. 
This  displeases  us  all  the  more  because  firstly  mischief  to  the 
town  may  arise  therefrom,  and  further  our  command  has  not 
been  obeyed  as  it  was  fitting  that  it  should  be.  As  we  do  not 


280  REBELLIOUS  TOWNS  v.2 

wish  that  the  legal  affairs  of  our  faithful  subjects  should  be 
bought  and  sold  for  a  price  by  any  of  thy  merchants,  whose 
fingers  are  deft  for  money  making,  we  hereby  command  thee 
to  remove  the  above  named  Matthew  from  his  office  and  to 
instal  in  his  place  another  man  competent,  trusty,  sufficiently 
educated.  .  .  ." 

In  the  whole  Sicilian  State,  there  was  no  department  of  life 
in  which  the  Government  did  not  directly  intervene  to  establish 
order.  Minor  authorities  lost  all  their  independence,  not  only 
the  feudal  ranks  but  the  towns  and — after  the  second  breach 
with  the  Pope — also  the  churches  and  monasteries.  The  head 
men  of  the  towns  were  appointed  annually  by  the  Emperor, 
and  since  Frederick  II  had  a  hard  fight  against  the  indepen 
dence  of  the  Lombard  towns,  it  was  most  natural  that  he 
strictly  forbade  the  Sicilian  towns  to  appoint  their  own  heads  : 
the  penalty  was  the  destruction  of  the  offending  town.  He  did 
not  hesitate  to  give  effect  to  this  law,  as  he  shortly  proved.  A 
year  after  the  publication  of  the  Constitutions  some  Sicilian 
towns  rebelled  ;  the  Emperor  suppressed  the  rebellion  with 
the  utmost  rigour.  The  ringleaders  whom  he  captured — hav 
ing  promised  them  immunity — were  hanged  or  burned  as 
heretic  rebels.  This  took  place  in  Messina,  Syracuse,  and 
Nicosia,  while  the  smaller  towns  which  had  taken  part  in  the 
insurrection,  Centorbi,  Traina,  Capizzi,  and  Monte  Albona, 
were  completely  destroyed.  The  inhabitants  were  reduced  to 
slavery  and  deported  to  a  newly-founded  town,  which  the 
Emperor  called  Augusta,  for  the  site  of  which  rebellious 
Syracuse  was  compelled  to  cede  some  of  her  territory.  This 
method  was  so  successful  that  during  the  lifetime  of  Kaiser 
Frederick  the  Sicilian  towns  made  no  second  attempt  to 
achieve  municipal  independence. 


The  entire  kingdom  was  to  be  uniformly  administered  by 
imperial  officials.  The  necessity  for  this  ruthless  clearing  up 
can  only  be  appreciated  by  the  student  who  bears  in  mind  the 
usual  type  of  government  prevailing  in  the  Middle  Ages  :  the 
confused  tangle  of  legal  and  economic  relations  ;  the  innumer 
able  petty  and  pettiest  authorities  ;  feudal  lords,  bishops, 


A  PATTERN  STATE  281 

monasteries,  towns  whose  rights  and  claims  endlessly  criss 
crossed  each  other  and  in  every  department  of  life  cut  in 
between  the  ruler  and  his  people,  and  who  remembers  further 
the  kaleidoscopic  welter  of  privileges,  immunities,  special  rights 
peculiar  to  each  grade  of  society,  to  each  calling,  to  each  town, 
to  each  hamlet,  causing  obstruction  and  hesitation  a  thousand 
fold  on  every  side. 

The  measures  by  which  Frederick  II  extended  one  unified 
system  of  administration  throughout  his  whole  kingdom,  ulti 
mately  throughout  the  whole  of  Italy,  making  Sicily  in  very 
trjith,  the  "  pattern  of  states,"  were  often  cruel  enough,  but 
they  brought  in  their  train  a  most  admirable  simplification  of 
the  whole  machinery  of  government.  His  influence  on  the 
legal  situation  was  exerted  externally.  He  embraced  the  whole 
tangle  in  one  uniform  system  of  law,  but  he  left  unmolested  the 
private  and  civil  rights  of  his  subjects  in  their  mutual  relations. 
He  was  supremely  indifferent  whether  their  private  affairs 
were  to  be  decided  according  to  Prankish,  Lombard,  Roman, 
Jewish,  or  Saracen  codes,  provided  these  did  not  run  counter 
to  the  state  laws. 

This  imperial  administration  was  the  first  that  had  ever 
achieved  umforrmtas  over  an  area  so  large,  hitherto  it  had  been 
possible  only  in  the  tiniest  territories.  The  geographical  con 
formation  of  his  hereditary  kingdom  was  a  factor  highly  favour 
able  to  Frederick.  Nature  had  provided  the  kingdom  with  a 
defined  outline,  with  only  one  land  boundary  which  he  had 
strengthened  by  every  known  device.  He  had  got  possession 
of  almost  all  border  fortresses — often  by  very  shady  means. 
A  certain  abbot,  for  instance,  owned  a  fort ;  he  was  hospitably 
invited  and  then  detained  while  his  castle  was  annexed. 
Frederick  next  founded  several  towns  himself  in  the  North, 
Flagella  for  instance,  and  Aquila,  which  he  equipped  as  arsenals. 
The  method  of  foundation  was  simplicity  itself:  a  certain 
piece  of  land  was  marked  out ;  the  scattered  inhabitants  of  this 
area  were  gathered  into  the  new  arsenal,  they  were  released 
from  all  obligations  to  their  previous  lords,  and  in  return 
for  their  freedom  were  compelled  to  work  on  building  the 
fortifications. 

The  fortified  zone  of  the  northern  land  boundary  prevented 


282  MUNICIPAL  TECHNIQUE  v.2 

egress  as  effectively  as  ingress.  All  boundaries  of  the  kingdom 
could  now  be  watched.  Thanks  to  an  ingenious  and  skilful 
harbour  administration,  Frederick  was  able  to  bolt  and  bar  all 
the  ports  of  Sicily,  so  that  all  communication — economic, 
political  or  intellectual — with  the  outer  world  could  at  will  be 
completely  cut  off.  The  Emperor  controlled,  as  it  were,  a 
gigantic  dam,  or  a  castle  with  a  hundred  well-guarded  gates, 
and  could  regulate  all  external  relations.  With  a  word  he 
could  transform  the  whole  kingdom  into  a  fortress,  or  econo 
mically  into  one  "  closed  trading  centre."  Sicily  thus  approxi 
mated  to  a  walled-in  medieval  town,  and  Frederick  II Js  much 
admired  economic  policy  is  most  easily  understood  if  it  is 
conceived  as  a  medieval  town-administration  extended  to  a 
whole  kingdom.  The  Italian  communes  had  been  before 
Frederick,  in  fiscal  matters,  monopolies,  currency  and  finance, 
and  in  many  administrative  details  too  :  the  yearly  tenure  of 
office,  the  justiciar'a  stranger  in  his  own  district,  the  initiation 
of  the  successor  by  his  predecessor  in  office ;  all  these  things 
they  had  introduced  in  various  forms.  It  must,  moreover,  be 
remembered  that  the  communes  had  long  since  ceased  to  be 
simple  towns  surrounded  by  a  wall.  Cities  like  Milan, 
Cremona,  Piacenza,  Ravenna,  embraced  landed  property  as 
large  as  a  dukedom.  The  Lombard  cities  taught  Frederick 
much  of  his  municipal  technique,  as  in  other  spheres  the  Church 
had  taught  him.  He  learned  eagerly,  not  least  eagerly  from 
his  foes. 


We  need  here  only  dwell  on  the  principles  underlying  the 
Sicilian  constitution.  Its  prime  characteristic  is  the  over 
riding  of  all  private  interests  by  the  interest  of  the  State.  The 
Emperor's  phrase  :  "  Sicily  is  the  mother  of  tyrants  "  recalls 
the  history  of  Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  whose  procedure  in*  his 
day  evoked  not  less  amazement  than  Frederick  IPs.  The 
complete  fiscal  independence  of  the  one  was  as  great  as  that  of 
the  other,  and  the  principle  of  centralisation  grew  more  and 
more  marked  hi  the  course  of  Frederick's  reign.  One  of  the 
first  measures  to  attract  attention  was  the  Emperor's  creation 
in  1231  of  State  Monopolies.  Norman  and  Byzantine  pre- 


CUSTOMS  SYSTEM  283 

cedents  may  have  had  weight  with  him,  but  the  idea  was  not 
foreign  to  his  own  policy  of  utilising  to  the  utmost  all  crown 
rights  and  royal  prerogatives.  A  monopoly  of  salt,  steel,  and 
iron  is  readily  deducible  from  royal  mountain-rights.  Hemp 
and  tar  monopolies  had  no  doubt  some  other  pretext — the 
needs  of  the  imperial  fleet  were  here  decisive.  The  right  of 
dyeing  was  of  old  a  crown  prerogative  and  was  now  converted 
into  a  monopoly  ;  only  the  silk  monopoly  is  a  clear  case  of 
borrowing  from  Byzantine  models.  The  working  of  the  mono 
poly  is  most  clearly  seen  in  the  case  of  salt — which  remains  a 
state  monopoly  to  this  day.  Some  of  the  salt  mines  were 
under  state  management,  some  were  in  the  hands  of  private 
people  who  had  to  deliver  the  salt  to  the  revenue  department. 
On  a  certain  day  the  entire  trade  in  salt  was  transferred  to  the 
State.  In  every  centre  suitable  people  were  entrusted  with  the 
selling  of  it,  a  uniform  price  was  fixed  for  the  whole  kingdom  : 
wholesale  four  times,  retail  six  times  the  purchase  price.  The 
same  method  was  applied  to  iron  and  steel,  while  the  silk  and 
dye  monopolies  were  handed  over  to  the  Jews.  The  manu 
facture  of  silk  had  originally  been  a  prerogative  of  the  Byzantine 
emperors  ;  King  Roger  having  taken  a  number  of  silk  weavers 
prisoners — among  them  many  Jews — in  Thebes,  Corinth,  and 
Athens,  brought  them  to  Palermo  and  introduced  it  into  Sicily. 
Here  the  royal  "  tirdz  "  (silk  manufacture)  won  world- wide 
fame.  Frederick  entrusted  the  trade  in  raw  silk  to  the  Jews 
of  Trani.  No  one  else  was  allowed  to  purchase  silk,  and  they 
were  obliged  to  make  a  profit  of  at  least  one-third  on  the  re-sale, 
for  that  was  the  tax  they  had  to  pay  the  exchequer.  The  manu 
facture  of  the  silk  was  also  in  their  hands,  and  the  existing  state 
dyeworks,  together  with  many  new  ones  which  Frederick  built, 
were  handed  over  to  them. 

In  the  domain  of  economics,  Frederick's  greatest  organising 
triumph  was  his  magnificent  customs  system.  The  name  of 
his  customs  officials, "  daana,"  points  to  the  Arab  origin  (diwari) 
of  the  system.  The  state  warehouses, "  fondachi,"  which  were 
particularly  important  for  the  levy  of  frontier  customs  were  also 
of  Arab  origin.  Frederick  had  reduced  to  a  minimum  internal 
customs  and  tolls,  which  only  benefited  individual  nobles  or 
towns,  and  in  their  stead  had  increased  the  frontier  customs 


284  STATE  WAREHOUSES  v.z 

and  manipulated  them  in  a  way  that  created  a  standard  for  the 
whole  western  world.  The  customs  revenues  no  longer  en 
riched  the  insignificant  middleman,  the  seaport  or  trading  town  ; 
they  flowed  into  the  coffers  of  the  State.  In  all  seaports  and 
on  all  highroads  of  the  northern  frontier,  Frederick  II  estab 
lished  state  warehouses.  Everyone,  whether  native  or  foreign, 
who  wanted  to  import  goods  by  sea  or  land  into  this  closed 
kingdom,  had  to  store  them  in  the  State  magazine,  where  they 
were  sold  under  the  supervision  of  imperial  officials. 

The  import  duty  which,  apart  from  some  special  trade  con 
tracts  with  foreign  powers,  amounted  to  3  per  cent,  of  the 
value,  fell  on  the  seller,  the  slightly  higher  warehouse  fee  on 
the  buyer.  When  customs  duty  and  storage  fees  had  once  been 
paid  the  goods  could,  on  production  of  the  voucher,  be  trans 
ferred  by  sea  or  land  to  any  other  place  in  Sicily  without 
further  payment. 

The  export  procedure  was  similar.  The  warehouse  charges 
were  the  same,  but  the  export  duty  varied  for  the  different 
products  and  the  tariff  sometimes  fluctuated.  For  exports  were 
regulated  according  to  the  needs  of  the  country  itself  and  in 
war  time  all  export  of  weapons,  horses,  mules,  and  cattle  might 
be  forbidden. 

Warehouses,  which  also  served  as  inns  for  the  merchants, 
had  long  been  traditional  in  the  East.  Venetians,  Pisans, 
Genoese,  and  later  Florentines  also  had  all,  for  instance,  their 
avmfondacki  in  Alexandria.  Before  Frederick's  day  these  were 
common  in  all  Italian  seaports  ;  the  famous  Fondaco  dei 
Tedeschi  in  the  Rialto  was  first  recorded  in  a  document  of  1228 . 
In  inland  Italy  they  were  still  almost  unknown  at  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  It  almost  seems  as  if  these  fondachi 
reappeared  in  the  merchants3  quarters  of  the  German  Hansa, 
which  began  to  spread  in  the  second  half  of  the  century  in 
close  connection  with  the  Order  of  Teutonic  Knights.  At  first 
these  warehouses  were  the  private  property  of  foreign  traders. 
Frederick  made  them  state  property  throughout  the  kingdom, 
and  compelled  all  merchants  to  use  the  state  magazines  by 
forbidding  all  sale  of  goods  outside  them.  The  merchants, 
moreover,  were  practically  compelled  to  put  up  in  these  state 
inns,  for  the  charge  for  bed,  light  and  fuel,  was  included  in  the 


FAIRS  285 

heavy  warehouse  fee,  When  this  system  was  first  introduced, 
the  existing  warehouses  were  insufficient  and  the  merchants  had 
to  seek  lodgings  elsewhere.  They  were  nevertheless  compelled 
to  pay  the  full  fee,  and  their  lodging  bill  was  paid  by  the  State. 
The  system  had  the  advantage  of  permitting  the  supervision  of 
all  imports  and  exports.  Everything  was  exactly  registered  and 
had  to  be  accounted  for  at  regular  intervals,  the  lower  officials 
reporting  to  the  provincial  treasurer  and  he  to  the  Court  of 
Exchequer.  Several  copies  of  all  customs- ledgers  and  ware 
house-ledgers  had  to  be  kept.  The  customs  officer,  the 
magister  doanae,  was  a  different  person  from  the  warehouse 
master,  the  fundicariusy  and  so  one  constituted  a  check  on  the 
other.  Further,  all  wares  had  to  be  weighed  on  the  state 
balances  at  a  considerable  fee,  or  measured,  in  the  case  of  cloth, 
etc.,  by  the  state  measure.  After  anchor  dues,  landing  dues, 
and  harbour  dues  there  were  many  other  minor  fees  to  pay. 

The  exchange,  the  baths,  the  slaughter-houses,  the  weights 
and  measures,  all  belonged  to  the  State.  As  Frederick  had 
unified  the  coinage  by  his  golden  Augustales,  he  also  established 
units  of  weight  and  measure,  thus  bringing  order  out  of  con 
fusion.  His  aim  in  everything  was  simplification  and  practical 
convenience,  as  is  obvious  from  his  new  regulation  of  markets 
and  fairs.  He  decided  to  get  rid  of  the  distraction,  over 
lapping  and  confusion,  created  by  the  clashing  of  dates  and 
the  like.  Fairs  were  held  each  month  in  a  different  province. 
They  began  in  the  Abruzzi  in  the  north  ;  they  proceeded  to 
Campania,  the  Principato,  the  Capitanata,  Apulia,  lie  Basilicata, 
they  ended  in  Calabria.  No  fairs  were  held  for  a  couple  of 
months  in  the  winter,  during  which  time  the  merchants  could 
replenish  their  stocks  and  travel  north  again  to  begin  the  year's 
circuit  once  more  in  the  Spring. 


The  rigorous  customs  system  admitted  practically  no  privi 
leges  or  exceptions ;  only  the  Emperor  himself  and  the  Revenue 
Department  were  exempt.  This  had  most  practical  importance 
in  relation  to  the  export  of  food  stuffs,  of  which  Sicily  produced 
a  superfluity.  The  Emperor  was  not  only  free  from  export 
duties,  he  was  also  the  largest  landed  proprietor  in  the  kingdom, 


286  CORN  MONOPOLY  v.2 

and  consequently  the  greatest  corn  producer.  He  had  first  the 
Crown  lands,  farmed  by  himself,  which  were  frequently 
organised  by  Cistercian  monks,  who  no  doubt  also  worked  them, 
the  final  supervision  only  being  in  the  hands  of  imperial  pro 
curators.  In  less  fertile  districts  sheep-farming  was  extensively 
carried  on.  The  harvests  both  of  wool  and  corn  under  this 
skilled  administration  must  have  yielded  immense  profits.  The 
Emperor  was  himself  an  agricultural  expert.  He  once  amazed 
the  Italians  in  Lombardy  by  investigating  the  type  of  soil  and 
then  advising  them  whether  to  sow  corn  or  beans  or  some  other 
crop.  He  tried  every  sort  of  experiment  with  new  crops  :  he 
made  plantations  of  henna  and  indigo,  improved  date  groves, 
or  encouraged  the  use  of  sugar  cane  in  Palermo  by  establishing 
sugar  refineries.  He  gave  instructions  for  the  prevention  of 
pests.  When  a  plague  of  caterpillars  threatened  the  harvest 
he  gave  orders  that  every  inhabitant  should  furnish  daily  a 
certain  measure  of  caterpillars.  He  had  more  faith  in  this 
method,  he  said,  than  in  the  efficacy  of  the  prayers  of  the  priests 
as  they  perambulated  the  stricken  fields.  He  admitted  that 
harvests  might  suffer  from  the  weather,  but  he  saw  the  major 
danger  in  the  laziness  of  the  population.  He  therefore  gave 
orders  that  any  landless  person  who  was  willing  to  work  should 
be  given  land  at  the  expense  of  any  who  had  land  lying  idle. 

Such  measures  must  greatly  have  increased  the  productive 
ness  of  his  own  estates,  but  he  did  not  draw  corn  solely  from 
his  crown  lands.  He  also  received  a  twelfth  of  the  products 
of  the  Demanium  and  a  tax  in  kind  on  all  corn  destined  for 
export  was  paid  to  the  Treasury  unless  a  money  payment  was 
made  instead.  No  private  person  could  compete  with  the 
quantity  of  State  corn,  especially  as  the  Crown  with  its  immense 
money  resources  could  buy  up  private  supplies.  And  the 
Emperor  was  not  only  able  to  export  his  corn  free  of  tax,  but 
to  load  it  up  on  his  own  ships  of  the  imperial  fleet.  Hence 
arose  a  virtual,  though  veiled,  monopoly  in  corn,  for  the  State 
possessed  every  means  of  crippling  competition.  One  example 
may  be  quoted  to  show  how  Frederick  exploited  these  possi 
bilities.  He  was  waging  war  in  Northern  Italy  when  the  news 
came  that  there  was  a  famine  in  Tunis  and  that  Genoese 
merchants  were  buying  corn  with  Tunisian  money  in  the 


AN  IMPERIAL  DEAL  287 

Sicilian  ports.  The  Emperor  forthwith  despatched  his  Arabic- 
speaking  court  philosopher,  Master  Theodore,  from  Pisa,  as 
ambassador  to  Tunis,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  orders  to  close 
all  Sicilian  ports,  to  let  no  private  vessel  sail,  and  to  load  with 
the  utmost  haste  50,000  loads  of  corn  on  the  imperial  fleet. 
The  corn  was  to  come  from  the  imperial  granaries  or  to  be 
bought  from  private  owners  and  immediately  shipped  to  Tunis. 
Not  till  after  the  imperial  fleet  had  sailed  wras  any  private  boat 
free  to  proceed  with  her  lading  and  quit  Sicilian  harbours. 
The  imperial  fleet  reached  Africa  safely.  The  State  made 
about  ^75,000.  The  record  of  this  transaction  happens  to 
have  come  down  to  us. 

Such  dealings  as  these  recall  the  mercantile  theories  of 
Colbert,  but  there  lies  a  world  of  difference  between  the  calm, 
state-rationalism  of  the  later  capitalistic  centuries,  and  the 
passionate  adventures  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  whose  measures 
were  always  the  immediate  product  of  some  actual  State 
necessity.  In  this  matter  of  the  Tunisian  corn,  the  Emperor 
had  at  first  refused  to  interfere  ;  but  his  coffers  were  empty, 
he  was  himself  deeply  in  debt  to  the  Romans  and  his  war  with 
the  Pope  was  at  its  height ;  so  he  had  no  option  but  to  seize 
the  opportunity. 


Frederick's  collection  of  direct  revenue  was  always  by  extra 
ordinary  taxes.  Though  in  later  years  he  raised  them  annually, 
they  were  always  explained  afresh  as  due  to  the  present  imminens 
necessitas  of  the  State.  Imperial  finance  operations  were  always 
dictated  by  a  present  need,  they  never  served  for  the  mere 
accumulation  of  wealth.  The  moment  his  position  improved, 
the  Emperor  reduced  the  taxes  or  pretermitted  the  collection 
of  them  altogether.  Frederick  had  no  lack  of  shrewd  com 
mercial  instinct,  but  he  did  not  use  it  systematically  to  amass 
riches. 

The  Emperor  busied  himself  in  these  years  in  opening  foreign 
markets  by  means  of  commercial  treaties.  We  have  already 
noticed  the  commercial  link  with  Tunis.  Abu  Zakaria  Yahya, 
hitherto  the  representative  of  the  Sultan  of  the  Almohades, 
established  a  kingdom  of  his  own  in  1228  which  embraced 


288  TRADE  v.2 

Tunis,  Tripoli  and  a  part  of  Morocco,  and  founded  the  dynasty 
of  the  Hafsids.  Three  years  later,  in  1231,  Frederick  II  con 
cluded  a  commercial  treaty  with  Abu  Zakaria  for  ten  years, 
which  fixed  their  reciprocal  customs  duties  at  10  per  cent,  and 
guaranteed  protection  to  each  other's  merchants.  Following 
the  precedent  set  by  the  sea  towns,  the  Emperor  appointed  his 
own  Sicilian  consuls  for  Tunis  :  this  was  the  first  time  in 
history  that  a  Western  monarchy  maintained  a  permanent 
representative  overseas.  The  first  imperial  consul  in  Tunis 
was  a  Saracen,  Henricus  Abbas,  after  him  a  Christian,  Peter 
Capuanus  from  Amalfi.  Embassies  to  Tunis  were  frequent. 
Each  side  endeavoured  to  gratify  the  other,  and  the  Emperor 
drew  supplies  for  himself  from  Tunis,  not  only  of  Barbary 
horses,  hunting  leopards  and  baggage  camels,  but  also  at  times 
of  Tunisian  warriors  to  supplement  his  Saracen  body-guard. 
In  return  the  imperial  ships  undertook,  on  occasion,  to  carry 
Tunisian  envoys  to  Spain.  Sicilian  officials  were  sent  as  the 
Emperor's  messengers  to  the  Khalif  of  Granada,  the  "  Com 
mander  of  the  Faithful."  No  doubt  Muhammadan  Spain 
proved  at  times  a  valuable  market  for  Sicilian  corn. 

While  still  in  Syria,  Frederick  had  concluded  a  commercial 
agreement  with  his  friend  al  Kamil,  Sultan  of  Egypt.  He  did 
not  succeed  in  negotiating  complete  freedom  from  customs  dues 
for  Sicilian  merchants  in  the  harbours  of  Alexandria  and 
Rosetta — which  he  appears  to  have  aimed  at — but  trade  with 
Egypt  remained  vigorous.  An  imperial  ship,  the  "  Half 
World,"  aroused  the  greatest  excitement  amongst  the  Egyptians 
by  its  enormous  size  when  it  sailed  into  the  port  of  Alexandria 
with  a  crew  of  three  hundred  men.  It  is  said  that  Frederick  II 
stood  in  direct  communication  with  India  through  his  agents 
travelling  by  way  of  Egypt.  We  have  no  means  of  verifying  the 
assertion,  but  it  transpires  in  another  connection  that  Frederick 
was  extremely  well-informed  about  India.  The  fascination 
which  the  word  East  Indies  was  later  to  exercise  on  the  explorers 
is  here  foreshadowed.  It  was  only  a  few  decades  after  the  end 
of  the  Hohenstaufen  period  that  Marco  Polo  heralded  the  joyous 
age  of  discovery  which  shattered  to  fragments  the  Roman-Medi 
terranean  world. 

Meanwhile  the  revenue  department  of  Sicily  fulfilled  its 


FINANCE  289 

purpose.  Whatever  was  to  be  extracted  from  the  rich  country 
was  appropriated  by  the  imperial  official.  Before  the  outbreak 
of  the  great  war,  Frederick  II  was  reckoned  the  wealthiest 
monarch  of  Europe  since  the  days  of  Charlemagne.  The 
Emperor's  principle  was  well  understood  :  Germany's  business 
was  to  keep  him  supplied  with  fighters  and  Sicily's  to  find  the 
funds.  The  war  was  being  waged  against  the  financially  most 
prosperous  powers  of  the  known  world  :  the  Church  and  the 
Italian  towns.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to  admire  Frederick's 
economic  system,  but  at  the  same  time  to  reproach  him  with 
having  been  guilty  of  exploitation  by  unduly  increasing  his 
demands  during  the  war  years.  But  every  ruler  of  Frederick's 
stature  has  exploited  the  resources  of  the  world,  and  the 
Sicilian  kingdom,  which,  in  return,  enjoyed  uninterrupted 
peace,  could  not  expect  to  be  immune.  Without  such  ex 
ploitation — to  the  very  limit  of  exhaustion — nothing  really 
great  has  ever  been  accomplished.  Consider  France  during, 
and  after,  the  Napoleonic  Wars. 


Frederick  II's  new  constitution,  opening  with  the  imperial 
Prooemium,  had  gently  descended  from  the  sublimest  spiritual 
heights  and  settled  on  the  land  of  Sicily,  seizing  the  country  in 
its  iron  grasp.  Uniform  administration,  uniform  law,  uni 
form  finance  :  the  constitution  of  the  State  was  complete. 
The  way  was  paved  for  the  Sicilians  to  feel  themselves  one 
unified  people,  to  realise  their  cohesion  as  a  nation  ;  but  the 
goal  was  not  yet  reached.  Except  in  a  very  few  points  the  laws 
scarcely  touched  the  elementary  unities  which  make  the  in 
habitants  of  a  country  feel  themselves  one  and  bind  them  into 
a  nation  :  the  essentials  are  :  community  of  speech,  of  blood, 
of  history  and  of  festivals.  These  common  elements  were 
lacking  in  the  Sicilian  welter  of  peoples  more  than  in  most 
other  countries.  Happily  for  the  Emperor,  the  other  countries 
of  Europe  had  scarcely  yet  begun  to  be  conscious  of  the  exis 
tence  of  these  natural  ties.  For  centuries  it  had  been  the 
Church's  aim  to  stifle  these  natural  forces,  to  displace  folk- 
customs  by  the  rites  of  the  Church,  local  history  by  Holy 
Scripture,  native  festivals  by  the  Church's  feasts,  while  for 


290  A  NEW  NATION  v.a 

every  intellectual  utterance  the  sacred  Latin  was  preferred  to 
the  vernacular,  and  the  blood  of  the  race  was  of  less  account 
than  the  Blood  of  the  Redeemer.  The  awakening  of  national 
consciousness  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  was  the 
emancipation  of  the  people's  natural  instincts  from  the  spiritual 
bonds  of  the  Church. 

Frederick  II  in  his  capacity  as  Emperor  dared  not  sever  the 
ecclesiastical  fetters  that  held  the  people  in  bondage,  for  the 
Church  was  the  guarantor  of  his  position  and  of  the  existence 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  On  the  other  hand,  he  awakened  and 
stimulated  the  "  national  "  impulses  more  than  anyone  before 
him,  and  in  Sicily  he  not  only  called  out  latent  forces  and  feel 
ings,  but  set  about  creating  them  in  his  chosen  people  and 
welding  that  people  into  a  nation. 

With  his  coining  a  new  epoch  began  for  Sicily.  Frederick 
continually  emphasised  the  fact :  again  and  again  in  his  Book 
of  Laws  he  calls  himself  (with  deliberate  intent)  "  the  New 
King."  With  him  the  Sicilian  race-mixture  begins  to  be  a 
people  with  a  history  of  its  own.  In  a  remarkable  document 
of  this  time  Frederick  summarises  the  History  of  Sicily  for 
his  faithful  subjects  and  conjures  up  the  past,  with  the  present 
intention  of  making  the  Sicilians  conscious  of  their  common 
history.  Under  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  Sicily  had  suffered 
great  injustice,  because  the  country  was  divided  up  and  rent 
asunder.  The  Normans  were  the  first  to  create  a  unity  : 
"  Since  when  this  noble  country  .  .  .  under  the  firm  and  heroic 
settlement  of  our  ancestors  rose  to  be  called  a  KINGDOM  and 
the  inhabitants  learned  to  love  their  kingdom  and  their  throne 
of  royal  dignity."  The  zenith  of  Sicilian  history  came  when 
"  Divine  Providence,  in  its  wisdom,  granted  in  our  day  this 
great  happiness  to  your  king,  whom  you  had  nourished  with 
the  milk  of  your  love  and  weaned  at  your  breast,  that  he  should 
scale  the  heights  of  the  Roman  Empire."  They  were  now 
living  under  the  rule  of  the  Sicilian  Hohenstaufen,  "  this  off 
shoot  of  a  new  stem,"  who  had  grown  up  amongst  the  native 
born  of  the  kingdom.  .  .  .  The  valour  of  the  Sicilians  would 
grow  ever  greater  under  their  Emperor,  "  for  already  in  the 
early  days  of  that  heroic  age  our  ancestors'  noble  plantations 
bore  ample  fruit."  In  such  terms  the  Emperor  spurred  on  his 


MIXED  MARRIAGES  291 

faithful  to  fight  against  the  Lombard  faithlessness  :  they  should 
follow  the  example  of  their  ancestors  who  conquered  distant 
peoples  and  "  feared  not  to  face  the  dangers  of  the  sea  nor  the 
buffetings  of  fate  on  land." 

Such  appeals  presupposed  a  people  for  the  Emperor  to 
address,  a  people  on  whom  such  words  would  act.  The 
Normans  had  certainly  made  the  first  "  firm  settlement,"  but 
Guiscard's  successors  could  not  have  spoken  in  such  terms  to 
the  mixture  of  Arabs,  Greeks,  Latins  and  Jews,  nor  by  such 
words  have  hoped  to  fire  any  but  the  few  noble  Norman  kins 
men  who  were  round  them.  Frederick  treated  the  Sicilians 
as  a  nation  with  its  own  glorious  history,  and  he  was  the  first 
to  attempt  to  point  the  Sicilians  to  their  common  traditions, 
to  address  to  them  a  common  appeal.  He  was  able  to  do  so 
because  he  was  no  usurper,  but  "  an  off-shoot  from  the  new 
Sicilian  planting,"  who  felt  a  bond  with  the  new  people  amongst 
whom  he  had  grown  to  manhood,  a  community  of  race  be 
tween  the  ruler  and  the  ruled,  which  had  hitherto  been  lacking. 
The  Emperor's  allusions  to  race  and  nurture  were  no  accident. 
We  quote  another  pronouncement 

The  Emperor  had  once  explained  the  sacrament  of  marriage 
as  a  natural  necessity  for  the  maintenance  of  the  human  race. 
Not  every  marriage,  however,  was  calculated  to  secure  the 
"  better  nature  "  of  mankind.  The  Emperor  therefore  pub 
lished  a  law  which  paid  more  heed  to  breed  than  to  sacramental 
considerations,  so  that  a  commentator,  long  after,  was  moved 
to  indignation,  remarking  "  this  discloses  the  whole  spiritual 
degeneracy  of  this  Emperor  Frederick  who  would  hinder  the 
just  and  free  marriage  instituted  by  God  in  Paradise.  Such  a 
a  law  is  not  binding  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God." 
Frederick  II  had  forbidden,  on  pain  of  confiscation  of  property, 
any  Sicilian  man  or  maid  to  contract  a  marriage  with  a  foreigner 
(that  is  anyone  born  outside  Sicily)  without  special  permission 
from  the  Emperor.  He  explains  the  reasons  with  profound 
wisdom  :  "  It  has  often  grieved  us  to  see  how  the  righteousness 
of  our  kingdom  has  suffered  corruption  from  foreign  manners 
by  the  mixture  of  different  peoples.  When  the  men  of  Sicily 
aUy  themselves  with  the  daughters  of  foreigners,  the  purity  of 
the  race  becomes  besmirched,  while  evil  and  sensual  weakness 


292  SICILIAN  VESPERS  v.2 

increases,  the  purity  of  the  people  is  contaminated  by  the  speech 
and  by  the  habits  of  the  others,  and  the  seed  of  the  stranger 
defiles  the  hearth  of  our  faithful  subjects."  Hence,  as  a  remedy 
against  "  degeneracy  of  race,"  against  "  racial  confusion  in  the 
kingdom,"  the  law  forbids  marriage  with  foreigners. 

Nothing  could  demonstrate  more  clearly  than  this  law  the 
intention  of  the  Emperor  to  create,  even  from  the  racial  stand 
point,  a  unified  nation  out  of  the  Sicilian  people.  It  was  a 
measure  which,  aiming  with  wholesome  severity  at  something 
higher,  frankly  ran  counter  to  every  custom  of  the  Church  and 
was  always  felt  as  a  monstrosity,  as  the  commentator  shows. 
Though  the  same  writer  adds,  not  without  admiration,  "  This 
Emperor,  however,  strove  most  diligently  to  preserve  his  people 
pure  from  corruption  by  the  customs  and  conversation  of 
strangers."  Everything  in  this  stern  State  aimed  at  unity,  not 
only  in  theory  but  in  practice,  based  on  the  necessitas  rerum. 
For  unity  was  of  God  and  multiplicity  was  of  the  Devil. 

History  proves  that  Frederick  II  achieved  his  aim,  and 
succeeded  in  awakening  amongst  the  Sicilians  respect  for  the 
dignity  of  their  own  race.  Some  sixty  years  after  the  death  of 
their  only  Emperor  the  Sicilians  rose  (the  most  mongrel  popu 
lation  of  Palermo  first  of  all)  against  the  Anjous  at  the  Vespers 
and  slaughtered  the  French  garrison  in  an  unexampled  mas 
sacre.  They  fought  under  tie  unfurled  eagles  with  the  cry 
"  Death  to  the  Gauls  I ",  and  when  they  found  Sicilian  women 
pregnant  by  the  French  they  ripped  open  their  wombs  with 
the  sword  to  trample  under  foot  the  foreign  brood. 

The  history  of  Frederick  II  demonstrates  how  much  a  law 
giver  can  accomplish  by  force  and  compulsion,  so  long  as  he 
knows  what  his  aims  are,  and  so  long  as  those  aims  are  just. 
Nevertheless,  certain  limits  are  set  to  the  direct  spiritual  in 
fluence  of  a  ruler  on  the  masses  of  his  people,  and  his  wishes, 
thoughts  and  opinions  are  for  the  most  part  handed  on  with 
necessary  and  inevitable  dilution  through  intermediaries,  those 
intimates  who  stand  under  the  ruler's  personal  influence,  the 
court,  the  entourage,  the  hierarchy  of  imperial  employees.  A 
picture  of  the  Emperor  himself  can  best  be  formed  by  studying 
his  human  influence  on  those  most  closely  associated  with  him. 


THE  LEGAL  SPIRIT  293 


III 

From  the  Intellectual  point  of  view  Frederick's  new  secular 
State  was  a  triumph  of  that  lay  culture  which,  for  the  last 
century,  had  been  spreading  in  wider  and  wider  circles. 
This  was  the  first  time  that  profane  learning  had  been  con 
centrated  and  organised.  The  pillars  of  the  state  were  now 
educated  laymen,  no  longer  clerics,  and  it  is  only  natural  that 
the  Founder  of  the  State  was  himself  the  most  highly  cultured 
layman  of  them  all.  By  his  organisation  of  the  emancipated 
"  secular  "  spirit  Frederick  II  broke  once  and  for  all  the  spell 
which  the  Church  had  laid  on  the  whole  domain  of  the  non- 
material  as  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  unity.  Even  more 
clearly  than  by  the  state  philosophy,  the  complete  mental 
independence  of  the  new  State  was  demonstrated  by  the  fact 
that  the  clergy  ceased  to  play  a  part  in  the  administration  of 
Sicily,  and  their  spiritual  influence  on  it  gradually  ceased. 

The  Sicilian  state  itself  is  the  proof  that  lay  education  had 
made  great  strides  in  Frederick's  century,  for  the  Emperor 
was  able  to  risk  basing  his  whole  new  kingdom  on  it.  On  the 
other  hand  the  existing  supply  of  educated  laymen  was  not 
sufficient,  and  in  order  to  be  able  to  draw  on  larger  numbers 
Frederick  founded  the  University  of  Naples.  In  the  Charter 
of  the  University  Frederick  stated  :  *'  We  propose  to  rear 
many  clever  and  clearsighted  men,  by  the  draught  of  knowledge 
and  the  seed  of  learning ;  men  made  eloquent  by  study  and 
by  the  observation  of  just  law,  who  will  serve  the  God  of  all 
and  will  please  us  by  the  cult  of  Justice.  .  «  .  We  invite 
learned  men  to  our  service,  men  full  of  zeal  for  the  study  of 
Jus  and  Justitia^  to  whom  we  can  entrust  our  administration 
without  fear."  The  Emperor  thus  made  clear  what  spirit  was 
to  govern  his  state — the  legal  spirit.  This  need  not  surprise  us. 
For,  since  Justice  was  the  Emperor's  mediator  with  God  the 
same  must  apply  to  his  followers  and  servants. 

The  whole  state  was  thick-sown  with  lawyers.  Ousting 
the  clergy,  hitherto  the  only  representatives  of  education  and 
culture,  the  jurists  now  had  the  entry  to  the  Emperor's  court, 
and  the  replacing  of  a  clerical  atmosphere  by  an  emancipated 


294  THE  PROFESSIONAL  LAWYER          v.  3 

secular  atmosphere  was  pregnant  with  momentous  change  even 
in  the  highest  politics.  The  Church  had  long  been  striving 
to  enlist  to  her  side  the  newly-awakened  town-dweller.  Frede 
rick  II  now  entered  the  lists,  and  while  the  Church,  with  the 
support  of  the  mendicant  orders,  was  successful  in  capturing 
the  masses  the  Emperor  won  over  the  educated  classes,  the 
new  intellectual  aristocracy.  These  were  usually  inclined  to 
support  the  Government.  It  was,  therefore,  of  the  greatest 
importance  that  Frederick  II,  recognising  their  vigour  and  their 
potentialities,  enlisted  the  town  lawyers  in  his  service,  gave 
them  the  widest  possible  scope,  in  administration,  in  his 
chancery  work,  and  in  his  court  circles,  and  by  this  means 
within  a  few  years  revolutionised  the  whole  central  government 
of  Sicily  and  even  of  the  Empire.  The  two  administrations  of 
Sicily  and  of  the  Empire  were  originally  to  be  kept  apart,  in 
accordance  with  the  agreement  with  Rome,  but  they  were 
afterwards  amalgamated. 

The  University  of  Naples  was  to  rear  professional  jurists, 
judges,  and  notaries  with  legal  training.  Hard  and  fast 
"  careers  "  were  unknown  in  Frederick's  state,  as  was  any 
systematic  promotion  by  seniority  which  the  one-year  tenure 
of  office  made  impossible.  The  factors  making  for  success 
were  the  personal  qualities  of  the  individual,  an  opportunity 
of  distinguishing  himself,  and  luck  in  happening  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  Emperor  and  the  court.  The  number  of 
officials  was  relatively  small,  and  it  was  possible  to  keep  them 
all  under  observation.  It  was  probably  rare  for  a  really  able 
man  to  be  passed  over,  for  the  Emperor  was  quick  to  seize 
a  suitable  man  for  a  given  post,  whether  a  precedent  was  thereby 
followed  or  created.  Certain  general  tendencies  can,  however, 
be  traced  :  the  judge's  career,  for  instance,  was  usually  distinct 
from  the  notary's,  though  occasional  interchanges  took  place. 

Having  completed  his  studies  at  the  University  of  Naples 
(we  have  no  clue  to  the  length  of  the  course  ;  in  Northern 
Italy  three  to  six  years  was  prescribed)  the  new  judge  was 
selected  by  some  town  to  act  as  town-judge.  On  this  the 
candidate  betook  himself  to  court  with  a  certificate,  to  receive 
his  appointment  from  the  Emperor  or  his  representative,  to 
take  the  oath  and,  if  necessary,  to  be  tested  by  the  High  Court 


THE  LEGAL  CAREER  295 

in  his  literary  and  legal  attainments.  In  this  way  the  Emperor 
and  the  Court  Judges  kept  in  touch  with  the  rising  generation 
of  lawyers,  except  so  far  as  during  the  Emperor's  absence 
appointments  were  made  by  his  provincial  representatives,  the 
justiciars.  The  young  judge  next  had  an  opportunity  of 
entering  the  narrower  State  service  asjudex  to  one  of  the  justi 
ciars,  or,  later,  in  Northern  Italy,  to  one  of  the  numerous 
vicars,  vicars  general  or  podestas.  With  good  fortune  he  might 
ultimately  reach  the  office  of  High  Court  Judge.  This  was  not 
the  only  avenue  to  the  High  Court  bench,  for  we  know  of  High 
Court  Judges  who  had  never  officiated  as  ordinary  judges  :  the 
famous  Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  for  example,  a  courtier  and  one  of 
Frederick's  intimates.  It  is  worth  noting  that  quite  a  number 
held  the  title  of  High  Court  Judge  without  having  officiated  at 
all.  These  were  the  consitiarii,  the  counsellors  who  were 
employed  in  the  imperial  Chancery  and  on  diplomatic  missions 
and  formed  part  of  the  Emperor's  immediate  following. 
This  is  the  first  time  that  professional  lawyers  figure  in 
the  permanent  personnel  of  an  Emperor's  court,  not  merely  as 
occasional  experts.  The  judges  of  lower  degree  could  find 
many  niches  for  themselves  in  the  service  ;  we  find  them  as 
chamberlains,  as  tax  collectors,  as  overseers  of  the  accounts 
departments,  as  keepers  of  the  King's  treasury  and  in  other 
capacities  ;  in  offices  which  might  perfectly  well  have  been 
filled  by  non-legal  nobles  or  burgesses.  It  is  important  to  note 
how  the  lawyers  were  thrusting  into  posts  of  every  sort. 

The  second  important  group  of  educated  lawyers  were  the 
notaries.  They  had  to  pursue  a  course  of  study,  and  probably 
to  win  the  degree  of  master,  before  seeking  further  training  as 
registrar  of  some  chancery.  After  examination  by  the  High 
Court  the  notary  received  the  imperial  nomination  and 
appointment.  For  a  notary  as  for  a  judge  service  at  court  was 
the  desirable  goal.  A  man  might  begin  at  the  court  of  a 
provincial  justiciar  or  in  some  branch  of  the  finance  depart 
ment,  and  then  get  an  opening  at  court  and  become  Court 
Notary  at  the  High  Court,  or  President  of  some  section  of  the 
imperial  Chancery :  Current  Business  or  Feudal  Affairs,  for 
instance.  As  a  general  rule  the  supply  of  court  notaries  and 
chancery  clerks  was  supplemented  in  other  ways  with  which  we 


296  BISHOPS  AS  BUREAUCRATS  v.3 

shall  deal  later.  The  state,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  full  of 
notaries  who  had  to  deal  with  the  ever  increasing  mass  of 
written  documents  which  gave  the  administration  so  modern  an 
air.  The  immense  number  of  orders  issued  by  the  Court,  most 
of  them  required  in  several  copies,  demanded  in  every  grade 
of  the  services  a  highly  skilled  staff  of  clerks  not  subject  to 
annual  displacement.  Other  departments,  notably  Finance, 
also  required  the  services  of  notaries. 

This  penetration  of  the  secular  state  by  the  legal  spirit  was 
only  a  reflection  of  what  had  already  taken  place  within  the 
bosom  of  the  Church.    A  knowledge  of  Canon  Law  was 
indispensable  for  every  cleric  of  any  position.    The  carefully 
cultivated  style  of  the  notaries  was  also  originally  a  product  of 
the  Church.     It  followed  that  a  course  of  study  at  Naples  and 
employment  in  the  imperial  Chancery  might  be  the  opening 
of  a  clerical  career.    There  was  the  possibility  of  Church  pro 
motion  for  anyone  who  had  mastered  both  laws,  and  if  this  did 
not  offer  the  Chancery  was  a  safe  refuge.    We  have  already 
alluded  to  the  Emperor's  efforts  to  secure  the  appointment  of 
his  notaries  to  vacant  bishoprics.     In  the  early  days  these 
efforts  always  failed,  but  after  the  second  excommunication 
the  Emperor  flung  aside  all  restraint  and  began  to  appoint 
Sicilian  bishops  of  his  own  choice,  or  allow  Archbishop  Berard 
of  Palermo  to  do  so,  except  in  cases  where  he  preferred  to  keep 
a  vacancy.    The  Ottos  and  the  Salians  long  ago  in  Germany 
used  to  rear  up  their  private  chaplains  to  be  their  future  bishops, 
and  the  Chancery  of  the  Imperial  Court  now  served  the  same 
purpose  as  of  old  the  private  chapel  of  the  Emperor.     The 
radical  innovation  was  that  these  clerical  Chancery  officials, 
never  very  numerous,  were  appointed  not  because  they  were 
clerics  but  because  they  were  jurists,  and  in  spite  of  their 
being  clerics.    The  Emperor  found  them  in  no  way  indis 
pensable,  and  their  priestly  character  was  a  matter  of  indiffer 
ence  to  him,  fraught  with  no  danger.    Walter  of  Ocra,  notary 
and  chaplain  of  the  Emperor,  and  one  of  his  busiest  officials, 
rose  to  be  Sicilian  Chancellor,  but  he  was  on  an  entirely  different 
footing  from  the  bishop-chancellors  of  earlier  days :   he  was 
simply  an  imperial  official  who  happened  to  be  a  cleric.    The 
higher  clergy  were  still  represented  at  Court,  especially  by 


UNIVERSITY  OF  BOLOGNA  297 

prelates  who  were  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  new  spirit 
of  the  times.  The  Archbishops  Berard  of  Palermo,  and  Jacob 
of  Capua,  belonged  to  the  most  intimate  circle  of  the  Emperor. 
Frederick  had  utilised  the  latter  as  collaborator  in  the  Constitu 
tions  of  Melfi,  especially  in  those  sections  which  dealt  with  the 
Church  and  the  Sicilian  clergy.  A  few  other  bishops  were 
intimate  with  the  Emperor,  Archbishop  Berard  of  Messina 
and  Bishop  Peter  of  Ravello.  These  prelates  had  weight  in 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  court  only  in  so  far  as  they  accom 
modated  themselves  to  the  literary  and  mental  pursuits 
around  them.  They  were  no  longer  themselves  the  indepen 
dent  purveyors  of  spiritual  life  as  bishops  had  been  wont  to  be. 
Still  we  must  not  undervalue  the  fact  that  the  mental  atmo 
sphere  of  the  Court  was  sufficiently  catholic  to  give  scope  even 
to  canonistic  culture.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  University  of 
Naples  should  have  a  number  of  clerical  students,  since  all 
Sicilian  subjects  were-  compelled  to  attend  it.  One  of  the 
greatest  of  all  churchmen  was  a  product  of  Naples  :  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  doctor  angelicus  of  the  Roman  Church. 

Two  years  after  founding  the  University  of  Naples  Frede 
rick  II  had  closed  the  University  of  Bologna  on  account  of  the 
fiasco  of  the  Cremona  Diet  in  1226.  In  so  doing  he  had  a 
special  intention  of  his  own.  He  wrote  to  the  professors  as 
well  as  to  the  scholars  of  Bologna  :  the  last  thing  he  wished 
was  that  learned  men  should  suffer  through  the  recalcitrance 
of  the  rebellious  Bolognese  who  had  joined  the  Lombard 
League.  He  invited  them,  therefore,  to  quit  Bologna  and  come 
to  Naples,  "  where  instituted  by  us  with  much  care,  study 
flourishes  .  .  .  the  beauty  of  the  neighbourhood  attracts,  no  less 
than  the  lavish  supplies  of  everything,  and  the  reverend  com 
munity  of  doctors."  This  great  plan  of  transferring  to  Naples 
the  famous  Law  School  of  Bologna  fell  through.  The  Pope's 
intervention  secured  a  truce  with  the  Lombard  League,  and 
the  Emperor  had  to  retract  his  outlawry  of  Bologna  and  permit 
the  reopening  of  the  University.  The  scholars  of  Bologna  made 
merry  over  the  imperial  University  of  Naples  :  this  ambitious 
home  of  all  sciences  was  at  best  an  embryo,  and  one  not  likely 
to  thrive.  For  it  depended  on  the  caprice  of  its  founder,  who 
had  no  obligations  and  whose  mood  might  easily  change.  The 


298  SCHOLARS  OF  NAPLES  v.3 

Bolognese  were  not  far  wide  of  the  mark.  For  better  or  worse 
the  fate  of  this  suddenly- founded  University  was  linked  with 
the  fate  of  the  Emperor  and  his  State.  When  the  Papal  troops 
invaded  the  kingdom  all  study  ceased  in  Naples,  though  only 
for  a  few  years.  In  1234  Frederick  re-established  the  Uni 
versity  and  attracted  a  really  excellent  teaching  staff.  At  first 
Roffredo  of  Benevento  taught  Civil  Law  ;  the  Canon  Law 
scholar,  Bartholomew  Pignatellus,  the  Decretals ;  Master 
Terrisius  of  Atina  gave  instruction  in  Arts  ;  a  Catalonian, 
Master  Arnaldus,  lectured  on  Aristotle's  natural  philosophy. 
The  grammarian,  Walter  of  Ascoli,  was  secured,  and  com 
pleted  in  Naples  his  great  Etymological  Encyclopaedia,  begun 
in  Bologna.  Finally,  Peter  of  Ireland,  the  teacher  of  Thomas 
Aquinas,  whom  his  contemporaries  called  gemma  magistrorum 
et  laurea  morumt  represented  natural  science. 

Frederick  IPs  severe  struggles  with  the  Church  compelled 
certain  retrenchments  of  study  to  be  made  at  a  later  date,  but 
the  university  was  never  again  dissolved.  After  its  re-establish 
ment  in  1234  its  administration  was  in  the  hands  of  a  Justiciar 
of  Students,  so  that  the  University  enjoyed  a  certain  independ 
ence,  though  it  remained  immediately  connected  with  the  High 
Court  and  with  the  imperial  Chancery.  Students  and  pro 
fessors  were  well  aware  who  was  the  determining  personality  ; 
when  they  begged,  in  1234,  for  the  opportunity  of  resuming 
their  studies,  they  did  not  appeal  direct  to  the  Emperor  but  to 
the  "  Master,"  who  was  even  then  considered  as  "  the  ex 
pounder  of  the  sole  truth  for  the  ears  of  the  Emperor/'  the  High 
Court  Judge,  Piero  della  Vigna. 


We  know  all  too  little  about  this  famous  scholar  and  writer, 
who,  like  a  second  St.  Peter,  "  held  both  keys  to  Frederick's 
heart/'  and  who  even  in  Dante's  Hell,  in  the  ghostly  wood  of 
the  Suicides,  maintained  that  his  fall  was  solely  due  to  "  envy's 
cruel  blow,"  that  "  harlot  of  courts."  He  is  sometimes 
supposed  to  represent  a  frequently  recurrent  type,  so  much  so 
that  Conrad  Ferdinand  Meyer  had  no  difficulty  in  painting 
from  him  his  picture  of  the  English  Thomas  &  Becket.  Yet 
Piero  della  Vigna  is  radically  different,  by  his  whole  position, 


PIERO  DELLA  VIGNA  299 

and  his  human  relation  to  his  master,  from  Chancellors  like 
Cassiodorus  or  Reginald  of  Dassel.  He  was  not  the  com 
plementary  brain  of  a  warrior  king,  but  an  instrument  which  a 
most  intellectual  Emperor  had  consciously  fashioned  for  him- 
himself :  the  spokesman  and  the  mouthpiece  of  his  master. 

As  Logothetes,  "  one  who  places  words/'  this  greatest  Latin 
stylist  of  the  Middle  Ages  was,  both  in  writing  and  speaking, 
the  mouthpiece  of  imperial  thought  and  act,  the  creator  of  the 
imperial  diction  and  the  majestic  utterance  ;  as  jurist,  probably 
the  author  of  all  the  Emperor's  laws  ;  as  scholar  and  humanist 
of  the  first  water,  the  counsellor  and  intimate,  nay  the  friend  of 
the  Emperor.  He  was  quite  indispensable  to  Frederick,  this 
master  of  expression,  who  had  at  his  command  the  most 
telling  phrase  for  each  phase  of  the  versatile  Emperor's  activity, 
who  supplied  the  most  convincing  explanation  of  his  master's 
acts,  and  often  in  so  doing  helped  to  determine  the  next 
step,  whose  duty  it  was  to  announce  and  make  plausible 
Frederick's  constant  changes  of  front.  Frederick  had  raised 
him  up  from  nothing  to  the  first  position  in  the  state,  and  made 
him  the  confidant  of  all  his  schemes,  and  was  finally  compelled 
to  destroy  him  when  the  servant  began,  unaccountably,  to 
stumble.  With  another  man,  reproof  or  banishment  would 
have  sufficed  ;  a  blunder  of  della  Vigna's  merited  extinction. 
His  was  a  life  which  Fate  entangled  in  the  tragedy  of  the 
House  of  Hohenstaufen. 

Legend  ascribed  the  basest  origin  to  Piero  della  Vigna,  son 
of  an  unknown  father,  and  an  abandoned  mother,  who  miser 
ably  supported  herself  and  her  infant  by  beggary.  He  was,  in 
fact,  of  reputable  family,  his  father  probably  a  town  judge  in 
Capua,  where  Piero  was  certainly  born.  The  boy  seems  to 
have  gone  to  Bologna  without  the  family  approval,  and  to  have 
carried  on  his  studies  in  canon  law  and  civil  law  amid  con 
siderable  hardships.  At  last  he  addressed  a  petition  to  Arch 
bishop  Berard  of  Palermo.  It  is  a  testimony  to  both  that  on 
the  strength  of  this  one  letter,  so  the  story  goes,  Berard  of 
Palermo  immediately  commended  the  petitioner  to  the  Empe 
ror's  attention.  When  Frederick  returned  in  1221  he  installed 
the  young  man  as  notary  in  his  Chancery,  and,  recognising  his 
outstanding  ability,  speedily  promoted  him  to  be  High  Court 


300  HIS  STYLE  .  v.3 

Judge,  then  Chief  Notary  of  the  Sicilian  kingdom,  till  he  finally 
created  for  him  the  post  of  Logothetes,  who  should  actually 
speak  for  the  Emperor  in  the  High  Court,  as  well  as  write  for 
him.  As  High  Court  Judge  Piero  della  Vigna  was  one  of  the 
legal  Counsellors  in  the  closest  attendance  on  the  Emperor. 
In  this  capacity  he  formulated  the  whole  body  of  Laws  that 
comprised  the  Constitutions  of  1231.  So  amply  did  he  play 
"  Tribonian  to  the  Justinian  of  Sicily  "  that  posterity  inserted 
his  name  at  the  end  of  the  Liber  Augustalis.  Later,  della 
Vigna  took  over  the  sole  direction  of  the  imperial  Chancery, 
and  his  fame  rested  more  especially  on  his  stylistic  accomplish 
ment.  His  art,  however,  was  rooted  in  human  things,  and  his 
facility  of  expression  grew  with  the  Emperor's  growth.  When 
the  Crusades  had  given  the  Emperor  new  horizons  the  mani 
festos  of  the  Capuan  began  to  expand  and  to  swell  into  a 
rhythmic  emotion  which,  year  by  year,  surrounded  the  majesty 
of  Frederick  II  with  more  magnificent  and  more  awe-inspiring 
eloquence. 

His  Latin  was  an  artificial  language,  highly  perfected  in  form, 
often  difficult  to  understand,  so  that  contemporaries  complained 
of  his  highest  style  as  "  intentionally  obscure."  Only  by  a 
measure  of  obscurity  was  it  possible,  without  sacrificing  its 
living  vigour,  to  extort  from  Latin,  for  centuries  traditionally 
mishandled,  the  notes  of  height  and  depth  required.  When  the 
humanists  a  little  later  revivified  the  classical  Latin  of  Cicero 
they  discovered — alas — a  dead  language,  and  brought  it  again  to 
birth.  Piero  della  Vigna  is  the  last  creative  writer  of  living 
Latin.  It  was  a  living  language  that  spoke  with  pomp  and 
pride  and  smooth-flowing  magnificence  from  his  obscure 
periods.  Its  comprehensiveness  and  joy  in  style  bore  within 
them  the  seeds  of  classic  humanistic  Latin.  Delia  Vigna's 
speech,  a  Summa  in  its  own  domain,  exhausted  every  possibility 
of  Latin-Christian  linguistics  in  the  realms  of  Church  and 
Empire. 

For  centuries  to  come,  long  after  the  Christian  Roman 
world  that  had  begotten  them  was  dead,  his  collected  letters 
lived  on  in  the  Chanceries  of  Europe  as  masterpieces  of  style, 
and  preserved  the  image  of  that  Emperor  who  had  imposed  it 
on  his  spokesman.  How  much  in  these  letters  is  Piero  della 


HIS  VERSATILITY  301 

Vigna,  and  how  much  Frederick,  will  never  be  known,  but  the 
composite  result  dictated  the  style  of  all  the  other  imperial 
secretaries.  The  Capuan's  elaborate  and  emotional  forms  of 
expression  would  have  rung  false  and  hollow  without  the  living 
reality  that  underlay  them,  without  the  wide  circle  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  in  the  background  the  Emperor  holding 
the  pen.  King  Manfred's  letters  in  della  Vigna's  style  disclose 
a  painful  discrepancy. 

The  information  we  crave  about  Piero  della  Vigna's  personal 
and  private  life  is  not  forthcoming,  but  his  poems,  letters  and 
manifestos  betray  him  as  one  of  those  highly-cultured  literati 
whom  humanism,  awaking  with  Petrarch,  later  produced  in 
numbers.  Piero  della  Vigna  was  the  most  eminent  amongst  the 
few  existing  in  the  early  thirteenth  century.  On  the  one  hand 
he  was  master  of  the  old  :  the  formalism  of  the  time,  canon 
and  civil  law,  scholastic  and  ancient  philosophy,  ancient  authors 
and  church  divines,  rhetoric,  versifying,  letter-writing.  On 
the  other  hand  he  was  zealous  to  face  the  new  with  an  ele 
mental  fire  and  passion  that  flash  from  his  writings.  He  was 
ready  to  turn  his  hand  to  anything  :  scholar  and  judge,  philo 
sopher  and  artist,  stylist,  diplomat  and  courtier,  ambassador 
and  go-between,  even  warrior  when  occasion  demands,  drawing 
up  the  lines  of  battle,  perhaps  even  taking  part  in  the  fight. 
He  wore  himself  out  in  service.  He  says  himself  that  he 
had  grown  very  old — in  contrast  to  the  ever-youthful  Emperor. 
Little  is  known  about  his  appearance.  The  so-called  della 
Vigna  bust  of  the  bridge  gate  at  Capua  cannot  represent  the 
celebrated  High  Court  Judge  of  Frederick  II,  but  more  likely 
portrays  a  late  classical  philosopher.  Nevertheless,  the  con 
temporary  identification  of  this  bust  with  a  judge  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  Court  indicates  that  this  human  type,  was  not 
unfamiliar  amongst  the  law  scholars  of  the  Court ;  a  heavy, 
serious,  learned  face  it  is,  with  supercilious,  even  mocking 
expression  ;  vigorous  and  strong,  however,  and  massive,  with 
the  mighty  beard  which  lends  added  dignity  to  the  head — the 
very  antithesis  of  the  picture  we  form  of  the  Emperor  himself. 

Piero  della  Vigna's  duties  to  the  Naples  University  and  to  the 
imperial  Chancery  and  High  Court  were  not  confined  to  the 
administration,  but  extended  also  to  the  personnel.  For  one 


302  SCHOOL  OF  RHETORIC  v.  3 

thing,  Court  officials  gave  lectures  at  the  University  ;  amongst 
them  the  High  Court  Judge,  Roffredo  of  Benevento,  and  later  an 
imperial  Court  Notary,  Nicolas  of  Rocca,  who  started  rhetorical 
courses  in  Naples .  The  relation  of  the  Chancery  to  the  students 
was  even  more  important,  for  the  budding  jurist,  especially 
the  young  notary,  received  the  groundwork  of  his  training  at 
the  University,  but  the  final  polish  at  the  Emperor's  court. 
The  literary  education  of  the  favoured  few  was  more  or  less 
directly  in  the  hands  of  Piero  della  Vigna,  in  whose  Chancery 
they  acquired  the  stilum  supremum.  Piero  della  Vigna  was  in 
this  the  upholder  of  a  tradition  which  lingered,  not  in  the  Court, 
but  in  his  native  town  of  Capua.  For  the  art  of  style,  the  ars 
dictandi,  had  been  so  specially  cultivated  in  this  town  that  one 
may  fairly  talk  of  a  Capuan  School,  the  peculiar  character  of 
which  was  its  direct  reversion  to  late  classical  prose.  Piero 
della  Vigna  very  possibly  learnt  his  own  skill  in  Capua,  whereas 
the  stylists  of  preceding  generations  had  adopted  the  famous 
epistolary  manner  of  the  Roman  Curia  under  the  great  Inno 
cent.  Piero  della  Vigna  quite  probably  owed  the  Archbishop 
of  Palermo's  recommendation  to  the  fact  that  the  Emperor 
was  anxious  for  his  Chancery  to  attain  the  same  distinction 
of  style  as  the  Curia.  Delia  Vigna's  first  petition  must  have 
displayed  remarkable  skill  to  lead  to  his  reception  in  the  High 
Court.  The  value  which  Frederick  II  attached  to  the  style 
of  his  letters,  and  his  ambition  to  compete  in  this  with  the 
Curia,  would  have  combined  with  his  own  artistic  appreciation 
to  perceive  the  political  significance  of  such  unusual  ability. 
The  Emperor  had  to  win  public  opinion  by  his  manifestos, 
which  supplied  in  the  Christian  world  the  place  of  the  ancient 
Forum.  Epistolary  art  replaced  the  forensic  eloquence  of  Rome 
and  the  Greek  cities.  People  justly  compared  Piero  della  Vigna, 
the  orator  of  Capua,  to  Cicero. 

There  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  in 
Capua  a  flourishing  school  of  written  rhetoric,  of  which  Piero 
della  Vigna  himself  was  a  product.  It  was  extremely  signifi 
cant  that  he  established  a  close  connection  between  it  and  the 
High  Court  and  even  transplanted  it  to  the  imperial  Chan 
cery.  The  Chancery  itself  thus  became  a  school  of  rhetoric, 
the  focus  of  the  literary  life  of  the  Court.  Everything  about 


HIS  PUPILS  303 

the  Emperor's  Court  which  seems  a  foretaste  of  Humanism :  the 
reversion  to  classic  models  ;  the  Emperor's  cult  of  Rome  ;  his 
echo  of  the  Caesars  in  formula  and  title,  simile  and  metaphor, 
all  this  had  its  roots  in  the  learned  circles  of  Piero  della  Vigna, 
who  were  inspired  on  their  side  by  the  presence  of  a  living 
Caesar.  The  two  reinforced  each  other  :  Frederick  II  could 
pose  as  Caesar  because  his  entourage  could  accept  him  in  such 
a  role,  and  he  was  driven  to  pose  as  Caesar  because  rhetorical 
and  literary  style  proclaimed  him  such.  The  same  applied  to 
his  Christian  attitude  :  for  the  imperial  art  of  letter-writing 
sprang  from  the  curial  style  which  provided  all  the  Biblical 
comparisons,  including  the  comparisons  with  Christ.  This 
blend  of  the  Christian  and  the  ancient  Roman  which  prevails 
in  Frederick's  writing  and  smacks  of  the  Renaissance,  is  the 
product  of  this  group  of  stylists  to  whom  a  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  was  as  necessary  as  a  knowledge  of  the  classics.  This 
does  not  explain  their  vigour.  The  many  private  letters  of 
these  imperial  chancery  officials  that  have  come  down  to  us  are 
convincing  proof  of  the  passion  for  knowledge  that  possessed 
these  men,  when  once  they  had  breathed  the  strong  intellectual 
atmosphere  of  the  imperial  court.  A  wretched  notary  writes 
from  prison  to  his  friends  to  send  him  a  Livy  or  some  other 
historian,  feeling  convinced  that  he  was  "  not  worthy  to  un 
loose  the  latchet  of  their  shoes."  These  officials  shared  the 
view  the  Emperor  loved  to  inculcate :  that "  fame  comes  through 
knowledge,  honour  comes  through  fame,  and  riches  come 
through  honour." 

The  High  Court  and  the  Chancery  itself  distributed  to  the 
widest  possible  circles  this  knowledge  which  the  Emperor  so 
highly  prized  and  his  courtiers  coveted.  "  The  breasts  of 
rhetoric  have  suckled  many  eminent  minds  at  the  imperial 
court,"  writes  Piero  della  Vigna  to  a  younger  friend,  whom  he 
later  brought  to  court  and  with  whom,  as  with  others,  he  kept 
up  a  correspondence  that  served  the  purpose  also  of  exercises  in 
style.  This  may  have  been  a  usual  way  of  giving  lessons  in 
letter-writing,  so  that  the  letter  served  a  double  purpose.  It  is 
no  matter  for  surprise  that  the  later  stylists  were,  for  the  most 
part,  della  Vigna 's  compatriots  :  Campanians  if  not  Capuans. 
A  number  of  his  pupils  are  known,  who  themselves  became  the 


304  THE  FRUITFUL  VINEYARD  v.  3 

instructors  of  literary  youth.  John  of  Capua  calls  himself  the 
pupil  of  Piero  della  Vigna.  In  a  letter  of  consolation  addressed 
to  two  of  the  Emperor's  secretaries  about  the  death  of  a  third 
(all  three  having  also  been  disciples  of  the  great  High  Court 
Judge)  he  paints  a  very  vivid  picture  of  della  Vigna  Js  human 
methods  :  "  Well  I  know  how  our  master  and  only  benefactor 
Piero  della  Vigna  is  shocked  by  the  death  of  such  a  friend.  For 
he  had,  with  good  reason,  cherished  the  greatest  hopes  that  his 
vineyard  (vinea)  would  have  brought  forth  three  shoots  from 
a  fruitful  vine  and  that  he  might  have  presented  to  the  Emperor 
from  the  womb  of  his  beloved,  three  worthy  disciples,  three 
wooers  of  his  own  worth,  three  followers  of  his  own  life.  The 
unknowing  would  have  sought  to  ascertain,  the  knowing  would 
have  marvelled,  how  all  three  had  received  the  same  teaching 
in  the  same  manner  from  such  a  teacher,  and  how  one  affection 
had  united  all  the  three.  Happy  indeed  this  community  of 
three  in  one,  where  domestic  love  unites  teacher  and  pupils." 
This  indicates  the  school-like  character  of  the  Capuan  tradition. 
The  inevitable  jealousy  of  the  courtiers  is  hinted  at  when  we 
read  that  Piero  della  Vigna  wins  fame  and  praise,  and  envy  too, 
when  his  pupils  "  find  grace  in  the  eyes  of  the  Prince  "  and 
receive  posts  from  him  "  who  loveth  the  tribe  of  the  young." 
Della  Vigna  is  constantly  alluded  to  in  court  circles  with  a  pun 
on  his  name  as  the  "  fruitful  vineyard."  He  was  the  centre  and 
soul  of  all  this  courtly  activity,  and  they  turned  to  him  for  en 
lightenment  when  the  courtiers  "  fell  to  merry  quarrelling  " 
over  one  problem  or  another,  as  intellectual  men  are  wont  to  do 
in  company. 

Delia  Vigna  enjoyed  the  Emperor's  complete  confidence. 
There  was  no  lack  of  sycophants  who  flattered  "  the  Master's 
Vineyard."  One  prelate  wrote  :  "  Vinea  was  the  Petrus  on 
whose  rock  the  Emperor's  Church  was  founded  when  the 
Emperor  refreshed  his  spirit  by  a  meal  with  his  disciples." 
They  called  him  "  the  Emperor's  Vicar,"  corresponding  to  the 
Prince  of  the  Apostles,  Peter,  Vicar  of  Christ,  and  as  such  the 
"  Bearer  of  the  Keys  "  of  this  world's  empire,  of  the  Emperor's 
heart,  a  simile  of  which  Dante  later  made  use.  Della  Vigna's 
indirect  influence  on  Court  society  was  no  less  great.  Men 
hummed  round  him  as  Frederick's  favourite ;  the  highest 


SECULAR  LITERATURE  3°5 

dignitaries  of  Church  and  State  inquired  of  him  the  general 
temper  of  the  Court,  the  mood  of  the  "  Dominus  "  or  the 
"  Caesar. "  They  reproached  him  for  his  long  silence,  or  for 
warded  requests  and  recommendations  for  the  Emperor, 
begging  his  support.  All  these  letters  seek  to  attain  the  lofty 
style  of  the  master,  and  his  answers  often  show  a  touch  of 
delicate  irony  as  he  couches  them  in  even  more  pompous 
phrase  and  metaphor.  Piero  della  Vigna  maintained  inter 
course  with  the  law  professors  of  Bologna  for  some  time.  But 
whereas  in  earlier  days  Roman  Emperors  turned  to  Bologna  to 
enquire  the  interpretation  or  application  of  a  law,  the  doctors  of 
Bologna  now  betook  themselves  to  Frederick  II  to  enquire  from 
him  about  some  enactment  peculiar  to  Sicily,  and  right  gladly 
Frederick  answered  them.  Piero  della  Vigna's  Constitutions 
of  Melfi  represent  one  of  the  greatest  legal  achievements  of 
the  century.  Commentaries  on  the  Liber  Augustalis  began  to 
appear  almost  at  once,  and  many  of  the  commentators  were 
alumni  of  the  University  of  Naples.  Thus  one  creation  reacted 
on  the  other. 

The  art  of  writing  Latin  verse  was  part  of  the  school  routine 
for  students  of  style  and  rhetoric  ;  it  was  practised  almost 
exclusively  in  legal  stylistic  circles.  Secular  Latin  literature 
was  a  relatively  late  growth  in  Italy,  and  one  of  the  earliest 
goliard  compositions  in  Italy  is  ascribed  to  Piero  della  Vigna. 
It  is  a  long  satirical  poem,  directed  against  the  greed  of  prelates 
and  mendicant  monks,  and  differs  from  the  other  songs  of 
vagrant  poets  by  its  positive  political  importance.  Piero's 
pupils  also  wrote  Latin  verse  :  Master  Terrisius  of  Atina, 
author  of  a  lengthy  poem,  was  counted  among  his  friends.  The 
Chronicler,  Richard  of  San  Germane,  who  interwove  a  number 
of  poems  with  the  text  of  his  chronicle,  was  also  a  notary,  but 
he  did  not  belong  to  the  actual  della  Vigna  circle.  Nor  did  the 
judge,  Richard  of  Venusia,  who  composed  a  comedy  in  distichs 
full  of  topical  allusions  to  imperial  officials.  He  dedicated  his 
comedy  to  the  Emperor.  It  was  the  first  effort  of  its  kind. 

Works  in  Greek  verse  were  not  unheard  of  in  official  circles. 
Calabria  was  still  largely  Greek  in  speech,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  the  means  of  introducing  a  knowledge  of  ancient  Greek 
to  Renaissance  scholars.  Barlaam,  who  is  the  reputed  Greek 


3o6  INFLUENCE  ABROAD  v.  3 

teacher  of  both  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  was  a  Calabrian.  The 
Constitutions  of  Melfi  were  soon  translated  into  Greek,  and  we 
possess  a  number  of  Greek  letters  from  Frederick  (who  was  a 
master  also  of  that  language)  to  his  son-in-law  John  Vatatzes, 
Emperor  of  Nicaea.  They  were  probably  drafted  by  the  same 
Greek-speaking  notary  as  was  usually  employed  to  translate 
Greek  documents  into  Latin,  John  of  Otranto.  An  iambic 
poem  of  his  on  the  Siege  of  Parma  has  been  preserved.  This 
episode  also  formed  the  subject  of  a  long  poem  by  the  Charto- 
phylax,  Georgios  of  Gallipoli  in  Calabria,  together  with  an 
enthusiastic  encomium  on  Frederick  II  in  which  the  Emperor 
figures  as  Zeus,  the  Thunder  God  and  Lightning- Wielder  of 
Greek  mythology  A  supernatural  atmosphere  thus  surrounded 
the  Hohenstaufen,  which  was  revealed  in  a  remarkable  manner 
to  the  later  humanists.  The  story  goes  that  in  1497  a  carp  was 
caught  in  a  pond  at  Heilbronn,  in  whose  gills,  under  the  skin,  a 
copper  ring  was  fastened,  with  a  Greek  inscription  which  stated 
that  Frederick  II,  with  his  own  hand,  had  released  this  fish. 
The  humanists  were  much  struck  by  "  the  remarkably  life- 
giving  quality  of  the  hand  Friderici  Secundi  "  and  particularly 
stirred  by  the  inscription's  being  in  Greek,  and  they  decided  that 
Frederick's  intention  must  have  been  to  quicken  to  new  life 
the  study  of  Greek  in  Germany  by  this  message  of  a  dumb  fish. 

The  intellectual  influence  exercised  in  foreign  countries  by 
the  Hohenstaufen 's  court  is  revealed  in  a  Latin  poem  of  the 
Englishman,  Henry  of  Avranches,  who  offered  his  services  to 
the  Emperor  about  this  time.  The  poet  shows  himself  a  man 
well  skilled  in  every  branch  of  stylistic  art,  master  of  all  the 
early  humanistic  culture  of  his  day  like  John  of  Salisbury.  He 
writes  at  great  length  on  the  origin  of  Latin  poetry,  which  came 
from  the  Hebrews  to  the  Greeks,  through  Adonis  and  Sappho, 
and  from  the  Greeks  passed  to  the  Latins,  tod  which  he  him 
self  venerates  and  practises.  Verse  is  the  divine  form  of  speech, 
and  the  man  who  can  convert  prose  into  verse  can  also  trans 
form  the  caves  of  a  savage  country  into  dwelling-houses.  He, 
therefore,  the  Englishman,  would  fain  live  at  the  Emperor's 
court  and  be  his  comrade  in  the  art  of  poetry  or  renounce  his 
honour  as  the  king  of  song. 

The  Emperor  himself  did  not  write  Latin  verse — if  we 


INTELLECTUAL  ATMOSPHERE    307 

except  the  verse  inscriptions  on  imperial  castles  and  forts,  and 
a  few  occasional  couplets  which  tradition  ascribes  to  him. 
Nevertheless,  he  was  in  close  touch  with  the  stylists  and  their 
work.  He  shared  their  scholarship  to  a  very  large  extent,  and 
we  are  told  in  many  places  that  he  was  able  himself  to  speak 
with  great  eloquence  and  skill,  though  he  later  preferred  to 
allow  Piero  della  Vigna  to  make  his  speeches  for  him,  taking  a 
verse  of  Ovid  for  a  text  as  readily  as  a  messianic  saying  from 
the  Bible.  The  Emperor  had  no  craving  for  displaying  his 
skill,  and  shrewdly  refrained  from  over-much  public  speaking. 
Popular  opinion  averred :  "He  speaks  little,  knows  much  and 
can  do  much."  It  must  have  had  all  the  more  immense  effect 
when,  on  really  important  occasions,  the  Emperor  himself 
spoke  after  Piero  della  Vigna.  A  report  informs  us  what  a 
shudder  of  amazement  seized  the  people  on  one  occasion,  when, 
from  his  throne,  raised  high  above  the  heads  of  the  multitude, 
the  Sacred  Majesty  of  the  Emperor  solemnly  spoke  down  and 
defended  itself  against  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Perhaps  the 
custom  of  princely  ceremonial  speeches  dates  from  Frederick 
II,  who  has  been  called  the  "  mirror  of  the  world  in  speech  and 
custom. "  With  the  great  Hohenstaufen  such  speeches  were 
provoked  only  by  stern  necessity  ;  no  prince  of  the  Renaissance 
will  have  been  able  to  evoke  the  magic  shudder  that  greeted 
Frederick's  voice. 


The  magnificent  gestures  of  a  world-monarch  came  naturally 
to  Frederick.  Not  less  natural  was  his  readiness  to  relax  in  the 
company  of  his  intimate  friends,  when  he  could  feel  sure  that 
none  of  his  words  would  be  misunderstood.  Above  all  other 
things  he  loved  good  conversation  ;  witty  and  intellectual  talk, 
in  which  he  joined  with  an  indescribable  charm  of  his  own,  was 
an  absolute  necessity  to  him.  He  had  no  need  to  summon  a 
Voltaire  from  abroad  to  provide  the  dilicatoparlare  that  he  loved. 
There  were,  it  is  true,  many  foreign  scholars  at  his  court,  but 
their  business  was  to  conduct  research  in  definite  philosophic 
or  scientific  subjects  and  to  expound  these  afresh,  communicat 
ing  their  results  to  the  court,  most  frequently  through  the 
medium  of  Frederick  himself. 


308  YOUTH  AND  AGE  v.  3 

The  whole  court  shared  his  spirit.  There  was  none  who 
did  not,  to  the  measure  of  his  ability,  respond  to  the  intellectual 
stimulus  of  the  Emperor's  personality,  and  a  very  considerable 
proportion  of  his  knowledge  and  modes  of  thought  communi 
cated  itself  to  the  court  officials,  notaries,  and  stylists  of  his 
entourage.  Years  after  his  death  it  is  still  possible  to  tell  with 
almost  absolute  certainty  whether  the  writer  of  a  given  letter 
had  been  in  touch  with  one  of  those  sucklings  "  of  the  milk  of 
rhetoric  at  the  imperial  court." 

Certain  philosophical  lines  of  thought  which  were  simply 
dubbed  "  Ghibelline  ideas"  in  later  times  were  a  product  of 
the  spirit  that  flowed  from  Frederick  II  and  his  circle  :  The 
recurrence  of  Nature,  Reason,  Necessity  in  certain  connections, 
the  belief  in  Fortune  instead  of  Providence,  the  disappearance  of 
threadbare  Bible  tags  in  favour  of  quotations  from  the  classics. 
Frederick's  contemporaries  were  ripe  for  these  things.  Delia 
Vigna's  activity  has  shown,  however,  how  conscious,  intentional 
and  well-thought-out  was  the  intellectual  preparation  of  the 
ground. 

It  was  something  like  a  new  gospel  that  emanated  from  the 
court,  and  one  of  the  tokens  of  it  was  the  inrush  of  a  youthful 
spirit  into  an  age  of  decadence  and  decay — a  living  something 
that  drew  into  itself  all  that  was  actively  alive.  Outworn 
mental  attitudes  had  no  place  in  this  State.  The  whole  imperial 
group  was  young,  not  only  in  spirit  but  in  years,  incomparably 
young,  full-blooded  and  alive.  Aged,  aged  Pope  Gregory 
had  good  reason  to  feel  afraid ;  he  even  lodged  a  complaint 
against  the  excessive  youthfulness  of  the  imperial  officials.  The 
Emperor  curtly  retorted  that  it  was  none  of  the  Pope's  business, 
and  begged  to  call  the  Pope's  attention  to  the  fact  that,  accord 
ing  to  the  Sicilian  Book  of  Laws,  to  debate  about  the  suitability 
of  imperial  officers  was  sacrilege.  That  was  fairly  cynical. 
Indeed  an  immeasurable  cynicism,  a  sign  of  vigorous  Ijfe, 
prevailed  in  the  circle  of  Frederick  and  his  friends,  especially  in 
reference  to  their  opponents.  Not  towards  opponents  only. 
Frederick  always  found  it  hard  to  repress  his  acid  wit  and  pro 
bably  gave  it  free  rein  amongst  his  intimates,  pouring  scorn 
not  only  on  the  Pope  but  on  friends  and  contemporaries.  He 
made  merry  over  the  envoys  of  his  faithful  Cremona  and 


CYNICISM  309 

mimicked  their  absurd  way  of  speaking,  how  they  must  first 
indulge  in  reciprocal  flatteries  before  one  of  them  would  open 
his  business.  He  said  of  his  friend,  the  Margrave  of  Mont- 
ferrat,  that  you  would  need  a  pickaxe  to  hew  money  out  of  him 
— a  saying  that  a  troubadour  swiftly  seized  on  and  wove  into 
his  sirventes.  He  even  indulged  in  mockery  of  Chingiz  Khan, 
who  had  proposed  (what  would  scarcely  have  been  conceivable 
save  for  the  Asiatic  perspective)  that  Frederick  II  should  do 
him  homage  and  accept  appointment  at  the  Court  of  the  Great 
Khan.  The  Emperor's  prompt  repartee  was  that  he  would 
apply  for  the  post  of  falconer.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Emperor 
was  only  amused  when  one  of  his  friends  aimed  a  shaft  at  him. 
The  chronicler  remarks  that  Eccelino  of  Romano  would  have 
visited  such  a  jest  with  instant  death. 

These  are  all  signs  of  the  intellectual  freedom  and  detachment 
of  the  Emperor  himself  and  his  court.  It  was  freedom  on  a 
large  scale.  Each  of  the  imperial  jests,  each  of  the  blasphemies 
which  frequently  leaked  out,  was  a  challenge  to  an  entire  world. 
These  cynicisms  would  have  been  wholly  unjustified  had  not 
Frederick  himself  been  able  to  build  up  a  new  world  with  its 
own  new  sanctities.  If  anyone  dared  to  breathe  against  the 
holy  things  of  the  State,  Frederick  took  umbrage  immediately: 
"  He  who  provokes  the  Emperor  with  words  is  punished  with 
deeds."  The  officials  were  not  slow  to  catch  their  master's 
tone.  One  of  his  underlings  speaks  words  that  might  be 
Frederick's  own  :  some  Guelf  prisoners  were  to  be  executed, 
and  confession  was  refused  them  with  the  taunt  that  it  was  quite 
supererogatory  for  them  ;  as  friends  of  the  Pope  they  were  all 
holy  together  and  would  alight  forthwith  in  Paradise.  Before 
the  days  of  Frederick  II  no  one  would  have  ventured  such  a  jest. 
It  presupposes  an  inexpressible  contempt  for  the  accepted 
dogmas  of  a  future  life  and  a  complete  fearlessness  of  death. 
This  effect  of  Frederick's  influence  was  inevitable  and  would 
certainly  have  been  fraught  with  extreme  danger  had  it  not 
been  for  the  restraints  of  the  State.  On  Frederick's  own  lips 
such  remarks,  provoked  by  sheer  defiance,  are  merely  a  by 
product  of  his  free-ranging  mind  that  shrank  from  no  breadth 
or  depth  or  height. 


3io  FREDERICK'S  SLAVES  v.3 

People  have  often  praised  Frederick  for  his  disregard  of 
position  and  parentage  in  his  choice  of  officials.  His  appoint 
ment  of  town-bred  lawyers  and  his  reinforcement  of  official 
cadres  by  outsiders  seem  to  support  this  view.  He  was  actuated 
not  so  much  by  freedom  from  snobbery  as  by  a  love  of  playing 
the  oriental  despot,  who  can  take  his  scullion  of  to-day  for  his 
Grand  Wazir  of  to-morrow — a  trait  which  is  quite  in  character. 
A  whole  army  of  slaves,  male  and  female,  were  attached  to 
the  imperial  establishment,  many  of  them  Moors — who  were 
mainly  employed  in  divers  duties  in  the  imperial  residences. 
Frederick  had  quarters  in  a  number  of  places  :  Lucera,  Melfi, 
Canosa,  Messina,  to  which  special  interest  attaches.  Until 
recently  it  was  the  fashion  to  consider  these  arsenals  and 
clothing  stores  as  imperial  harems,  and  this  belief  was  strength 
ened  by  some  instructions  of  the  Emperor,  that  the  girls 
employed  there  should  be  provided  with  clothing  and  should 
be  kept  at  their  spinning  when  not  otherwise  occupied. 
People  affected  to  consider  this  a  humane  and  domestic  trait  of 
the  Emperor  in  relation  to  his  concubines.  It  is  clear  from  the 
wording  of  his  orders  that  the  Saracen  girls  were  in  charge  of 
eunuchs,  but  this  would  have  been  necessary  for  the  discipline 
of  Saracen  slave  women,  employed  at  the  looms  and  in  the 
workshops  which  supplied  the  needs  of  the  court,  the  clothing 
for  the  army,  woollen  coverlets  and  costly  saddlecloths  and 
trappings  for  horses,  camels  and  hunting  leopards  ;  we  have 
no  ground  for  assuming  that  the  women  were  the  odalisques  of 
their  lord.  In  these  same  quarters  weapons  and  armour  were 
manufactured,  machines  of  war,  riding  and  pack  saddles. 
Frederick  frequently  fetched  craftsmen  from  a  distance  to 
teach  his  slaves  :  a  Syrian  master  perhaps  for  cross-bows,  or 
a  Pisan  for  chain  mail. 

Apart  from  the  staffs  of  these  provincial  quarters  there  was 
a  personal  retinue  which  accompanied  the  Emperor  on  all  his 
campaigns,  baggage  train  and  staff  and  everything  appertaining, 
an  immense  following  which  was  permanently  in  attendance. 
A  most  amazing  cavalcade — such  as  the  West  had  never  seen — 
like  the  state  of  an  oriental  monarch,  always  followed  Frederick 
on  his  journeys  after  his  return  from  the  East.  Apart  from 
administrative  officials,  High  Court  Judges  and  the  Saracen 


HIS  MENAGERIE  311 

bodyguard,  a  complete  menagerie  was  in  his  train,  that  brought 
people  crowding  in  from  miles  around  :  strange  beasts,  un 
seen  before,  some  of  which  were  useful  in  hunting,  but  whose 
chief  function  was  to  add  to  the  glamour  and  mystery  of 
imperial  majesty.  Costly  four-in-hand  teams  drew  mighty 
wagons  laden  with  treasure,  richly  caparisoned  camels  bearing 
burdens  were  escorted  by  uncounted  slaves,  gaudily  arrayed 
in  silken  tunics  and  linen  gear.  Leopards  and  lynxes,  apes  and 
bears,  panthers  and  lions,  were  led  on  the  chain  by  Saracen 
slaves.  The  Emperor  even  possessed  a  giraffe.  Add  to  these 
countless  dogs,  hawks,  barn  owls,  horned  owls,  eagles  and 
buzzards,  every  type  of  falcon,  white  and  coloured  peacocks, 
rare  Syrian  doves,  white  Indian  parakeets  crowned  with  yellow 
tufts  of  feathers,  African  ostriches,  and,  finally,  the  elephant  with 
his  wooden  tower  on  his  back,  in  which  were  seated  Saracen 
marksmen  and  trumpeters.  On  triumphal  occasions,  once  in 
Cremona  for  instance,  the  Emperor  himself  rode  at  the  head  of 
this  procession  :  the  God-man  visibly  elevated  above  all  the 
creatures  of  the  world. 

The  number  of  animals  alone,  many  of  which  people  scarcely 
knew  by  name,  let  alone  by  sight,  thrilled  the  world  with 
excitement.  All  chroniclers  give  complete  details  about  the 
imperial  procession.  Brunetto  Latini,  Dante's  teacher,  lets 
himself  go  about  the  elephant  in  Cremona  which  had  dashed  a 
donkey  to  the  ground  with  its  trunk ;  apart  from  what  he 
had  actually  seen  he  retails  all  sorts  of  marvellous  tales  :  that 
the  elephant,  which  was  a  present  to  the  Emperor  from  King 
John  of  Jerusalem,  would  never  step  on  to  a  ship  until  it  had 
been  promised  a  safe  return,  and  that  before  copulation  it  must 
eat  a  mandragora  root  which  grows  only  in  the  neighbour 
hood  of  the  earthly  paradise.  When  the  elephant  entered  at 
last,  the  spectators  waited  breathlessly  to  see  its  bones  turn 
into  ivory.  Others  gave  their  attention  to  other  animals  ;  the 
Frenchman,  Villard  de  Honnecourt,  who  once  saw  this  zoo 
logical  collection  on  his  travels,  sketched  the  lion  and  wrote 
underneath  :  "  Ci  lions  fu  contrefais  al  vif." 

The  rest  of  the  Emperor's  escort  aroused  nearly  as  much 
speculation  as  the  exotic  animals.  For  the  court  retinue  in 
cluded  Saracen  women  and  eunuchs,  as  people  never  failed  to 


3i2  MOORS  AND  NEGROES  v.3 

note  when  the  train  passed  through  the  Italian  towns .  Nothing 
was  more  obvious — even  without  the  hints  of  the  Pope's  letter 
— than  to  see  in  these  veiled  women  the  favourite  concubines 
of  the  already  legendary  harem.  The  very  uncertainty  was 
stimulating.  Whether  these  girls,  like  the  acrobats,  conjurors 
and  rope  dancers  who  were  often  in  attendance,  were  kept  by 
the  Emperor  merely  for  the  entertainment  their  skill  provided 
(as  Kaiser  Frederick  protested  in  innocent  surprise  to  the 
reproaches  of  the  Pope)  or  whether  Frederick  made  use  of  them 
on  occasion  in  other  ways  ("  swept  away  by  their  charms," 
as  the  Pope  preferred  to  imagine)  could  not  be  ascertained. 
*  Who  could  testify  in  the  matter  ?  "  as  the  Emperor's  ambas 
sador  later  said  to  the  Council  of  Lyon.  They  were  simply 
part  of  the  court  staff,  maidservants  and  slave-girls,  perhaps  also 
dancers  and  singing-girls,  which  fitted  in  with  the  oriental 
arrangements  of  the  Emperor's  court. 

The  Emperor's  staff  included  also  numerous  male  slaves, 
whose  duties  were  very  various,  and  ranged  from  personal 
attendance  on  the  monarch  to  the  most  menial  tasks.  The 
Emperor  provided  suitable  education  and  training  on  the  most 
varied  lines  for  the  abler  ones.  Many  were  taught  to  read  and 
write  Arabic.  Another  time  he  selected  negro  boys  between 
sixteen  and  twenty  to  form  a  musical  corps  ;  they  were 
magnificently  clad  and  taught  to  blow  large  and  small  silver 
trumpets.  We  may  assume  that  the  duty  of  this  imperial  band 
was  to  play  at  meal  times,  since  the  courts  of  Anjou  and 
Aragon,  whom  Frederick  copied  in  every  way,  indulged  this 
custom.  Black  page  boys  are  frequently  mentioned  ;  one  pair 
of  these  servitelli  nigri1  were  called  Muska  and  Marzukh,  and 
they  brought  down  on  the  Emperor  from  the  Pope  the  re 
proach  of  "  scarcely  veiled  sodomy."  When  Frederick's  wrath 
fluttered  his  accusers  they  later  tried  to  take  the  sting  out  of 
this  by  returning  to  the  innuendoes  about  the  Saracen  girls  and 
the  harem  of  Gomorra.  One  of  these  boys  will  probably  be 
the  slave  who  grew  up  at  the  imperial  court  and  rose  to 
hold  the  highest  offices  of  state,  Johannes  Maurus.1  The 
slave-woman's  son  attracted  the  Emperor's  attention ;  he 

1  The  Middle  Ages  were  little  interested  in  ethnology  :  Moors,  Arabs, 
Negroes  were  indiscriminately  nigri. — Tr. 


JOHANNES  MAURUS  313 

became  guardian  of  the  Emperor's  chamber,  rose  to  still  more 
important  positions,  received  a  barony,  and  later,  under 
King  Conrad,  became  Chief  Chamberlain,  Commandant  of  the 
fortress  of  Lucera,  and  finally  Lord  'Treasurer  of  the  Sicilian 
kingdom.  Ultimately  he  was  overtaken  by  the  usual  fate  of 
the  slave  who  attains  great  office  :  he  turned  traitor  and  paid 
the  penalty.  The  Pope  took  him  into  favour,  but  he  was  mur 
dered  by  the  Saracens  who  had  remained  faithful  to  Manfred. 
This  was  another  of  the  types  represented  at  the  Court  of 
Frederick  II.  There  were  isolated  Saracen  officials  under 
Frederick,  as  under  the  Normans,  especially  in  the  departments 
of  Customs  and  Finance,  but  they  tended  to  disappear  and  no 
other  had  so  brilliant  a  career  as  Johannes  Maurus. 


Beside  the  town-bred  literati  who  grouped  themselves  round 
Piero  della  Vigna  and  the  foreigners,  there  was  a  third  group  of 
officials,  the  aristocratic  knights.  Though  Frederick  looked 
more  to  the  efficiency  than  to  the  origin  of  his  officers,  yet  the 
posts  of  Justiciar,  or,  as  they  were  later  called  in  Northern  Italy, 
the  posts  of  Vicar  and  Vicar- General,  were  reserved  almost 
exclusively  for  the  lower,  less  wealthy  nobility.  The  mere 
possession  of  a  fief  was  not. as  in  Norman  times  a  qualification 
for  office  ;  the  decisive  factor  was  the  person.  The  nobleman 
could  achieve  distinction  only  by  his  personal  service  and  ac 
cording  to  his  individual  ability.  It  is  the  more  remarkable  that 
not  only  the  circle  of  stylists  who  surrounded  della  Vigna,  but 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  knightly  aristocratic  officials  were 
drawn  from  Beneventan  or  Campanian  stocks,  were  supple 
mented  to  a  certain  extent  from  Apulia.  The  Morra  family 
to  which  the  Grand  Master  Justiciar  belonged  came  from 
Benevento.  They  liked  to  trace  their  descent,  which,  however, 
shared  the  uncertainty  common  to  all  Italian  genealogies,  back 
to  a  certain  Gothic  Chieftain,  King  Totila.  The  Lords  of 
Aquino,  who  boasted  a  Lombard  descent,  came  from  Campania. 
They  espoused  the  Emperor's  cause  more  warmly  than  any  of 
his  other  supporters,  and  Frederick  even  took  a  wife  from 
among  them.  The  only  untypical  scion  of  the  house  was  the 
saint,  Thomas  Aquinas.  A  third  famous  family,  the  Filan- 


PAGES  v.  3 

gieri,  claimed  to  be  of  Breton  lineage  and  to  have  come  to 
Sicily  with  the  Normans  ;  they  had  their  seat  in  the  ancient 
principality  of  Benevento.  The  house  of  Eboli  were  also 
reputed  to  be  Lombards.  The  Montefusculi  and  the  Monte- 
neri  came  from  Benevento,  and  also  the  Counts  of  Caserta,  into 
whose  family  also  Frederick  married.  Other  celebrated  ser 
vants  of  the  Emperor  were  the  Cicala,  probably  originally  from 
Genoa,  the  Acquaviva,  settlers  in  the  Abruzzi,  the  Caraccioli 
from  Naples,  the  Ruffi  from  Calabria.  The  kernel  of  the 
kingdom  was  undoubtedly  the  Campanian-Beneventan  strip, 
which  was  full  of  Lombard  blood  and  had  been  early  con 
quered  by  the  Normans.  It  had  been  less  exhausted  by  racial 
admixtures  than  other  regions  :  one  is  reminded  of  the  similar 
importance  of  the  Lombard  factor  in  the  culture  of  Tuscany. 
What  influenced  the  Emperor  was  the  fact  not  of  their  Ger 
manic  descent  but  of  their  undegenerate  quality.  Frederick 
liked  to  boast  himself  "  the  offshoot  of  a  new  breed  "  and 
never  counted  in  the  South  as  a  northern  foreigner.  Nothing, 
therefore,  was  further  from  Frederick's  intention  than  to 
create  antagonisms  where  none  existed,  by  re-awakening  half- 
forgotten  Germanic  memories. 

Frederick  had,  at  first,  to  make  use  of  the  Sicilian-Italian 
nobility  as  he  found  them.  Gradually,  as  time  went  on,  this 
aristocracy,  having  breathed  the  air  of  the  court,  began  to 
mould  itself  to  a  given  model,  as  new  generations  arose  both 
under  Frederick  and  after  him.  We  gain  a  vivid  insight  into  all 
the  chivalrous  activities  of  the  court — for  the  court  was  still 
strong  in  knightly  tradition — by  following  out  the  education 
and  evolution  of  the  nobly  born  official.  The  men  who  were 
later  to  attain  the  highest  posts  had  nearly  all  served  in  their 
boyhood  as  pages  in  the  Emperor's  immediate  circle,  and  en 
joyed  that  knightly  education  which  is  familiar  from  the  court 
poetry  of  the  time.  This  education  now  had  a  new  direction, 
for  it  combined  knightly  culture  with  the  hope  of  future 
official  employment. 

In  Frederick's  vicinity  we  meet  at  every  turn  the  noble 
pages,  or,  to  use  the  French  phrase  inherited  from  Norman  days, 
the  valetti  imperatoris.  No  nobleman  could  become  a  knight 
unless  he  had  served  as  page  to  some  great  man,  Emperor  or 


EDUCATION  OF  A  PAGE  315 

Pope,  or  to  some  spiritual  or  secular  prince.  It  was  customary 
for  the  Sicilian  nobility  to  pass  the  years  of  boyhood  at  the 
imperial  court.  Service  began  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Prior 
to  this  boys  of  noble  birth  will  have  been  taught  in  one  of  the 
monasteries.  We  know  of  Thomas  Aquinas  that  "  as  a  small 
boy  he  had  to  share  the  lot  of  the  other  noble  youths  who  re 
ceived  instruction  in  Monte  Cassino,  as  was  customary  in  the 
country  of  the  saint."  Having  once  come  to  court  the  pages 
belonged  to  the  Emperor 'sfamilia,  received  from  him  a  salary 
of  six  ounces  of  gold  a  month,  were  entitled  to  two  shield- 
bearers  and  three  horses  (which,  like  themselves,  were  main 
tained  by  the  court),  and  for  the  rest  formed  the  lowest  rung  of 
the  ladder  of  chivalry,  as  they  are  styled  in  the  Sicilian  Book  of 
Laws.  If  a  page  insults  a  knight  who  is  of  higher  rank  than 
himself  his  hand  is  cut  off.  The  pages,  while  at  court  and  not 
employed  on  special  service,  were  under  the  orders  of  the 
Seneschal.  They  fought  under  his  flag,  and  they  had  to  keep 
him  informed  of  their  comings  and  goings,  even  though  the 
Emperor  might  be  already  aware  of  them. 

The  Emperor  took  a  personal  interest  in  the  pages  :  one  who 
was  sick  was  sent  to  Apulia  for  change  of  air  ;  another  at  court 
expense  to  the  baths  of  Pozzuoli  and  Salerno.  The  pages' 
duties  were  very  various.  Some  were  told  off  for  personal 
attendance  on  the  Emperor ;  one  was  despatched  for  the  honour 
able  duty  of  meeting  the  messenger  of  Michael  Cornnenus, 
another  for  the  reception  of  the  Duke  of  Carinthia.  Their 
more  particular  duties  concerned  all  matters  of  chivalry.  We 
find  imperial  pages  employed  in  the  royal  stables,  others  in  the 
kennels,  another  in  attendance  on  the  hunting  leopard,  a  large 
number  busied  about  Frederick's  favourite  pastime  :  falconry. 
Frederick's  passion  for  hawking  is  well  known.  People  were 
so  well  accustomed  to  see  the  Emperor  in  hunting  dress  that 
green  became  the  fashionable  colour  amongst  the  Ghibelline 
partisans  in  Northern  Italy.  A  papal  chronicler  writes  mockingly 
that:  "Frederick  degrades  his  majestic  title  to  huntsman's 
work,  and  instead  of  adorning  himself  with  laws  and  weapons, 
he  surrounds  himself  with  panthers,  hounds  and  screeching 
birds,  and  converts  the  Emperor  into  a  follower  of  the  chase. 
He  exchanges  his  illustrious  sceptre  for  a  spear  and  disputes 


316  THE  IDEAL  FALCONER  v.3 

with  eagles  their  triumph  in  bird-slaying. "  The  imperial 
hunstman  needed  numerous  pages  at  hand,  and  kept  them 
fully  employed.  There  were  hawks  to  be  conveyed  to  the 
Apulian  barons,  to  be  cared  for  during  their  mewing ;  there 
were  the  Emperor's  sacri  falcones  to  be  fetched  from  Apulia  ; 
other  pages  were  sent  to  Malta,  others  again  as  far  as  Liibeck, 
to  bring  back  certain  types  of  falcon.  It  was  probably  excep 
tional  for  the  lads  to  be  permitted  to  take  any  actual  part  in  the 
hawking.  The  Emperor's  standard  for  an  "  ideal  falconer  " 
was  high.  He  draws  a  picture  of  one  in  his  book  on  falconry  : 
quick  wit,  sharp  sight,  good  memory,  acute  hearing,  courage 
and  endurance  are  essential,  and  the  perfect  falconer  must  be  of 
medium  height — long-legged  ones  are  useless.  Folk  who  were 
only  half  or  quarter-qualified  were  not  allowed  near  the  birds, 
and  the  over-young  must  first  grow  useful  in  the  Emperor's 
service.  It  is  expressly  stipulated  :  "  The  falconer  must  not 
be  too  boyish  in  behaviour,  lest  his  boyishness  lead  him  to 
transgress  against  the  art ;  for  boys  are  wont  to  be  impatient, 
and  delight  chiefly  in  seeing  beautiful  flights  and  many  of  them. 
But  we  do  not  banish  boys  completely,  for  even  they  will  grow 
wiser.  .  ,  ." 

The  pages  remained  at  court  till  they  won  their  knightly 
girdle,  often  with  the  Emperor's  direct  assistance.  Some  of 
them  then  left  the  court  and  returned  to  live  in  their  own 
baronies,  or  enlisted  as  mercenary  knights  in  the  imperial 
armies  and  are  thus  lost  to  sight.  Others  entered  the  state 
service,  and  this  possibility  may  well  have  been  one  of  the 
main  attractions  of  coming  as  a  page  to  court.  The  Apulian 
families  sent  nearly  all  their  sons.  Two  lords  of  Aquino, 
several  Morras,one  Caraccioli,one  Count  Caserta,  one  Filangieri, 
one  Acquaviva  ;  the  sons  of  captains  of  fortresses,  of  non- 
official  feudal  barons,  and  many  others  served  as  pages.  Some 
times  the  Emperor  commanded  the  attendance  of  a  boy  at 
court,  and  he  often  sought  out  those  who  would  be  "  responsive 
to  the  imperial  discipline  "  in  order  to  "  receive  them  into  the 
arms  of  his  education  "  and  interest  himself  like  a  father  in 
their  fortunes,  though  they  had  been  begotten  by  another.  He 
writes  once  to  the  father  of  one  of  his  pages  :  "  We  have  heaped 
on  him  the  beginnings  of  all  the  virtues,  so  that  he  may  grow 


SCHOOL  OF  LIFE  317 

worthy  of  himself,  useful  to  others  and  may  bear  fruit  for  us," 
and,  further,  that  these  young  men  "  who  live  in  our  service  with 
honour  and  die  in  joy  of  great  deeds  may  not  pine  away  in 
feeble  vices  or  anaemic  anxieties."  Sicily  was  not  the  only 
country  represented  by  pages  at  the  imperial  court ;  Northern 
Italians  came  also,  and  when  Frederick  II  was  in  Cyprus  he 
took  a  son  of  John  of  Ibelin  into  his  service  as  a  page.  Simi 
larly,  during  a  short  stay  in  Vienna  at  a  later  date,  he  brought 
back  Berthold  and  Godfrey,  two  sons  of  the  Margravine  of 
Hohenburg,  as  pages  to  Italy,  for  whom  a  brilliant  career  was 
in  store,  almost  the  only  Germans  in  the  Sicilian  State. 

We  hear  nothing  of  any  special  instruction  of  the  pages 
in  administrative  work,  and  probably  there  was  none.  The 
Emperor  might  well  reflect  that  these  young  noblemen  would 
see  and  hear  enough  during  their  years  in  his  immediate  en 
tourage  to  be  ready  to  take  over  even  the  highest  office.  A  lad 
of  twenty  who  had  served  for  years  at  court,  even  though 
nominally  in  charge  merely  of  falcons  and  leopards,  must  have 
acquired  as  much  savoir  vivre  as  many  an  aged  bishop.  What 
they  lacked  in  experience  was  richly  compensated  for  by 
complete  loyalty  and  eagerness  to  serve.  In  this  connection 
we  may  recall  Goethe's  dictum  :  "  If  I  were  a  prince,  I  should 
never  give  the  first  places  to  people  who  had  come  gradually 
into  prominence  merely  on  account  of  birth  and  seniority.  .  .  . 
I  should  have  YOUNG  MEN  .  .  .  then  it  would  be  a  joy  to  reign." 
Under  Frederick  II  we  often  find,  in  fact,  quite  young  noble 
men  who  had  been  pages  holding  the  highest  posts  as  his 
representatives.  The  Hohenburg  brothers  can  scarcely  have 
reached  the  middle  twenties  when  they  were  Captains  General 
in  Northern  Italy.  Count  Richard  of  Caserta  and  Thomas  of 
Aquino  junior  were  younger  still  when  the  Emperor  entrusted 
similar  posts  to  them.  We  know  with  considerable  certainty 
that  Landolfo  Caraccioli,  who  afterwards  became  Justiciar  of 
the  students  at  Naples,  was  in  1239  a  sixteen-year-old  page, 
yet  before  Frederick's  death  he  was  officiating  as  Vicar  in  a 
most  difficult  post  in  Tuscany  in  the  upper  valley  of  the  Arno. 

Other  nobles  who  appear  as  pages  of  the  Emperor  at  a  later 
date  reappear  in  responsible  posts  under  King  Manfred  : 
Berard  of  Acquaviva,  as  Justiciar  of  the  island  of  Sicily,  the 


318  MANFRED'S  EDUCATION  v.3 

younger  Richard  Filangieri  as  Captain  of  the  Mainland,  and 
many  others.  We  cannot  be  sure  whether  noble  pages  at 
tended  the  University  of  Naples,  but  the  imperial  page  Nicholas 
of  Trani,  for  instance,  later  entered  the  judicial  service  and 
was  High  Court  Judge  in  Manfred's  time.  This  is  the  first 
example  of  the  infusion  of  the  spirit  of  the  town-bred  jurist 
into  the  knightly  nobility  ;  later  jurists  were  sometimes  raised 
to  knightly  rank,  and  their  sons  were  received  as  pages  by  the 
Angevin  kings. 


The  Emperor's  own  sons,  whether  legitimate  or  not,  mostly 
grew  up  among  the  young  nobles  at  court,  and  the  sons  of 
foreign  princes  were  frequently  educated  with  them.  There 
appears  to  be  no  record  of  what  became  of  the  two  orphaned 
sons  of  King  John  of  Jerusalem,  the  young  brothers-in-law 
of  the  Emperor,  whom  he  invited  to  his  court.  His  cousin 
Frederick,  son  of  the  King  of  Castile,  was  sent  to  grow  up  under 
Frederick's  tutelage.  The  offspring  of  the  Staufen-Castilian 
breed  l  were,  however,  neither  to  hold  nor  to  bind.  Frederick 
of  Castile  ran  away  from  the  Emperor  after  a  few  years  :  so  did 
his  brother,  Henry  of  Castile,  a  wilder  dare-devil  still,  who, 
after  an  adventurous  life,  was  to  exert  a  potent  influence  in 
Italian  politics  in  late  Hohenstaufen  times.  King  Enzio  must 
have  spent  some  of  his  boyhood  at  the  Sicilian  court,  and 
Frederick  of  Antioch,  too,  another  natural  son  of  the  Emperor. 
We  have  considerable  detail  about  Manfred's  education  at  this 
intellectual  court.  He  was  eighteen  when  his  father  died,  and 
Kaiser  Frederick,  in  his  later  years,  loved  him  more  than  any 
of  his  other  sons.  "  A  host  of  learned  doctors  "  gave  him 
lessons  and  taught  him  "  about  the  nature  of  the  world,  the 
origin  and  development  of  the  body,  the  creation  of  souls, 
their  immortality  and  the  methods  of  perfecting  them,  the 
transitory  nature  of  matter,  the  security  of  eternal  things." 
From  his  childhood  Manfred  clung  to  the  ways  of  thought  of 
his  father,  who  was  both  nurse  and  mother  to  him.  It  was  in 

1  Beatrice,  daughter  of  Philip  of  Swabia  was  Frederick  IPs  first  cousin, 
she  married  Ferdinand  of  Castile  :  this  Frederick  and  Henry  are  her  sons. 
—TV. 


A  KING'S  DUTY  319 

response  to  Manfred's  urgent  entreaties  that  Frederick  II 
composed  his  Falcon  Book. 

Manfred  is  said  to  have  later  been  put  under  the  special  care 
of  Berthold  of  Hohenburg,  the  sometime  page.  The  heir  of 
the  Empire,  on  the  other  hand,  King  Conrad,  left  his  father's 
court  at  the  age  of  seven,  nominally  to  take  over  the  Govern 
ment  of  Germany.  His  tutor  was  a  Neapolitan  knight,  "  to 
whom  Conrad's  education  was  entrusted  on  account  of  his 
noble  race,  his  great  wisdom  and  eloquence,  and  his  high 
character,  in  order  that  the  lad  by  the  elevating  example  of  such 
a  master  might  be  thoroughly  educated  in  every  type  of  virtue, 
wisdom  and  self-control."  This  Neapolitan  was  presumably 
a  Caraccioli,  since  Landolfo  Caraccioli,  himself  then  sixteen, 
accompanied  the  young  king  to  Germany  as  a  page.  We  also 
learn  that  Conrad  was  taught  with  a  large  number  of  other  boys 
of  noble  birth,  and  the  story  goes  that  whenever  the  young  king 
was  at  fault  his  teacher  used  to  thrash  one  of  the  other  boys, 
for  if  the  young  king  had  a  generous  heart  it  would  be  parti 
cularly  painful  to  him  to  see  others,  who  were  innocent, 
punished  for  his  guilt. 

Some  didactic  letters  of  the  Emperor  to  this  son  are  pre 
served  in  which  Frederick  II  strives  to  explain  the  true  dignity 
of  a  king.  Although  Conrad  is  addressed  as  a  "  divine  scion 
of  the  race  of  the  Caesars,"  the  letters  show  how  soberly  and 
clearly  people  at  the  imperial  court  thought  about  the  Ruler's 
office,  for  all  their  hero-worship  of  the  Ruler.  "  Famous 
extraction  alone  is  not  sufficient  for  kings  nor  for  the  great 
men  of  the  earth,  unless  noble  personal  character  is  wedded 
to  illustrious  race,  unless  outstanding  zeal  reflects  glory  on  the 
prince's  rank.  People  do  not  distinguish  Kings  and  Caesars 
above  other  men  because  they  are  more  highly  placed,  but 
because  they  see  farther  and  act  better.  As  men  they  stand 
equal  to  other  men  by  their  humanity,  they  are  associated  with 
them  in  life,  and  have  nothing  to  pride  themselves  on,  unless 
by  virtue  and  by  wisdom  they  outshine  other  men.  They  are 
born  as  men,  and  as  men  they  die,"  Only  by  wisdom  of  the 
spirit — Frederick  writes  again — are  kings  distinguished  from 
other  men,  and  it  is  incomparably  more  vicious  for  a  prince  to 
fail  in  serving  wisdom  and  to  remain  in  ignorance  than  for  a 


320  FOCUS   OF  STATE  v.3 

private  individual,  "  for  the  nobility  of  his  royal  blood  has  made 
a  king  more  susceptible  to  the  teachings  of  wisdom  by  inspiring 
him  with  a  noble  and  fastidious  soul  .  .  .  hence  it  is  necessary 
and  seemly  that  thou  shouldest  love  wisdom,  and  for  her  sake 
it  is  fitting  that  thou  lay  aside  the  Caesars'  dignity,  and  under 
the  master's  rod  and  the  ferule  of  the  teacher  be  neither  king 
nor  emperor  but  pupil."  And  again :  "  We  do  not  forbid  thee 
to  practise  with  skilful  people  in  due  time  and  place  the  wonted 
royal  pastime  of  hawking  and  the  chase.  But  we  adjure  thee 
and  wish  to  warn  thee  that  in  hunting  and  hawking  thou  do  not 
indulge  in  too  familiar  converse  with  beaters  and  keepers  and 
huntsmen,  that  they  with  presumptuous  words  impair  the 
royal  dignity,  or  with  chatter  demean  it  and  corrupt  good 
morals/' 


It  is  easy  to  forget  that  for  all  its  learning  and  law-plying 
Frederick's  court  was  none  the  less  a  knightly  medieval  court, 
which  for  many  decades  was  a  focus  of  chivalry.  This  was  of 
prime  importance  for  Italy  and  enabled  her  to  develop  the  life 
of  courts  and  kings.  Frederick  II  and  his  court  belonged  far 
more  to  Italy  than  the  remote  Norman  Court  had  done.  For 
years  the  Emperor's  headquarters  camp  wandered  round 
central  and  northern  Italy,  and  even  when  the  Emperor  re 
turned  to  his  southern  home  he  still  remained  in  full  view  of 
Italy,  since  he  resided  wholly  in  the  north  of  his  peninsular 
territory.  It  may  cause  surprise  that  the  Emperor  so  rarely 
sought  in  Palermo,  the  old  Norman  capital,  the  joys  and  delights 
of  Sicily  which  he  loved  to  extol. 

The  tales  of  a  brilliant  Hohenstaufen  court  at  Palermo  belong 
to  the  realm  of  myth.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his  reign 
Frederick  II  only  once  set  foot  on  the  island,  to  suppress  the 
insurrection  of  1233  in  Messina.  Palermo  was  still  the  capital 
of  the  kingdom,  but  only  in  name  ;  with  Frederick  II  it  had 
lost  for  practical  reasons  the  privileged  position  of  a  royal 
residence.  It  could  only  be  reached  direct  by  a  long  sea 
journey  or  by  a  wearisome  land  march  from  the  Straits,  and  was 
much  too  far  out  of  the  world  for  the  Ruler  of  an  Empire. 
Frederick  had  to  shift  the  focus  of  his  State  to  the  spot  where 


FREDERICK'S  HEADQUARTERS  321 

its  main  strength  was  to  be  found  :    his  most  northern  pro 
vinces. 

Frederick  had  praised  Apulia  (the  Adriatic  coast  provinces) 
and  the  Terra  Laboris  (the  Campania  of  our  day)  above  the 
Land  of  Promise,  had  boasted  himself  a  "  man  of  Apulia,"  and 
his  actual  home  was  now  the  land  lying  between  these  two — 
the  Capitanata  surrounding  the  Gulf  of  Manfredonia.    Up  to 
Frederick's  day  the  Capitanata  had  possessed  no  particular 
importance,  and  the  fact  that  for  close  on  a  century  the  threads 
of  world  politics  met  here  in  this  god-forsaken  Tavoliere  di 
Puglia,  and  that  the  town  of  Foggia  became  renowned  through 
out  the  lands  of  East  and  West,  was  solely  due  to  the  Emperor's 
personal  preference  for  this  province.    The  political  factor  was 
undoubtedly  the  decisive  one  in  Frederick's  choice  of  these 
northern  regions.     He  was  close  to  the  scene  of  his  northern 
and  central  Italian  battles  and  ready  at  any  moment  to  take  a 
hand  personally,  to  set  out  for  the  north,  to  keep  an  eye  on 
Rome.     Other  considerations,  however,  also  carried  weight  in 
in  choice  of  this  sterile  region.    To-day's  stony  desert,  serving 
at  best  for  sheep  runs,  must  in  Hohenstaufen  times,  when  all 
was  more  fruitful  and  better  wooded,  have  possessed  some 
amoenitas  such  as  the  ancient  world  had  an  eye  for  :  that  plea 
sant  alternation  of  mountain  and  hill,  of  forest  and  plain  and 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  sea.    At  no  period  of  history,  how 
ever,  can  the  Capitanata  have  been  able  to  compete  with  the 
colourful  Palermo  in  its  exotic  almost  tropical  luxuriance,  or 
with  the  marvels  of  the  Bay  of  Naples.    Possibly  the  hunting 
possibilities  attracted  Frederick  and  compensated  for  other 
shortcomings  ;   there  will  be  at  least  a  grain  of  truth  in  that 
hypothesis.    Italy  certainly  had  the  impression  that  Frederick 
lingered  for  the  winter  in  Foggia  and  spent  the  summer  in  the 
adjacent  hills  for  the  sake  of  hawking.     The  very  barrenness 
of  the  region,  so  obviously  unexhausted,  probably  had  more 
charm  for  him  than  the  thousandfold  fertility  of  ever-pregnant 
Sicily,  and   offered  him,  moreover,  more  raw  material  for 
creative  effort.    And  what  a  transformation  Frederick  suc 
ceeded  in  producing  in  these  northern  provinces  of  his  ! 

He  visited  the  Capitanata  oftener  than  his  other  provinces, 
he  wrote,  because  of  his  castles.    He  had  found  no  castles 


322  PLAN  OF  A  CASTLE  v.3 

there.  In  1221  he  saw  the  Capitanata  for  the  first  time, 
and  he  must  have  forthwith  resolved  to  make  this  part  of  his 
kingdom  his  imperial  headquarters.  As  early  as  1223  he  began 
the  construction  of  his  big  castle  of  Foggia,  the  inscription  on 
which  stated  that  Frederick  had  elevated  the  royal  town  into  a 
far-famed  imperial  residence.  Soon  there  arose  at  reasonable 
distances  pleasure  palaces,  hunting  lodges,  and  rural  hamlets  to 
which  there  was  usually  attached  a  farm  or  dairy  farm.  These 
solatia  of  the  Emperor  seemed  to  grow  as  simply  and  naturally 
out  of  the  soil  of  the  Great  Capitanata — to  use  Enzio's  phrase — 
as  the  neighbouring  holy  places  of  ancient  days.  The  Castel 
del  Monte,  on  its  lofty  site  near  Barletta,  is  the  best  preserved 
and  the  best  known  of  these  Hohenstaufen  castles .  Its  ground- 
plan  is  unique,  and  like  many  other  of  the  Emperor's  build 
ings  it  was  probably  sketched  by  Frederick  himself :  a  regular 
octagon  of  yellowish  limestone  ;  its  smooth  perfectly-fitting 
blocks  showing  no  joins  and  producing  the  effect  of  a  mono 
lith  :  at  each  of  the  eight  corners  a  squat  octagonal  tower  the 
height  of  the  wall ;  two  storeys  identical  in  height,  each  con 
taining  eight  large  equal  rooms,  trapezium-shaped  ;  an  octa 
gonal  central  courtyard  adorned  with  antique  sculptures  and 
imitations  of  the  antique,  in  the  centre  of  which  a  large  octagonal 
basin  served  as  bath.  Every  fraction  of  the  structure  displays 
the  mental  catholicity  of  the  Hohenstaufen  court :  oriental 
massiveness  of  the  whole,  a  portal  foreshadowing  the  Renais 
sance,  Gothic  windows  and  rooms  with  groined  and  vaulted 
roofs.  The  defiant  gloom  of  the  tiny-windowed  rooms  was 
mitigated  by  the  furnishings  ;  the  floors  were  of  mosaic,  the 
walls  covered  with  sheets  of  reddish  breccia  or  white  marble, 
the  groined  vaults  supported  on  pilasters  with  Corinthian 
capitals,  or  by  delicate  clustered  columns  of  white  marble. 
Majesty  and  grace  were  fused  in  one. 

Frederick  II  never  stinted  well-chosen  splendour,  and  the 
exotic  luxury  and  magnificence  probably  produced  a  more 
powerful  effect  in  these  sterner  northern  regions  than  in  the 
half- African  half-Saracen  Palermo.  What  mysteries,  what 
unimagined  revelries  contemporaries  pictured  taking  place 
behind  the  mute  walls  of  these  castles  !  What  amazing  brilli 
ance  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  now  and  then  !  In  the  rambling 


FOGGIA  323 

castle  of  Foggia,  which  is  described  as  a  palace  rich  in  marble, 
with  statues  and  pillars  of  verd-antique,  with  marble  lions  and 
basins,  those  legendary  banquets  will  have  taken  place  amid 
riot  and  revelry  the  glamour  of  which  still  clings  round  the 
memory  of  the  Hohenstaufen  Court, 

"  Every  sort  of  festive  joy  was  there  united.  The  alternation 
of  choirs,  the  purple  garments  of  the  musicians  evoked  a  festal 
mood.  A  number  of  guests  were  knighted,  others  adorned  with 
signs  of  special  honour.  The  whole  day  was  spent  in  merri 
ment,  and  as  the  darkness  fell,  flaming  torches  were  kindled 
here  and  there  and  turned  night  into  day  for  the  contests  of  the 
players."  So  tells  the  chronicler,  and  yet  another  reports  the 
wonders  of  the  inner  courts  which  the  English  prince  Richard, 
Earl  of  Cornwall,  was  privileged  to  see.  The  English  noble  was 
returning  home  from  the  crusade  in  summer  heat :  they  first 
with  baths  and  blood-lettings  and  strengthening  draughts  made 
him  forget  the  toils  and  hardships  of  the  journey  and  the  war, 
and  then  entertained  him  with  every  type  of  sport.  He  listened 
in  amazement  to  strange  airs  on  strange  instruments,  saw  the 
jugglers  display  their  skill,  was  ravished  by  the  sight  of  lovely 
Saracen  maidens,  who  to  the  rhythm  of  cymbals  and  castanets 
came  dancing  in,  balanced  on  great  balls  that  rolled  across  the 
many-coloured  polished  floor.  Tales  and  romances  tell  of  the 
feasts  of  Frederick  and  the  glories  of  his  court :  how  hundreds 
of  knights  from  all  nations  were  entertained  in  silken  tents, 
how  minstrels  streamed  in  from  every  corner  of  the  earth  and 
foreign  embassies  displayed  the  rarest  jewels.  The  messengers 
of  Prester  John  brought  an  asbestos  garment,  an  elixir  of 
youth,  a  ring  of  invisibility,  and,  lastly,  the  philosopher's  stone. 
Further,  people  told  how  the  Emperor's  court  astrologer,  Michael 
Scot,  whose  name  was  named  with  shuddering  curiosity,  on  a 
hot  day  at  a  feast  assembled  thunderclouds  at  the  Emperor's 
command  and  performed  other  miracles. 


Apulia  was  never  to  see  again  such  chivalrous  display  as 
flourished  under  Frederick  II  and  Manfred.  Chivalry  itself, 
bound  up  as  it  was  with  crusade  and  Minnesang,  was  already 
growing  dim  in  the  later  Staufen  days.  Moreover,  the  Anjous 


324  SICILIAN  POETRY  v.3 

who  followed  the  Hohenstaufen  in  Sicily  were  joyless  bigots, 
and,  although  themselves  Proven9al,  were  far  less  in  sympathy 
than  the  Swabian  dynasty  with  the  lighthearted,  almost  pagan 
spirit  and  ihejoie  de  mvre  of  the  southern  troubadours. 

New  love  poetry  came  to  birth  in  the  chivalrous,  not  in  the 
learned,  atmosphere  of  Frederick's  court.  The  much-debated 
question  how,  and  through  whom,  Frederick  learned  to  know 
the  lyrics  of  Provence,  and  how  their  "  transference  "  to  the 
Sicilian  court  is  to  be  explained,  is  otiose.  It  would  have  been 
inexplicable  if  Frederick  had  remained  in  ignorance  of  such 
poetry.  He  was  quite  as  fully  in  touch  with  the  whole  world  of 
French  and  Proven9al  culture  as  with  the  culture  of  the  East. 
He  knew  both  languages  from  boyhood,  was  acquainted  with 
their  literature,  and  will  most  assuredly  have  read  the  novels 
which  were  familiar  to  his  court :  Tristan,  Lancelot  and  the 
rest.  We  have  evidence  that  he  knew  Merlin  and  the  Pala- 
medes  of  Guiron  de  Courtois.  The  troubadours  sang  the  praise 
of  the  Puer  Apuliae,  and  legend  located  at  the  court  of  the  fifteen- 
year-old  king  the  first  poet-coronation  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
travelling  singer  crowned  rex  versuum  who  later  became  the 
Franciscan,  Fra  Pacifico. 

The  poetry  of  the  imperial  court  was  imitated  from  the 
Proven9al,  both  in  form  and  content.  The  foreign  language 
was  not  used,  however,  as  was  customary  at  the  courts  of  North 
Italian  nobles,  such  as  Saluzzo  and  Montferrat.  Here,  for 
the  first  time,  poetry  was  written  in  an  Italian  vernacular, 
the  popular  speech  of  Sicilian  Apulia.  There  must  have  been 
isolated  forerunners  writing  in  Sicilian — che  legendary  Alkamo 
perhaps — but  every  history  of  Italian  literature  begins  with  the 
songs  of  the  Sicilian  court.  The  concentration  of  the  "  Sicilian 
School  of  Poets  "  which  here  sprang  up  helped  immensely  to 
increase  the  influence  and  spread  the  popularity  of  the  new 
vernacular  poetry,  as  Petrarch  recalls,  "  in  a  very  short 
time  this  type  of  poetry,  which  had  been  born  amongst  the 
Sicilians,  spread  throughout  all  Italy  and  beyond. "  As  late  as 
Dante  all  non-Latin  poetry  in  Italian  was  dubbed  "  Sicilian," 
which  Dante  in  his  book  De  Vulgari  Eloquentid  explains  by 
saying  "  because,  as  is  well  known  the  royal  throne  was  in 
Sicily." 


THE  VERNACULAR  325 

The  times  were  ripe  for  Frederick's  experiment.  Starting 
in  Provence,  the  popular  love  poetry  had  spread  to  the  other 
European  communities,  especially  the  French  and  German,  and 
had  been  warmly  welcomed.  Only  when  its  zenith  was  almost 
overpast  did  it  find  its  way  to  Italy,  for  Italy  had  lagged  far  be 
hind  the  other  European  countries  in  evolving  a  native  language 
of  its  own,  probably  because  no  other  country  had  remained 
so  closely  in  touch  with  Latin.  The  realisation  that  the  spoken 
tongue  had  ceased  to  be  the  speech  of  Rome,  and  had  become 
an  independent  idiom,  scarcely  came  before  the  thirteenth 
century.  A  feeling  of  Italian  nationality,  whose  prophet  Dante 
was  to  be,  began  to  dawn  about  the  same  time — later  than  in 
other  countries,  delayed  by  the  same  misconception  that  Italian 
and  Latin  were  one.  Since  the  rise  of  a  national  self-conscious 
ness  and  a  national  language  are  closely  related  we  need  not 
wonder  that  an  Italian  dialect  first  attained  the  dignity  of  a 
popular  language  in  the  South  Italian  State  of  Frederick  II, 
that  is,  in  that  section  of  Italy  in  which  national  feeling  had 
been  first  and  most  strongly  awakened. 

The  question  what  "  put  it  into  Frederick's  head  "  to 
utilise  the  native  Sicilian  dialect  of  Apulia  for  his  poems  in  the 
Proven£al  style  is  childish.  The  sufficient  explanation  is  that 
he  was  a  statesman,  and  the  founder  of  a  nation.  It  is  reported 
of  the  Normans,  those  highly  gifted  statesmen,  that  they  had 
made  the  attempt,  albeit  prematurely  and  unsuccessfully,  to 
unify  the  Sicilian  people  by  introducing  French  :  gens  efficiatur 
ut  una.  Their  hope  was  to  introduce  uniformity  of  speech  by 
popularising  the  language  of  the  court,  for  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century  French  was  the  language  of  the  royal  capital  of 
Palermo.  Frederick  had  transferred  the  focus  of  his  kingdom 
from  the  polyglot  island  with  its  confusion  of  tongues  to  the 
mainland  of  one  speech,  and  it  was  characteristic  of  him  that  he 
did  not  seek  to  import  a  foreign  language  for  courtly  poetry  and 
festivity,  but  seized  for  his  experiment  the  raw  material  that 
lay  to  hand,  and  moulded  it  to  his  purpose.  Dante  is  the 
witness  for  his  success  :  "  For  although  the  native  born  Apu- 
lians  in  general  speak  coarsely,  some  of  their  distinguished 
people  spoke  in  a  refined  manner,  blending  courtly  turns  of 
speech  into  their  songs."  By  the  refinement  and  cultivation 


326  HIGH  SPIRITS  v.3 

of,  the  common  speech  Frederick  and  his  school  elevated  the 
local  dialect  to  that  volgare  illustre  of  court  and  literature.  He 
thus  recognised  Sicilian  as  an  independent  tongue,  and  estab 
lished  a  common  tie  between  the  people  and  their  ruler  "  of 
the  new  breed/*  How  far  Frederick  acted  with  the  conscious 
intention  of  establishing  a  unity  of  speech  and  race  is  unimpor 
tant  beside  the  fact  itself  that  he  was  the  most  important  pioneer, 
as  Dante  was  the  actual  creator,  of  modern  Italian.  Such  an 
achievement  by  an  Emperor  is  unique. 

The  problems  created  by  the  existence  of  two  languages, 
which  was,  of  course,  a  commonplace  in  other  countries  (Frede 
rick  was  the  first  to  issue  an  imperial  decree  in  German  as  well 
as  Latin)  still  remained  in  the  southern  Hohenstaufen  State. 
The  sacred  Latin  was  indispensable  to  the  Roman  Imperator 
on  account  of  its  universal  validity,-  and  Frederick  did  not 
dream  of  using  for  his  "  Holy  Constitution,"  his  "  Revela 
tions,"  his  imperial  decrees,  any  but  the  language  of  the 
Caesars,  which  his  Chancery  handled  with  such  consummate 
skill.  The  vernacular  was  not  stately  enough  for  the  eternal 
verities  ;  even  Dante  still  distinguishes  between  the  immutable 
Latin,  the  master,  and  the  changeable,  ephemeral  vernacular, 
the  servant.  The  imperial  sanctities  were  meant  for  im 
mortality,  but  attempts  were  already  being  made  in  Italy  to 
lend  a  consecration  to  the  vulgar  tongue  which  Dante's  poema 
sacro  finally  achieved.  Almost  simultaneously  with  the  first 
songs  of  Frederick,  Francis  of  Assisi,  the  "  minstrel  of  the  Lord  " 
had  begun  to  sing.  His  was  a  rude  vernacular,  still  strongly 
Latin-ridden,  but  he  was  writing  from  an  inner  compulsion 
which  the  Sicilians  lacked.  Frederick  II  used  Sicilian  as  a 
light  and  living  speech  for  secular  and  courtly  merriment,  he 
did  not  ask  of  it  seriousness  or  solemnity.  His  songs  are  nothing 
more  than  an  expression  ofjote  de  vivre  and  courtly  life,  born 
of  the  moment  and  serving  the  moment.  In  comparison  with 
Provencal  there  is  scarcely  a  new  thought  or  feeling  in  the 
Sicilian  songs  :  their  sole  aim  was  to  sound  merry  at  the  festive 
gathering  ;  the  important  thing  was  not  what  was  sung,  but 
that  there  should  be  singing  in  the  speech  of  the  people  and  the 
language  of  one's  neighbours.  Frederick  borrowed  from  the 
singers  of  Auvergne,  Limousin  and  Provence  not  only  metre 


INTELLECTUAL  CHEERFULNESS   327 

and  content,  but — what  was  even  more  vital — their  joy  in  life, 
which  awakened  a  response  in  people,  court  and  Emperor. 


Nothing  gives  Frederick  such  unique  distinction  in  the 
gallery  of  famous  monarchs  as  the  unruffled  cheerfulness  which 
he  maintained  through  all  vicissitudes  :  that  intellectual  cheer 
fulness  of  the  man  who  feels  himself  equal  to  every  emergency, 
whose  glance  scans  the  earth  from  Olympian  heights  and  shrinks 
not  from  contemplation  of  himself.  This  quality  derives  its 
name  from  Jupiter.  It  is  called '  'jovialitas ' '  or  "  serenity ' '  in  the 
official  language  of  the  court.  This  cheerful  serenity  demands, 
beside  a  princely  spirit,  a  certain  maturity,  and  a  complete, 
established,  measurable  world.  It  is  rare  amongst  rulers  : 
amongst  monarchs  of  this  stature  perhaps  only  to  be  met  with 
in  Julius  Caesar.  After  Frederick  II  none  of  the  great  men  of 
action  have  displayed  it  to  the  same  degree.  Clever  and  witty 
kings  are  not  uncommon  ;  lighthearted  merry  ones  are  found 
in  France ;  Henry  IV,  drawing  with  his  first  breath  the  bou 
quet  of  the  wines  of  Gascony.  They  are  far  removed  from  the 
lofty,  imperial  cheerfulness  of  Frederick.  Cheerfulness,  and 
joy  in  living,  a  sense  of  song  and  ryhthm  in  spite  of  the  burdens 
of  responsibility.  No  other  German  stock  achieved  this  light- 
hearted  freedom  of  spirit  so  fully  as  the  Hohenstaufen,  and  no 
other  Hohenstaufen  in  the  same  measure  as  Frederick  II,  who 
even  retained  it  in  the  midst  of  Empire.  Frederick  handed  on 
this  quality  to  his  handsome  sons,  none  destined  to  be  Emperors. 
They  also  sang,  even  when  tragic  fate  was  overtaking  them. 
Henry,  the  first  born,  the  rebel  who  ended  his  life  in  his  father's 
dungeon,  did  not  cease  his  singing  even  as  the  chamberlain 
stripped  him  of  the  royal  insignia  he  had  wantonly  forfeited — 
"  In  the  morning  he  sang,  and  in  the  evening  wept."  Manfred, 
with  irresponsible  folly,  forgot  his  kingdom  for  his  song.  The 
old  Occursius,  who  had  served  both  the  imperial  father  and  the 
son,  turned  to  Manfred  shortly  before  they  both  were  slain  in 
the  battle  of  Benevento,  reproachful  yet  moved :  "  Where  now 
are  your  fiddlers,  where  your  poets,  whom  you  loved  more  than 
knights  and  esquires,  who  hoped  the  foe  would  dance  to  their 
sweet  tones ! "  Enzio,  in  the  Bologna  dungeon,  touched  and 


328  AN  EMPEROR  POET  v.  3 

cheered  his  very  gaolers  with  his  cheerful  songs.  And  the 
amiable  and  knightly  Frederick  of  Antioch,  whom  men  called  the 
King  of  Tuscany,  sang  like  his  brothers  ;  and,  lastly,  Conradin 
sang  his  own  death  and  the  death  of  his  house  in  a  sweet  song 
of  mourning.  Not  frivolity  nor  royal  fashion  is  here,  but  an 
incomparable  vigour  of  the  blood,  which  even  in  ruin  demands 
glory  and  fame.  Their  very  beauty  betrayed  Manfred  and  Enzio 
to  the  foe.  The  whole  of  Hohenstaufen  art  and  all  Frederick's 
own  compositions  are  steeped  in  this  joy  of  living :  a  happy 
harvest  of  the  world  he  ruled  and  represented,  a  poetry  of  love 
springing  from  the  joy  of  the  happy  man  "  who  understood  the 
art  of  making  and  of  singing  songs." 

The  new  poetry  was  not  confined  to  the  Hohenstaufen 
family,  though  without  them  it  would  have  been  unthinkable. 
The  art  exercised  wide  influence  because  Frederick  the  poet 
was  Frederick  the  Emperor,  and  the  court  provided  a  respon 
sive  audience  on  festive  occasions.  The  personality  of 
Frederick  II  and  of  Manfred  counted  for  much,  and  cannot 
better  be  explained  than  by  Dante's  praise  when  he  breaks 
forth  in  wrath  against  his  contemporary  nobles,  especially  the 
successor  of  the  Sicilian  Hohenstaufen,  Frederick  II  of  Aragon 
and  Charles  II  of  Anjou.  "  The  (literary)  fame  of  Trinacria, 
if  we  read  the  signs  aright,  remains  only  to  the  shame  of  the 
Italian  princes  who,  unlike  heroes  but  like  plebeians,  follow 
their  own  conceit.  The  illustrious  heroes  Kaiser  Frederick, 
and  Manfred  his  not  unworthy  son,  revealed  the  nobility  and 
Tightness  of  their  mind,  and  as  long  as  fortune  favoured  them 
they  pursued  the  truly  humane  and  despised  the  bestial. 
Hence  all  such  princes  as  were  of  noble  heart  and  lofty  spirit 
clung  to  them,  and  in  their  time  all  the  distinguished  minds 
of  the  day  amongst  the  Latins  first  blossomed  forth  at  the  court 
of  such  kings.  And  since  Sicily  was  the  royal  seat  everything 
which  our  predecessors  produced  in  the  vulgar  tongue  has  been 
called  Sicilian  ;  and  we  continue  to  say  Sicilian,  and  our  suc 
cessors  will  not  be  able  to  alter  this.  But  alas !  alas !  what  poetry 
do  we  hear  from  this  later  Frederick  ?  What  tinkle  of  bells 
from  this  second  Charles  ?  What  sound  of  horns  from  John 
and  Azzo  the  mighty  margraves?  save  c  Come,  ye  oppressors  ! 
Come,  ye  double-dealers  !  Come,  ye  disciples  of  greed  !  J  " 


A  SCHOOL  OF  POETS  329 

When  a  poet  of  Dante's  rank  and  courage  celebrates  in  such 
language  the  humanity  of  the  "  illustrious  heroes  "  this  must 
have  been  an  unusual  phenomenon,  as,indeed  it  was.  Not  the 
least  remarkable  thing  was  the  school  of  poets  itself.  Princes 
of  taste  have  frequently  "  patronised  poetry  "  at  their  courts, 
attracting  players  and  travelling  singers  by  largesse.  This 
was  not  Frederick's  way.  Rather  the  reverse.  Frederick  dis 
trusted  the  nomad  minstrel,  did  not  encourage  him  in  his 
kingdom,  and  at  a  feast  in  Germany  actually  commanded  that 
not  so  much  money  should  be  wasted  on  the  wandering  folk. 
The  amazing  thing  was  that  Frederick  produced  all  these  early 
poets  without  exception  at  his  own  imperial  court.  Following 
the  Emperor's  example,  the  officials  suddenly  burst  into  rhyme. 
The  Renaissance  Princes  bestowed  office  on  poets,  painters 
and  sculptors,  so  also  Karl  August  on  Goethe.  This  was  the 
exact  opposite  of  Frederick's  procedure  :  Frederick  made  no 
man  a  state  official  because  he  happened  to  be  a  poet,  but  the 
"  compelling  necessity  of  things  "  evoked  poetic  skill  from 
the  officials  of  this  Emperor.  Surely  a  phenomenon  unique  in 
history  :  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  and  lawgivers  creates 
the  literary  language  of  a  whole  people,  and  not  that  alone,  but 
during  two  or  three  generations  evoked  the  poets  of  a  cen 
tury.  This  reinforces  the  essential  truth  of  Damon's  saying 
that  the  laws  of  a  State  cannot  be  altered  without  altering  those 
also  of  the  Muses. 

It  was  natural  that  although  the  impetus  of  the  new  poetry 
was  given  by  the  Emperor  it  was  primarily  the  younger  genera 
tion,  not  Frederick's  own  contemporaries,  who  practised  the 
new  art.  None  of  the  officials  seem  to  have  written  verse 
before  1231,  and  the  heyday  of  the  movement  was  a  full  ten 
years  later.  The  Emperor's  own  songs,  which  weie  more 
important  in  influence  than  in  number,  must  have  dated  from 
before  the  Crusade.  The  King  of  Jerusalem,  John  of  Brienne, 
Re  Giovanni,  was  then  at  Frederick's  court,  and  a  poem  of  his 
in  the  Sicilian  vernacular  is  preserved,  which  cannot  well  be  of 
later  date.  The  chronology  is  best  established  by  considering 
who  the  poets  were.  And  since  it  is  not  a  question  of  learned 
art,  but  of  courtly  and  knightly  verse,  we  must  seek  the  authors 
amongst  the  aristocratic  officials,  especially  those  who,  during 


330  SICILIAN  POETS  v.3 

their  impressionable  years,  had  come  most  strongly  under  the 
influence  of  the  Court. 


No  less  than  three  members  of  the  noble  family  of  Aquino 
are  amongst  the  poets :  Reginald,  Jacob  and  Monaldo. 
Reginald  was  page  and  falconer  of  the  Emperor  in  1240  and  a 
few  years  later  held  a  certain  post  at  Court.  He  wrote  numer 
ous  poems,  a  line  of  which  Dante  once  quoted.  We  have  no 
record  of  his  cousin  Jacob's  having  been  a  page,  but  Jacob's 
elder  brother  certainly  was.  When  the  father  was  killed  in  the 
Emperor's  service  Frederick  expressly  wrote  that  he  proposed 
to  make  himself  specially  responsible  for  the  two  boys,  so  we 
may  safely  assume  that  Jacob  of  Aquino  also  belonged  to  the 
group  of  noble  boys  educated  at  Court.  We  know  nothing  of 
Monaldo  beyond  the  fact  that  he  belonged  to  the  school  of 
poets.  Reginald  of  Aquino  vainly  sought  to  lure  to  court  his 
younger  brother  Thomas — by  far  the  most  gifted  of  the  family. 
Piero  della  Vigna  seconded  his  efforts,  J)ut  the  young  Domini 
can,  Thomas  Aquinas,  was  not  to  be  enticed.  Even  Frederick 
himself  secretly  supplemented  their  attempts,  for  he  liked  to 
dissuade  gifted  young  noblemen  from  joining  the  mendicant 
orders,  which  were  attracting  them  in  scores.  We  know  that 
he  similarly  sought  to  influence  a  young  noble  of  Parma. 

The  name  of  Jacob  of  Aquino  is  linked  by  an  interchange 
of  canzones  with  that  of  Jacopo  Mostacci,  one  of  the  younger 
poets,  who  with  his  brother  is  recorded  as  a  page  of  Frederick's, 
about  1240.  He  was  later  in  Manfred's  service  as  ambassador 
at  the  Court  of  Aragon.  A  Morra,  son  of  the  Grand  Justiciar, 
and  elder  brother  of  one  of  the  pages  of  1240,  also  appears 
among  the  court  poets.  Jacob  of  Morra  was  already,  at  this 
date,  Captain  of  the  duchy  of  Spoleto,  and  on  account  of  his 
father's  high  position  was  one  of  the  most  trusted  intimates  of 
Frederick  II,  one  of  those  whom  the  Emperor  had  "  brought 
up  as  sons  and  from  whom  nothing  was  concealed."  Jacob  of 
Morra  had  made  a  thorough-going  study  of  Proven9al.  One  of 
the  troubadours,  probably  Hugh  of  St.  Circq,  wrote  for  him  the 
earliest  Proven9al  grammar  that  we  possess,  and  some  of  the 
loveliest  lyrics  of  the  Sicilian  School  bear  the  name  of  "  Gia- 


A  POET  IN  PRISON  331 

comino  Pugliese."  He  was  entrusted  with  one  of  the  highest 
posts  in  Frederick's  gift,  reserved  for  his  special  favourites,  and 
made  Vicar  General  of  the  Ancona  March.  In  this  position  he 
betrayed  his  master  and  allowed  himself  to  be  entangled  in  a 
conspiracy. 

Another  poet,  Roger  de  Amicis,  met  a  similar  fate.  He  also 
was  amongst  the  highest  officials,  Grand  Justiciar  or  Captain  of 
Sicily,  and  amongst  other  verses  of  his  we  know  an  interchange 
of  poems  between  him  and  his  younger  friend,  Reginald  of 
Aquino.  Roger  de  Amicis,  one  of  the  Emperor's  intimates, 
was  a  nobleman  of  Calabria.  He  was  sent  on  one  occasion  as 
ambassador  to  Cairo  to  the  Egyptian  court.  Folco  Ruffo,  also 
a  poet,  came  from  the  same  neighbourhood.  He  is  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  later  days  as  in  Frederick's  train,  and  must 
still  have  been  quite  a  young  man  when  he  witnessed  the  dying 
Emperor's  last  will  and  testament.  He  belonged  to  the  famous 
family  of  the  Ruffi,  one  of  whom  was  head  of  the  imperial 
stables,  and  another  of  whom  wrote,  at  the  Emperor's  request, 
a  book  on  veterinary  science.  Lastly,  we  meet  Reginald  of 
Palermo,  also  a  page  in  1240,  a  Sicilian  feudal  baron,  and  per 
haps  he  is  the  author  of  the  poems  preserved  under  the  name 
of  Rainer  of  Palermo  of  whom  nothing  is  known. 

Numerous  members  of  the  Beneventan  family  of  the  Monte- 
neri  were  amongst  Frederick's  higher  officials.  Reginald  of 
Montenero  was  one  of  the  poets,  and  is  described  in  a  novel 
which  relates  his  adventures  as  a  minstrel  in  Sardinia  as 
"  kavaliere  di  corte."  The  kingdom  of  Sardinia  belonged  to 
Enzio,  and  so  this  Montenero  must,  in  some  capacity  or  other, 
have  been  his  subordinate.  As  the  imperial  administration 
gradually  extended  to  the  whole  of  Italy,  and  Sicilian  officials 
were  in  charge  everywhere,  the  northward  spread  of  vernacular 
poetry  is  no  matter  for  surprise.  It  is  noteworthy  that  at  first 
only  the  imperial,  that  is  Ghibelline  towns,  like  Pisa,  Arezzo, 
Siena,  Lucca  and  Florence,  produced  poets. 

The  story  goes  that  the  cultured  youth  of  Bologna  used 
frequently  to  visit  King  Enzio  when  he  was  imprisoned  there. 
It  is  unlikely  that  Enzio  made  any  secret  of  his  poems,  which  he 
valued  enough  to  mention  in  his  will.  Guido  Guinizelli  may 
well  have  been  one  of  the  visitors  who  will  have  heard  them  read. 


332  JURISTS  AS  POETS  v.  3 

Enzio's  name  is  often  quoted  in  relation  to  the  poems  of  the 
notary,  Semprebene  of  Bologna,  one  of  the  earliest  vernacular 
poets  of  northern  Italy,  and  who  is  also  counted  of  the  Sicilian 
school.  A  few  other  North  Italians  belong  to  the  same  school, 
aristocratic  officials  of  the  Emperor,  who  were  closely  in  touch 
with  the  court.  Arrigo  Testa  is  one,  a  knight  of  Arezzo,  who 
was  frequently  posted  as  podesta  in  imperial  towns,  and  then 
spent  some  time  in  prison  in  Florence,  where  Frederick  of 
Antioch  lived  when  officiating  as  Vicar  General  of  Tuscany. 
Frederick  of  Antioch  was  most  exceptionally  gifted,  and  his 
poems  signed  "  Re  Federigo  "  have  often  been  confused  with 
his  father's.  Percival  Doria,  podesta  in  Avignon,  and  later  in 
Parma  under  Frederick,  was  a  Genoese.  He  was  Captain  of 
the  March  under  Manfred  till  he  was  drowned  on  active  service 
in  one  of  Manfred's  campaigns.  None  of  King  Manfred's 
songs  have  been  preserved,  though  he  was  always  surrounded 
by  a  horde  of  German  "  fiddlers  "  (in  Tuscany  they  used  to 
sing  a  song  that  ran :  "  Horses  we  get  from  Spain,  and  clothes 
from  France,  and  here  we  sing  and  dance  in  Proven£al  style  to 
new  instruments  from  Germany  ").  The  songs  of  his  High 
Chamberlain  have  fared  no  better,  Count  Manfred  Maletta, 
"  who  was  great  and  powerful  at  the  court  of  the  king,  rich  and 
beloved  of  Manfred  .  .  .  who  was  the  best  (poet)  and  perfect 
in  inventing  canzones  and  melodies  and  had  not  his  like  in  the 
world  for  playing  of  stringed  instruments/' 

The  town-bred  jurists  took  a  hand  with  the  princely  and 
knightly  singers  in  this  vernacular  verse-making,  the  first 
courtly  art  which  really  united  royalty,  aristocracy  and  citizens. 
These  lawyer  poets  were  fewer  in  number  than  their  princely 
rivals,  but  carried  the  more  weight,  for  Piero  della  Vigna  was 
one  of  the  first  to  write  songs  in  Sicilian.  He  may  even  have 
been  the  rallying  point  of  the  poetical  school,  and  numbers  of 
the  younger  poets  exchanged  poems  with  him.  As  he  had 
not  come  into  prominence  much  before  the  Crusade,  and  this 
verse-mongering  belongs  to  his  later  period,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  he  too  owed  his  inspiration  to  the  Emperor.  Whether  or 
not,  he  is  one  of  the  rare  poets  of  Frederick's  own  generation. 
In  this,  as  in  other  matters,  Frederick  and  della  Vigna  are 
closely  bound  together. 


THE  FIRST  BUREAUCRACY  333 

Through  Piero  della  Vigna  the  new  art  spread  to  the  jurists. 
They  were  intellectually  the  most  highly  trained,  and  lin 
guistically  the  most  expert  men  of  their  time,  and  the  most 
qualified  to  make  this  new  art  their  own  and  to  carry  it  on, 
when  after  a  time  the  knightly  poets  found  no  disciples  in  their 
own  ranks.  Thus  poetry  began  in  Italy  to  find  its  home  in  the 
towns,  just  as  it  had  in  Germany,  where  knightly  Minnesang 
was  succeeded  by  the  burghers'  Meistersang,  until  at  last  it 
became  wholly  wooden  and  mechanical.  The  same  danger 
existed  in  Italy.  We  have  probably  to  thank  the  lawyers' 
cultivated  sense  of  style  for  the  discovery  of  new  strophe  forms 
— Piero  della  Vigna  is  said  to  have  constructed  the  first  sonnet — 
but  the  increasing  ossification  and  emaciation  of  poetry  were 
due  no  less  to  their  excessive  learning.  At  last  the  barren  waste 
of  legal  and  philosophical  versification  that  flooded  northern  and 
central  Italy  was  forgotten  in  the  "  sweet  new  style  "  of  Dante. 

Next  to  Piero  della  Vigna,  one  of  the  best-known  representa 
tives  of  the  Sicilian  school,  was  another  lawyer  of  the  imperial 
court,  Notary  Giacomo  da  Lentini.  He  also  stood  in  close 
relation  with  most  of  the  young  aristocrats,  and  in  quantity  his 
output  exceeds  that  of  any  other  poet  of  the  time.  He  is  so 
typical  of  the  school  that  Dante  in  the  important  conversation 
with  Bonagiunta  di  Lucca  picks  out  "  the  Notary  "  as  a  sample 
of  the  old  tendencies.  Lastly,  we  should  mention  the  later  judge 
Guido  Colonna  whose  poems,  like  Reginald  of  Aquino's,  Dante 
quotes  on  occasion. 


Thus  in  the  famous,  and  infamous,  State  of  Frederick  II 
(the  "  first  modern  bureaucracy  "  !)  we  find  amongst  the  officials 
an  inner  circle  of  scholars,  poets  and  artists  round  the  Emperor, 
all  men  of  greater  or  lesser  intellectual  gifts,  living  in  consider 
able  intimacy,  sharing  each  other's  many-sided  knowledge,  and 
each  stimulated  by  the  rest.  How  widely  the  Sicilian  poets 
differ  from  the  troubadours  in  being  neither  wandering  nor 
professional  minstrels !  The  Sicilian  poets,  as  later  the  Sicilian 
sculptors,  were  bound  to  the  State,  were  one  with  it.  The 
pillars  of  the  new  poetry  were  pillars  of  the  State,  which  claimed 
the  whole  of  each  official,  his  private  gifts  as  well  as  his  public 


334  NATURAL  SCIENCE  v.3 

service.  Frederick  II  had  the  great  art  of  enlisting  everything 
in  his  service  and  letting  nothing  waste  itself  in  space :  but  this 
imposed  on  the  individual  an  unrelaxing  tension,  not  easy  to 
be  borne,  from  which  the  wandering  minstrel  was  entirely  free. 
There  was  no  lack  of  poetic  rivalry  in  Sicily,  but  it  was  on  a 
higher  plane  than  the  troubadours'  bread-and-butter  competi 
tion,  for  the  Sicilian  poets  had  no  anxiety  about  their  livelihood  ; 
they  were  one  and  all  imperial  officials. 

The  imperial  school  of  poetry  differed  in  another  point  from 
the  poetry  of  other  courts  :  at  Frederick's  court  the  Lady  was 
not  the  centre  of  chivalrous  devotion.  According  to  oriental 
custom  the  Empress,  with  her  own  court  pomp,  lived  apart  from 
the  Emperor  in  the  "  harem,"  and  even  Frederick's  many 
lady-loves  played  no  role  in  the  life  of  his  court ;  we  scarcely  even 
know  their  names.  There  was  only  one  centre — the  Emperor. 
In  this  matter  Frederick's  court  more  nearly  resembles  the 
papal  court  than  any  other  of  the  time.  The  Emperor's  life 
amongst  his  cultured  courtiers  and  officials,  in  spite  of  its 
intellectual  recklessness,  begot  a  tensely  stimulating  mental 
atmosphere  that  had  not  its  like  in  the  West,  a  new  virile  spirit 
which  would  have  split  everything  asunder  if  it  had  not  been 
held  in  the  iron  grip  of  the  State.  This  intellectual  stimulus 
was  further  quickened  by  the  new  knowledge  of  the  natural 
sciences  which  Frederick  himself,  supported  by  many  foreign 
scholars,  introduced  into  his  court. 


The  appearance  of  the  doctrine  of  Necessitas,  the  doctrine  of 
natural  laws  inherent  in  things  themselves,  shows  how  daringly 
advanced  thought  was  in  those  days,  how  closely  in  touch  with 
the  living  and  the  actual.  We  can  determine  this  in  yet  another 
way.  The  ancients,  starting  from  the  primitive  natural  world 
of  their  Gods  and  Heroes,  rose  by  a  study  of  natural  laws  and  of 
"  Ananke  "  to  a  recognition  of  "  Nous  " ;  then  higher  and  ever 
higher  till  at  last  only  one  single  World-"  Nous  "  ruled  the 
universe.  After  many  hundred  years  the  human  mind  was 
now  descending  from  the  repose  of  these  spiritual  heights  in 
which  all  form  was  dissolved,  retracing  again  in  a  downward 
direction  the  path  by  which  it  had  climbed  up.  Once  again  a 


THE   SCHOLASTIC  MIND  335 

recognition  of  the  living  laws  of  nature,  more  especially  those 
which  were  valid  throughout  the  universe,  a  further  descent 
of  the  mind  to  concern  itself  with  earth  and  the  creatures  of 
earth,  till  Nature,  Soul  and  Spirit,  interpenetrated  each  other 
on  earth  in  the  age  of  the  Medicis  in  Florence.  Each  epoch  of 
the  Middle  Ages  found  its  own  time  already  lived  through  in  the 
past.  Otto  III  sought  to  renew  the  days  of  Constantine,  and 
his  teacher  Gerbert,  when  he  became  Pope,  took  the  name  of 
Sylvester  II  to  correspond  with  the  bishop  of  Rome  under 
Constantine.  The  whole  thirteenth  century  was  conscious  of 
a  most  intimate  kinship  with  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  introduced  by  the  prophecy  of  Abbot  Joachim  of  Flora  : 
the  new  era  which  was  dawning  would  resemble  that  of  the  first 
Christians  under  the  apostles.  St.  Francis  as  a  direct  disciple 
of  the  Lord  seemed  to  fulfil  the  prophecy. 

Frederick  II  sought  to  bring  in  again  the  age  of  Augustus, 
and  the  sum  of  his  speculation  ultimately  reduced  itself  to  a 
belief  that  just  before  the  end  of  the  world  everything  must 
exactly  correspond  with  the  fulness  of  time  of  the  first  century. 
True,  the  actual  moment,  the  Day  of  Redemption,  was  in  a  new 
sense  not  experienced  till  Good  Friday  of  the  anno  santo,  the 
jubilee  year  1300,  when  Dante  led  by  Vergil  entered  on  the  path 
to  Paradise. 

The  philosophico-scientific  impulses  of  the  time  revert  to 
the  early  Christian  or  late  classical  epochs.  The  same  ancient 
authors  who  formerly  lured  men  up  into  a  spiritual  world  of 
intellectual  abstractions  now  enabled  men  gropingly  to  feel 
their  way  down  again  into  the  corporeal  world.  The  whole 
phantom  world  of  late  classical  philosophy  was  rediscovered  on 
the  way.  The  normal  course  of  organic  growth,  to  arrive  at 
the  general  law  by  abstraction  from  the  individual,  was  reversed 
in  the  Scholastic  age.  The  Scholastic  mind,  always  focussed 
on  the  Universal  as  the  first  given  premiss,  the  thought  accus 
tomed  to  daily  converse  with  the  "  Universal,"  was  able  more 
readily  to  grasp  a  general  law  about  the  collective  Cosmos  than 
the  simplest  single  thing  on  Earth,  and  people  learned  to  know 
Nature  in  her  individual  manifestations  through  intellectual 
speculation  about  Law  and  Species.  Anything  related  to 
Eternity  and  the  Universal  was  quickly  grasped  by  the  trained 


336  A  PARABLE  v.3 

mind  :  Astronomy  and  Mathematics  were,  therefore,  more 
immediately  understood  than  Botany  and  Zoology,  and  these 
in  their  turn  more  rapidly  than  the  science  of  men.  Plastic 
art  shows  every  step  of  the  road. 

The  recent  fashion  of  ascribing  to  the  Middle  Ages  a  feeling 
for  or  observation  of  Nature  is  simply  playing  with  words.  The 
Middle  Ages  certainly  considered  Nature  holy  as  the  eternal 
order  of  the  world,  but  no  one  before  at  earliest  1200  conceived 
it  speculatively  and  yet  intellectually  as  a  live  thing,  moved  by 
its  own  forces,  throbbing  with  its  own  life.  No  importance 
attached  to  it  in  itself  ;  men  preferred  to  grasp  natural  pheno 
mena  abstractly  as  allegory  and  to  interpret  them  transcendent- 
ally.  A  late  Alexandrine  work,  the  Physiologus,  which  was  trans 
lated  into  all  the  vernaculars,  reinforced  this  tendency.  It  was 
almost  the  only  source  of  natural  science  which  the  Middle 
Ages  possessed  except  Pliny  and  the  Encyclopaedia  of  Isidore 
of  Seville,  and  it  was  by  far  the  most  popular.  The  Physio 
logus  was  a  natural  history  which  gave  little  anecdotes  about 
the  various  animals  and  their  habits,  and  recorded,  at  great 
length,  their  allegorical  significance.  What  the  Lion,  the  Bull 
and  the  Unicorn  denoted  from  the  moral,  astral  or  cosmic 
point  of  view,  awakened  much  more  interest  than  what  they,  in 
fact,  were. 

Bishop  Liutprand  of  Cremona,  who  was  sent  in  the  days  of 
the  Ottos  as  ambassador  to  Byzantium,  exemplifies  this  type  of 
nature  study.  He  was  shown  an  imperial  zoological  park  in 
which  there  was  a  herd  of  wild  asses.  The  bishop  immediately 
began  to  excogitate  what  significance  these  wild  donkeys  might 
have  for  the  universe.  A  sibylline  saying  occurred  to  him  : 
"  Lion  and  Cat  shall  conquer  the  Wild  Ass."  Liutprand  first 
thought  that  this  indicated  a  joint  victory  of  his  master  Otto  I 
and  the  Byzantine  Emperor  Nicephorus,  over  the  Saracens. 
Then  it  seemed,  however,  that  the  two  equally  potent  monarchs 
could  not  well  be  represented  by  the  mighty  lion  and  the  little 
cat,  where  upon  a  little  further  reflection  the  true  interpreta 
tion  flashed  on  him  :  Lion  and  Cat  were  his  masters  Otto  the 
Great  and  his  young  son  Otto  II,  while  the  wild  ass  whom  they 
should  overcome,  as  was  proved  by  the  zoological  garden,  was 
no  other  than  the  Emperor  Nicephorus  himself !  Thus  Bishop 


PSEUDO-ARISTOTLE  33? 

Liutprand,  one  of  the  most  learned  of  clerics,  envisaged  Nature. 
And  yet  he  was  familiar  with  an  immense  number  of  ancient 
authors  :  Cicero,  Terence,  Vegetius,  Pliny,  Lucretius,  Boethius, 
to  name  only  a  few,  and  to  mention  Ovid,  Vergil,  Horace  not  at 
all.  In  these  things  the  classics  carried  no  weight ;  people 
got  from  them  what  they  brought  to  them — a  moral  or  an 
adventure.  Even  the  adventures  that  you  experienced  your 
self  you  interpreted  intellectually  if  you  were  sufficiently 
learned.  The  letter  of  the  Chancellor  Conrad  who  describes 
his  Sicilian  journey  in  which  he  had  seen  Scylla  and  Charybdis, 
and  the  wonders  of  the  Magician  Vergil  and  the  like,  shows  this 
projection  of  the  already-known  on  to  the  world  of  fact.  In 
the  age  of  the  Crusaders  men's  fantasy  took  colour  from  the 
fabled  animals  and  mythical  beings  of  Ovid  and  Apuleius,  the 
tales  of  Alexander,  the  wanderings  of  Aeneas  and  Odysseus. 
Gradually,  however,  from  using  their  fancy  men  learned  to 
use  their  eyes. 


It  is  remarkable  what  the  ancients,  who  give  to  each  age 
according  to  its  need,  provided  for  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is 
probably  the  only  time  they  have  been  called  on  to  waken  men's 
senses  to  magic  and  formlessness.  The  Middle  Ages,  fast 
bound  in  forms  and  formulas,  had  enough  and  more  than  enough 
of  these.  Men  who  received  their  real  life  from  another  world, 
a  life  that  revealed  itself  in  unalterable  forms  which  were  holy, 
and  beautiful  and  eternal,  had  naught  to  do  with  transitory  life 
that  expressed  itself  in  its  own  forms.  For  them  the  ancients 
needed  to  bring  no  new  forms — they  often  produced  effects 
actually  hostile  to  form — their  mission  was  rather  to  awaken 
and  set  free  the  hidden  smouldering  forces.  The  authors  who, 
among  the  ancients,  had  a  message  for  those  times  were  a 
motley  crew,  to  many  of  whom  access  nowadays  is  almost 
barred.  The  favourite  works  were  those  innumerable  pseudo- 
Aristotelian  writings  which  seek  to  make  Aristotle  ''more 
comprehensible"  by  neo-platonic  speculations.  Men,  un 
accustomed  to  use  their  eyes,  who  were  seeking  the  inner 
meaning  of  things  from  the  starting  point  not  of  life  and  man, 
but  of  universal  thought,  could  only  find  an  approach  to  the 


338  NEO-PLATONISTS  v.3 

ancients  through  such  authors  as  made  most  appeal  to  the 
mind  and  least  to  the  eye,  and  for  them  the  Arabs  were  the  best 
interpreters.  The  Arabs  had  sifted  ancient  literature  with 
but  one  end  in  view,  and  had  transplanted  everything  purely 
intellectual  that  would  bear  transplanting,  but  their  minds 
were  entirely  closed  to  anything  that  bore  the  special  imprint 
of  Greek  and  Roman  life.  Not  one  single  historian  did  they 
take  over,  not  one  single  poet  !  What  were  the  tragic  drama 
tists  to  them,  the  great  lyricists  !  What  was  Homer  to  them  ! 
They  only  recognised  one  line  of  his  as  of  any  value  : 

el?  KOL paves  ecrTar  ef?  /3acrL\€u$. 

On  the  other  hand  they  had  borrowed  all  the  writings  about 
Natural  Science  and  Medicine,  and  all  the  philosophers  since 
Alexander,  and  of  the  early  philosophers  only  Plato *s  Timaeus, 
Phaedo  and  the  Republic. 

After  the  natural  history  writers  the  Neo-Platonists  ap 
pealed  most  to  them,  and  in  the  neo-platonist  version  they 
learned  to  know  the  great  systematist  Aristotle.  Even  to  the 
great  Arab  philosophers  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries, 
al  Kindi,  al  Farabi  and  Avicenna,  Aristotle  was  only  accessible 
in  the  garbled  neo-platonist  disguise.  The  great  interpreter 
of  the  real  Aristotle,  the  Spaniard  Averroes,  did  not  appear  till 
the  twelfth  century.  One  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  this 
great  scholar  was  to  reveal  to  the  West  in  translation  and  with 
commentaries  a  purer  Aristotle,  and  to  retranslate  other  ancient 
authors  from  Arabic  into  western  tongues.  Averroes  died  in 
the  year  which  saw  the  four-year-old  Frederick  crowned  King 
of  Naples  in  Palermo,  though  legend  relates  that  he  lived  at  the 
court  of  Frederick. 

Translations  from  the  Arabic  on  an  extensive  scale  began  to 
be  made  in  the  twelfth  century  principally,  indeed  almost 
exclusively,  in  Spain  in  the  school  of  Toledo,  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  was  accounted  the  headquarters  of  the  magic 
arts  :  astrology,  necromancy,  chiromancy,  pyromancy  and  every 
other  sort  of  divination.  North  Italians  like  Gerard  of  Cremona 
worked  here  alongside  Spaniards  like  Dominicus  Gundissali- 
nus.  About  the  turn  of  the  century  the  first  translations  of 
Averroes'  works  must  have  begun  to  issue  from  Toledo,  and 


TRANSLATIONS  339 

along  with  them  the  physics  and  metaphysics  of  Aristotle.  As 
early  as  1209  these  works  were  forbidden  by  Pope  Innocent 
III.  A  second,  but  less  important,  collecting  place  for  such 
works  was  the  Norman  court  of  Palermo,  the  second  entrance 
gate  of  Eastern  culture.  Here  men  like  Eugene  of  Palermo  and 
Admiral  Henry  Aristippus  were  at  work,  but,  as  far  as  is  known, 
the  sole  translation  from  the  Arabic  that  here  appeared  was  the 
Optics  of  Ptolemy.  Palermo  was  already  far  more  important 
as  a  link  with  Byzantium,  and  it  was  chiefly  Greek  works  which 
were  there  translated  even  into  Latin  :  sayings  of  the  Ery 
thraean  Sibyl,  the  Syntax  of  Ptolemy,  the  Optics  as  well  as  the 
Elements  of  Euclid,  the  writings  of  Proclus,  the  Pneumatica  of 
Hero  of  Alexandria,  the  logical  and  meteorological  works  of 
Aristotle,  Plato's  Meno  and  Phaedo,  etc.  Chalcidius'  Latin 
translation  of  the  Timaeus  and  the  never-lost  translations  by 
Boethius  of  the  Aristotelian  Topica,  Analytica  and  Categorica. 

We  may  assume  that  Frederick  was  acquainted  with  the 
majority  of  these  works.  It  is  also  probable  that  through 
his  intimacy  with  the  Saracens  in  Palermo  he  had  learned  in  his 
boyhood  to  know  the  scientific-philosophic  writings  of  the 
Arabs  ;  he  certainly  learned  to  know  the  Arab  mind.  In  the 
thirty  years  of  Sicilian  chaos  which  followed  on  the  death  of 
the  last  Norman  king  the  scholarly  activities  of  the  court  came 
to  a  standstill.  Frederick  II  on  every  occasion  renewed  old 
traditions,  and  on  his  return  from  Germany  to  his  Sicilian 
kingdom,  still  more  on  his  return  from  the  East,  a  period  of 
intellectual  activity  began  at  the  imperial  Court  the  results 
of  which  no  longer  lagged  behind  those  of  Toledo.  When 
Constantinople  was  conquered  by  the  Crusaders  in  1204,  and 
a  Latin  Empire  established  there,  the  interest  of  Byzantium 
decreased  considerably  and  Greek  studies  began  to  be  ousted 
by  Arabic.  What  the  Emperor  himself  enjoyed  at  first  hand 
he  now  proceeded  to  interpret  to  the  Western  world  through 
his  numerous  scholars. 

It  was  probably  when  Frederick  II  visited  Bologna  on  his 
coronation  journey  that  he  first  met  the  most  celebrated  of  all 
the  scholars  of  his  later  court :  Michael  Scot.  Little  is  known 
with  certainty  about  the  Scottish  scholar's  life.  He  began  his 
career  at  Toledo,  where  he  translated  the  Spherics  of  Alpetra- 


340  MICHAEL  SCOT  v.  3 

gius  in  1217.  Three  years  later  he  appears  in  Bologna,  then 
was  for  some  time  in  correspondence  with  the  papal  Curia, 
which  recommended  him  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  he  probably  came  to  Frederick  about  1227.  He  had 
probably  made  Frederick's  acquaintance  first  at  the  same  time 
that  the  Emperor  had  made  friends  with  the  mathematician, 
Leonardo  of  Pisa.  Michael  Scot,  translator,  astrologer,  philo 
sopher,  mathematician  and  augur,  was  reckoned  a  wizard  by  his 
age,  and  Dante  consigns  to  Hell  this  master  of  magic  and  necro 
mancy  "  practised  in  every  slight  of  magic  wile,"  and  intro 
duces  him  as  a  false  prophet  of  the  future  with  his  head  turned 
backwards  on  his  shoulders.  Innumerable  marvellous  and 
uncanny  stories  were  current  about  him  and  the  Emperor,  and 
can  still  be  found  in  the  novels  and  tales  of  the  Romantics. 
The  shuddering  awe  which  Frederick  II  inspired  was  shared 
by  his  Court  Astrologer,  whom  people  called  a  "  second 
Apollo."  They  related  that,  knowing  beforehand  the  manner 
of  his  own  death,  he  always  wore  an  iron  cap,  and  that  in  spite 
of  it  he  was  killed  by  a  falling  stone,  exactly  as  he  had  foretold. 
His  death  probably  occurred  in  1235  as  he  was  accompanying 
the  Emperor  to  Germany. 

Michael  Scot  is  credited  with  a  considerably  larger  number 
of  writings  than  he  actually  produced.  It  is,  however,  certain 
that  he  translated  Aristotle's  De  Caelo  and  De  Anima  with  the 
commentaries  of  Averroes,  and  also  the  Aristotelian  zoological 
writings  which  Avicenna  had  grouped  under  the  title  of  Liber 
animalium  :  Historiae  animalium,  De  partibus  animalium,  and 
other  treatises — nineteen  books  in  all.  This  work  was  dedi 
cated,  like  most  of  his  others,  to  the  Emperor.  It  introduced 
the  Aristotelian  zoology  for  the  first  time  to  the  West.  Master 
Henry  of  Cologne  made  a  transcript  of  the  Emperor's  copy  in 
1232,  and  this  may  well  have  been  the  copy  used  by  Albertus 
Magnus.  Translations  of  the  Physics  and  Metaphysics  were  also 
ascribed,  probably  incorrectly,  to  Michael  Scot.  His  authorship 
of  some  obscure  philosophical  treatises  such  as  the  Quaestiones 
of  Nicolas  the  Peripatetic  and  a  Systematic  Philosophy  is  more 
probable. 

Other  Aristotelian  writings  were  known  at  the  Court  :  the 
Nicomachaean  Ethics,  Rhetoric  and  Meteorology,  and,  decades 


SCHOLARS  341 

later,  the  Politics  also.  Pseudo- Aristotelian  writings  were  on 
the  other  hand  even  more  numerous.  King  Manfred  later 
had  the  treatise  De  Porno  translated  into  Latin  (Frederick 
had  already  had  it  translated  into  Hebrew)  and  presented  the 
Magna  Moralia  to  the  University  of  Paris.  Frederick  himself 
quotes  in  his  Falcon  Book  the  pseudo-Aristotelian  Mechanics. 
The  so-called  Problemata,  which  a  scholar  staying  in  Greece  had 
translated  from  the  Greek,  were  dedicated  to  the  Emperor. 
The  so-called  Theology  or  Trepl  /SacnXe/a?  of  Aristotle  was  also 
presumably  familiar. 

Another  scholar,  Master  Theodore,  prepared  for  the  Em 
peror  extracts  from  the  Secretum  Secretorum  which  was  also 
ascribed  to  Aristotle.  Master  Theodore,  like  Michael  Scot, 
bore  the  title  of  Court  Philosopher,  and  probably  succeeded 
to  the  latter's  post  at  Court.  He  was  later  even  granted  a  fief. 
Michael  Scot  represented  the  spirit  of  Spain  and  Toledo,  Theo 
dore  rather  that  of  the  Arab  East.  He  probably  came  from 
Antioch,  was  said  to  have  studied  in  Baghdad  and  Mosul,  and 
had  been  sent  to  the  Emperor  in  1236  by  the  "  Great  Khalif," 
probably  al  Kamil  of  Egypt.  He  was  not  allowed  to  be  idle  : 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months  he  was  employed  as  astrologer 
to  cast  the  Emperor's  horoscope  ;  as  chancery  clerk  to  conduct 
correspondence  with  Arab  rulers  ;  he  was  sent  to  Tunis  as 
ambassador  ;  as  a  scholar  he  was  set  to  translate  an  Arabic 
treatise,  and,  lastly — a  less  intellectual  but  not  less  important 
employment — he  had  to  prepare  violet  sweetmeats  for  the  court, 
some  of  which  the  Emperor  sent  to  Piero  della  Vigna  who 
was  sick. 

Peter  the  Spaniard  described  himself  in  a  medical  treatise 
as  a  pupil  of  Master  Theodore.  Nothing  further  is  known 
about  him,  nor  about  the  two  other  men  who  are  styled  Court 
Philosophers :  Master  John  of  Palermo  and  Master  Dominicus, 
probably  a  Spaniard.  Almost  all  these  court  scholars  main 
tained  close  relations  with  the  circle  of  Leonardo  of  Pisa,  who 
introduced  the  system  of  Arabic  numerals  to  the  West.  We 
know  that  Frederick  II  met  this  greatest  of  all  medieval 
mathematicians  in  Pisa  and  conversed  with  him  at  length. 

Leonardo  never  actually  entered  the  Emperor's  service, 
but  he  sent  a  revised  version  of  his  most  important  work, 


342  ASTROLOGY  v.3 

the  Abacus,  to  Michael  Scot,  referred  to  the  "great  philo 
sopher  "  Master  Theodore,  and  dedicated  his  Liber  Quadra- 
torum  to  the  Emperor,  who  it  seems  had  in  earlier  years  com 
pletely  mastered  the  great  mathematician's  other  writings.  The 
Sultan,  al  Kamil,  had  sent  a  mathematician  and  astronomer, 
the  learned  al  Hanifi,  to  the  Emperor,  for  mathematics  were 
very  highly  valued  by  the  Emperor  personally.  The  court 
scholars  all  found  mathematics  absolutely  indispensable  for 
their  astronomical  and  astrological  calculations. 

The  immense  importance  of  astrology  for  this  century  is 
rarely  appreciated.  A  hard  and  fast  conception  of  "  Time  " 
prevailed,  and  to  astrology  fell  the  task  of  determining  the 
right  moment,  the  feeling  for  which  was  imperfectly  developed 
or  had  been  undermined  by  a  belief  in  Providence.  Hers  also 
was  the  task  of  proving  directly  from  an  eternal  source,  the 
metaphysical  necessity  of  a  given  event's  happening  at  a  given 
moment.  There  was  as  yet  no  room  for  the  conception  that 
events  themselves  bring  their  own  moment  with  them  and 
that  the  event  gives  the  moment  its  eternal  significance.  Even 
Dante  assured  himself  of  the  position  of  the  planets  at  the 
time  of  every  important  occurrence,  thus  linking  time  with 
eternity.  In  this  his  position  was  akin  to  Michael  Scot's, 
who  declared:  "The  heavenly  bodies  are  not  the  cause 
of  events,  but  the  sign  thereof,  as  the  compasses  in  front  of 
the  tavern  are  the  sign  that  wine  is  within." 

Astronomy  and  astrology  played  an  important  part  in  court 
life.  One  of  the  sultans  had  sent  Frederick  that  costly 
astrolabe  which,  with  his  son  and  heir  Conrad,  was  the  thing 
dearest  to  him  on  earth.  The  Egyptian  Sultan  sent  as  a  gift 
an  Arab  work  on  astrology,  the  Book  of  the  Nine  Judges.  His 
son  Manfred  later  had  the  Centiloquium  of  Hermes  translated, 
another  astrological  work ;  and,  finally,  Michael  Scot  in  his 
Liber  Introductorius  and  his  Liber  Particularis  compiled  a 
wonderful  encyclopaedia  of  the  collective  astronomical  and 
astrological  knowledge  of  his  time.  Michael,  not  undeservedly, 
ranked  as  THE  ASTROLOGER  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  Italian 
towns  were  swamped  with  spurious  prophecies  supposed  to 
emanate  from  him. 

Wherever  the  Emperor  appeared  he  was  accompanied  by  a 


FREDERICK'S  SCEPTICISM  343 

number  of  his  astrologers,  and  there  was  nothing  the  Italian 
princes  were  so  ready  to  learn  from  him  as  the  use  of  the 
astrological  art.  How  far  Frederick  really  believed  in  his  star- 
gazers  remains  a  question.  Though  he  frequently  inquired 
what  would  be  the  propitious  moment  for  a  certain  weighty 
enterprise,  the  founding  of  a  city  or  the  start  of  a  campaign, 
he  may  very  well  have  reflected,  like  the  Renaissance  princes, 
that  if  the  stars  cannot  lie  the  astrologers  can.  He  puts  them 
again  and  again  to  the  test.  Michael  Scot  had  recommended  : 
"  When  you  seek  advice  from  a  wise  man,  consult  him  by 
a  waxing  moon,"  and  had  also  adjured  him  to  be  mindful  of 
the  ancient  medical  maxim  to  avoid  blood-letting  when  the 
moon  is  in  the  sign  of  the  Twins.  The  Emperor  wanted  to 
prove  him  a  liar,  and  sent  for  the  surgeon  on  a  forbidden  day. 
The  blood-letting  went  off  successfully,  but  when  all  was  over 
the  surgeon  accidentally  dropped  his  lancet  and  pierced  the 
Emperor's  foot.  For  several  days  the  swelling  caused  him 
extreme  pain.  Another  time  Frederick  asked  his  astrologer 
how  far  the  sky  was  from  the  palace.  Whatever  this  exactly 
meant,  Michael  Scot  promptly  calculated  the  distance.  The 
Emperor  sent  him  away  and  had  the  floor  of  the  room  or  court 
yard  of  his  palace  sunk  a  hand's  breadth,  and  when  Michael 
returned  requested  him  to  reckon  out  the  distance  once  again, 
His  calculation  at  once  revealed  that  either  the  sky  had  moved 
a  hand's  breath  further  off  or  else  the  palace  had  sunk.  These 
anecdotes  are  characteristic  of  Frederick,  and  manifest  his 
scepticism  not  towards  things  but  towards  people.  His 
astrologers,  like  his  "  harem/*  must  often  have  simply  formed 
part  of  his  wise  en  scene.  Mystery,  like  magnificence,  was  tc 
contribute  its  quota  to  the  impression  he  created. 


The  Hebrew  scholars  of  Spain  and  of  Provence  with  whon 
Frederick  established  relations,  or  whom  he  even  brought  t< 
court,  contributed  rather  to  the  astronomical  and  philosophica 
than  to  the  astrological  interests  of  the  court.  Through  then 
he  became  acquainted  with  Jewish  philosophy,  which  then  ha< 
reached  its  zenith  with  Maimonides.  Frederick  was  said  t 
be  able  to  express  himself  orally  in  nine  languages  and  to  writ 


344  HEBREW  LEARNING  v.3 

seven  ;  it  is  quite  probable  that  among  them  he  knew  Hebrew. 
He  certainly  had  numerous  works  translated  into  Hebrew.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  Juda  ben. Salomon  Cohen  came  to  his  court, 
and  there  compiled  an  Encyclopaedia  on  the  works  of  Aris 
totle,  Euclid,  Ptolemy  and  the  Spaniard  Alpetronius.  A  Jew  is 
mentioned  as  secretary  to  Michael  Scot ;  it  was  the  custom 
in  Spain  for  Jews  to  collaborate  with  Latinists  in  translations 
from  the  Arabic.  Jacob  ben  Abbamari,  who  translated  five 
books  of  the  Logic  of  Aristotle  with  the  Isagoge  of  Porphyry 
and  the  commentaries  of  Averroes,  came  from  Provence.  He 
prepared  a  Hebrew  translation  of  Ptolemy  in  Naples,  and  trans 
lated  al  Fargani's  Elements  of  Astronomy  into  Hebrew.  These 
translations  are  dedicated  to  the  Emperor,  and  express  the 
hope  that  under  Frederick  "  this  friend  of  wisdom  who  main 
tains  me,"  the  Messiah,  may  appear.  This  wish  was  not  mere 
rhetoric,  for  the  year  1240  was,  according  to  Hebrew  chronology 
the  year  5,000,  and  people  were  looking  for  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah.  Frederick  II  was  held  in  such  high  repute  by  the 
Jews  that  in  a  Hebrew  Mirror  of  Manners  anecdotes  and  sayings 
of  his  are  recorded  as  models,  alongside  those  of  Aristotle, 
Alexander  the  Great,  Porphyry  and  Theophrastus. 

Frederick  was  introduced  to  the  works  of  Maimonides,  who 
died  in  1205,  by  another  scholar,  Moses  ben  Salomon  from 
Salerno,  who  had  written  a  commentary  on  the  Guide  of  the 
Perplexed.  Other  works  of  this  great  Aristotelian  were  known 
to  the  Emperor,  and  some  of  his  conversations  prove  that  he 
knew  them  intimately.  The  talk  turned  on  Maimonides  one 
day,  and  his  chief  work  was  stated  to  be  his  Interpretation  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  Talmud.  The  Emperor  remarked 
that  he  missed  in  it  any  explanation  of  the  origin  of  the  curious 
Jewish  ritual  according  to  which  the  ashes  of  a  red  cow  were 
potent  for  purification.  For  his  part  he  believed  the  rite  had 
its  origin  in  India,  where  a  red  iion  was  burnt  for  a  similar 
purpose,  as  he  had  read  in  the  Book  of  Indian  Sages.  The 
Lawgiver  Moses,  reflecting  on  the  great  danger  involved  in 
catching  a  lion,  had  substituted  a  cow  as  a  burnt-offering 
for  the  Jews.  Possibly  astrological  considerations  might  have 
had  something  to  do  with  it,  which  would  be  akin  to  those  of 
Egyptian  magicians  and  conjurers  of  spirits  !  Another  time 


REPUBLIC  OF  SCHOLARS  345 

they  were  discussing  why,  according  to  Bible  precept,  only 
domestic  animals,  never  wild  animals,  were  offered  as  sacrifices, 
whereupon  the  Emperor  gave  as  his  explanation  that  sacrifices 
are,  as  it  were,  gifts  to  heaven,  and  a  man  can  only  give  his  own 
property,  not  the  free  beast  of  the  field  that  belongs  to  none. 

It  is  suggestive  to  note  how,  in  this  "  republic  of  scholars," 
each  knew  the  other  and  all  mutually  assisted  each  other  in 
work.  The  Jew,  Jacob  ben  Abbamari,  was  a  friend  of  Michael 
Scot  and  often  appealed  to  him.  He  had  leagued  himself  with 
the  Scot,  he  writes,  and  received  many  learned  suggestions 
from  him  about  various  Bible  passages,  mainly  connected  with 
questions  of  natural  science.  Moses  ben  Salomon  of  Salerno 
again  conducted  learned  conversations  with  Margrave  Berthold 
of  Hohenburg,  who  in  1240  was  a  page  in  the  Emperor's 
service,  and  to  whom,  later,  young  Manfred  was  entrusted.  So 
it  is  clear  that  the  scientific  curiosity  of  the  court  infected 
the  young  nobles  also.  Another  courtier  questioned  the  Jew, 
Jehuda  ben  Salomon,  about  the  construction  of  five  bodies 
from  a  given  sphere  and  was  directed  to  Euclid.  The  Hebrew 
scholar  from  Salerno  disputed  with  Peter  of  Ireland,  the  famous 
teacher  at  the  University  of  Naples,  who  afterwards  held  an 
extraordinarily  learned  conversation  about  most  varied  topics 
with  Manfred  and  his  friends. 

This  Renaissance-like  "Academy,"  with  its  head  the  Empe 
ror  as  primus  inter  pares,  demonstrated  how  the  free  human 
mind,  bridging  all  gulfs  of  race,  religion  and  rank,  acted  as  a 
levelling  agency  in  the  secular  world  just  as — in  a  quite  different 
direction — the  faith  of  the  Church  acted  in  the  spiritual  world. 
In  his  Charter,  drawn  up  on  the  foundation  of  the  University 
of  Naples,  and  modelled  in  many  of  its  features  on  that  of 
Bologna,  the  Emperor  had  pointed  to  the  uniting  action  of  the 
mind.  The  proffered  gifts  of  learning  bring  nobility  and  pos 
sessions  in  their  train  which  make  the  affections  and  gracious- 
ness  of  friendship  flourish.  To  characterise  the  free  human 
spirit  as  friendship-building  struck  a  new  and  humanistic  note, 
which  indicated  that  the  clerical  spirit  had  already  been  con 
quered.  A  new  power  was  dawning  here,  and  the  Emperor 
valued  on  that  account  scholars  and  learned  men  who,  as  a 
courtier  writes,  "  inhabit  the  circle  of  the  earth  from  sea  to 


346  DAWN  OF  RENAISSANCE  v.3 

sea/'  When  Frederick  sent  to  the  teachers  and  scholars  of 
Bologna  the  manuscript  of  a  treatise  of  Aristotle  on  logic  and 
mathematics,  which  with  other  manuscripts  filled  the  coffers 
of  his  treasuries  and  which  he  had  found  again  in  pursuing  his 
linguistic  and  mathematical  studies,  he  wrote  in  the  covering 
letter :  "  The  recipients  should  accept  these  writings  gratefully 
as  a  gift  of  their  friend  the  Emperor  .  .  .  amicicaesaris"  They 
would  know  how  to  use  them  and  "  to  draw  new  water  out  of 
the  ancient  well." 


This  is  the  happiest  interpretation  of  the  learned  activity  of 
the  dawning  Renaissance  at  the  Hohenstaufen  court.  With  the 
high  value  attached  to  everything  intellectual  a  new  problem 
presented  itself  to  the  court  circle,  one  which  had  occupied 
men's  minds  since  the  troubadour  days  began,  and  the  stirrings 
of  unfettered  secular  thought :  what  is  the  true  nobility 
amongst  men  ?  Nobility  of  race  or  of  the  spirit  ?  The  ques 
tion  was  debated  with  quite  peculiar  zest  at  the  Emperor's 
court,  where  town-bred  scholars  and  lawyers  worked  in  common 
with  knightly  and  aristocratic  officials,  and  mixed  with  and 
argued  with  Christian,  Jewish  and  Muslim  philosophers.  On 
one  occasion  the  courtiers  turned  to  Piero  della  Vigna  and 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  the  two  High  Court  Judges,  and  requested 
them  to  decide  it.  The  reply  may  have  been  given  in  the 
Emperor's  own  quotation  from  Aristotle.  Nobility  consists  in 
ancient  possessions  wedded  with  noble  conduct.  Frederick 
expressed  himself  on  similar  lines  in  his  foundation  charter 
of  Naples.  To  him,  himself  the  grandson  of  emperors  and 
kings,  nobility  of  mind  apart  from  nobility  of  race  was  incon 
ceivable,  and  Dante  took  the  same  position  in  his  De  Monarchia. 
In  his  Convivio  it  is  true  he  had  sought  to  demonstrate  the 
emptiness  of  "  ancient  possessions,"  and  in  his  great  educa 
tional  treatise  and  the  canzones  that  accompany  it  he  had  taken 
Frederick  IFs  maxim,  as  a  text  only  to  refute  it,  although  he 
styled  the  Emperor  "  a  great  logician  and  a  great  scholar." 
However  much  people  might  dispute  over  the  definition,  the 
fusion  of  an  aristocracy  of  blood  and  an  aristocracy  of  brain 
had  already  been  realised  at  the  imperial  court. 


PHILOSOPHIC  SPECULATION  347 

A   conversation   of   King   Manfred   and  his  friend  with 
Peter  of  Ireland  has  just  been  mentioned.    Though  it  took 
place  ten  years  after    Frederick's    death   this    conversation 
vividly  reveals  the  type  of  question  which  occupied  the  court. 
The  problem  is  the  significant  one  :  of  a  "  purpose  in  Nature." 
Are  the  limbs  present  because  of  the  functions  they  perform, 
or  are  the  functions  the  result  of  the  limbs,  or,  more  exactly— 
someone  may  have  asked — are  the  claws  of  the  vulture,  the  fangs 
of  the  wolf,  the  teeth  of  the  lion,  provided  by  nature  to  tear 
other  animals  to  death  ?    A  devilish  question,  full  of  pitfalls. 
For  if  it  is  answered  in  the  affirmative,  that  implies  that  Nature 
recognises  the  principle  of  destruction — recognises  evil — that 
this  is  the  will  of  nature,  the  will  of  God.    According  to  this 
theory  Providence  would  not  be  aiming  at  the  "  Good  "  in  the 
Christian  sense,  and  that  hoped-for  dispensation  where  lion 
and  lamb  would  play  together  in  the  fields  of  Paradise  would 
no  longer  be  the  order  of  the  world  as  willed  by  Nature  and 
by  God.    That  is  conceivable  enough  ...  for  every  statesman 
would  feel  a  sabbath  fraternisation  of  all  animals,  and  the 
equalisation  of  all  created  things  a  hideous  disorder,  not  least 
Frederick  II  himself  who  always  pictured  Adam  as  the  "  King." 
The  Emperor  held  very  strong  views  about  the  due  obser 
vance  of  rank  and  precedence  even  in  the  animal  world.    An 
anecdote  illustrates  this  :  he  loosed  one  day  a  favourite  falcon, 
"  whom  he  loved  more  than  a  city,"  on  a  crane.    The  falcon 
rose  and  was  above  the  crane,  when  far  below  he  spied  an 
eaglet,  stooped  and  slew  it.    When  the  Emperor  saw  this  he 
wrathfully  summoned  a  justiciar  and  had  his  favourite  falcon 
beheaded  perk'  avea  morto  lo  suo  signiore,  because  he  had  killed 
an  animal  of  higher  rank  than  himself  and  his  master,  a  young 
eagle,  king  of  the  birds  !    This  does  not  stultify  Frederick's 
dream  of  bringing  in  the  "  golden  age."    He  dreamt  not  of 
listless  peace,  idyllic  absence  of  desire,  but  the  tension  of 
supreme  control  and  discipline,  under  which  the  lion  would 
if  necessary    abstain    from    devouring   the  adjacent  rabbit. 
Such  was  the  Emperor's  vision  of  a  Paradise  in  which  he  could 
then  himself  relax. 

Peter  of  Ireland  rejected  the  dangerous  enquiry  whether 
claws  and  fangs  were  created  for  the  rending  of  other  animals. 


348  IBN  SABIN  v.3 

He  added  :  "  The  secret  potency  of  this  question  has  led  many 
to  recognise  two  principles  in  everything,  the  principle  of  evil 
and  the  principle  of  good.  This,  however,  is  heresy  and  bad 
taste  to  boot."  He  directs  attention  instead  to  the  necessity 
inherent  in  matter  which  provides  for  everything  that  is 
necessary.  The  learned  man  may  have  had  more  particularly 
in  mind  the  spreading  heresy  of  Neo-Manichaeism.  Every 
where  sects  of  devil  worshippers  were  springing  up,  amongst 
them  the  Luciferians,  who  were  said  tq  maintain  that  God 
had  unjustly  condemned  Satan  to  Hell — for  Satan  was  the  true 
Creator  of  all  things. 

Another  set  of  problems — indirectly  suggested  by  Aristotle — 
are  touched  on  in  a  talk  of  the  Emperor's  about  the  inter 
pretation  of  a  passage  in  the  Bible.  They  were  discussing 
why  Maimonides  had  described  earthly  matter  as  snow.  The 
Emperor  opined  :  because  white  takes  every  other  colour 
readily,  as  matter  takes  the  form  imposed  on  it.  Snow  is, 
therefore,  a  symbol  of  the  malleability  of  matter.  The  moulding 
of  matter  was  a  subject  frequently  present  to  the  Emperor's 
mind.  It  is  touched  on  in  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Laws, 
where  God  is  presented  not  as  the  Creator  but  as  the  Moulder 
of  pre-existent  matter.  This  problem  was  interrelated  with 
another:  Whether  the  World,  as  Aristotle  taught,  existed 
"  from  eternity  "  or  whether  it  had  been  created  by  God. 
Frederick  sought  light  on  these  and  other  metaphysical  ques 
tions  from  the  learned  men  of  Islam — on  certain  discrepancies 
between  Aristotle  and  his  commentator  Alexander  of  Aphro- 
disias  (whom  the  Emperor  therefore  also  knew) .  The  Emperor 
despatched  his  queries  to  Egypt,  Syria,  Iraq,  Asia  Minor, 
Yemen.  Ultimately,  through  the  medium  of  the  Sultan  of  the 
Almohades,  they  reached  Ibn  Sabin,  a  Moroccan  scholar  in 
Ceuta,  who,  as  he  himself  writes,  "  smilingly  undertook  to 
answer  the  Emperor."  He  refused  to  accept  Frederick's 
numerous  gifts  ;  he  intended  thereby  to  bring  home  his  in 
significance  to  the  Christian  Emperor,  "  to  the  triumph  of 
Islam."  His  answers  themselves  did  so  too.  The  Emperor 
had  asked,  amongst  other  things,  "  What  is  the  proof  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  is  her  existence  eternal  ?  "  Where 
upon  Ibn  Sabin,  in  most  mysterious  language,  gave  the  Emperor 


SEARCH  FOR  KNOWLEDGE  349 

to  understand  that  he  did  not  even  know  how  to  formulate  a 
question  correctly.  "  O  prince,  thou  who  seekest  truth,"  he 
wrote,  "  thou  hast  posed  thy  question  about  the  nature  of  the 
soul  without  exactly  indicating  what  type  of  soul  is  the  object  of 
thy  questioning.  Thou  hast  thus  neglected  the  essential  and 
hast  regrettably  confused  many  things  which  should  have  been 
treated  separately.  It  is  thine  inexperience  in  treating  of 
speculative  matters  and  instituting  enquiries  in  an  independent 
branch  of  science  which  has  led  thee  into  such  confusion. 
Hadst  thou  but  known  the  number  of  separate  types  which  are 
comprised  under  the  one  word  £  soul ' !  Hadst  thou  but  been 
acquainted  with  Dialectics  and  the  manner  of  distinguishing 
the  Finite  from  the  Infinite,  between  the  Particular  and  the 
General,  between  the  conceptions  of  ambiguous  homonyms  and 
that  which  is  consecrated  by  the  terminology  of  speech  ! — thou 
wouldest  never  have  so  phrased  thy  question.  For  when  thou 
askest :  *  What  is  the  proof  for  the  immortality  of  the  soul  ?  ' 
thy  question  may  be  understood  to  apply  to  the  vegetable  soul, 
the  animal  soul,  the  rational  soul,  the  soul  of  wisdom,  the  soul  of 
prophecy.  To  which  of  these  souls  does  thy  question  apply  ? " 

Ibn  Sabin  continues  in  this  strain,  proud  of  his  immense 
knowledge  and  powers  of  hair-splitting  and  incapable  of  giving 
a  real  answer.  He  writes  a  separate  dissertation  on  each  type 
of  soul  and  explains  his  position  with  regard  to  Plato  and  Moses, 
Avicenna  and  the  Brahmins;  finally,  in  a  feeble  anti-climax 
maintaining  that  Islam  is  the  only  true  religion.  There  was 
a  certain  value  in  all  this  harangue,  the  reference,  for  instance, 
to  the  teaching  of  the  Brahmins.  Much  of  Frederick's  know 
ledge  about  India  must  have  reached  him  in  this  sort  of  way. 

It  was  not  merely  as  an  intellectual  pastime  that  Frederick 
directed  such  questions  to  learned  men.  He  was  seeking 
proofs  for  the  lightness  of  his  own  way  of  life,  and  he  often 
established  such  proofs  by  violent  and  remarkable  methods. 
To  prove  the  mortality  of  the  soul  he  had  a  man  imprisoned  in 
a  perfectly  tight-fitting  wine  vat  and  left  to  perish,  to  demon 
strate  that  the  soul  which  could  not  escape  from  the  vat  must 
have  perished  with  the  body  :  such  at  least  is  the  tale.  Maimo- 
nides  to  a  certain  extent  encouraged  this  type  of  speculation  in 
so  far  as  he,  like  the  Averroists,  though  on  other  grounds, 


350  LEARNED  CORRESPONDENCE  v.3 

denied  any  general  immortality,  and  only  accorded  immortality 
to  the  truly  wise.  Frederick's  correspondence  with  oriental 
scholars  was  certainly  not  all  so  fruitless  as  that  with  Ibn 
Sabin  of  Ceuta.  We  learn  from  the  Arabs  themselves  that 
Frederick  sent  astronomical  and  geometrical  questions  to 
Mosul,  one  of  which,  for  instance,  was  to  construct  a  quadri 
lateral  of  the  same  superficial  area  as  a  segment  of  a  given  circle. 
Books  were  even  exchanged.  The  Emperor  made  a  collection 
of  the  prophecies  of  Merlin  and  had  it  translated  into  Arabic 
for  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  and  he  himself  received  from  Tunis 
the  novel  Sidrach  and  the  Book  of  all  Knowledge.  Envoys  of 
the  Emperor,  remarking  the  immense  wisdom  of  the  Ruler  of 
Tunis,  and  learning  that  he  owed  it  to  Sidrach,  called  Frede 
rick's  attention  to  this  work.  The  Emperor  at  once  begged 
permission  to  have  a  copy  made  of  this  book,  which  in  the  form 
of  question  and  answer  deals  with  every  sphere  of  heaven  and 
of  earth.  Much  of  it  must  have  stimulated  the  Emperor  to 
further  questioning. 


This  impulse  to  inquire  was  Frederick's  most  dangerous 
quality,  for  he  had  a  gift  of  dissolving  fast-frozen  axioms  by  a 
casual  question.  As  he  once  sought  to  undermine  the  spiritual 
basis  of  papal  rule  by  the  maliciously-innocent  enquiry  whether 
Pope  Gregory,  like  himself  the  Hohenstaufen,  could  trace  his 
claims  back  through  his  father  and  grandfather.  He  attacked 
the  very  roots  of  medieval  faith  by  a  series  of  trustful,  innocent- 
sounding  questions  addressed  on  occasion  to  Michael  Scot. 
Michael  Scot  in  his  encyclopaedia  relates  as  follows : 

"  Once,  when  Frederick,  Emperor  of  Rome,  the  ever- 
illustrious,  had  reflected  long  in  accordance  with  the  order 
he  had  himself  established  on  the  differences  of  the  whole 
earth,  what  they  are  and  how  they  appear  on,  over,  in  and  under 
the  earth,  he  then  sent  secretly  for  me,  Michael  the  Scot,  the 
most  faithful  of  his  astrologers,  and  laid  a  number  of  questions 
before  me,  secretly,  as  it  pleased  him  to  do,  about  the  founda 
tions  of  earth  and  the  marvels  thereof,  speaking  as  follows  : 

*  My  dearest  Master,  we  have  often  and  in  divers  ways  heard 
question  and  answer  from  one  and  another  about  the  heavenly 


OBSTINATE  QUESTIONINGS  351 

bodies,  about  sun  and  moon  and  the  fixed  stars,  about  the 
elements,  the  world  soul,  about  heathen  and  Christian  peoples 
and  other  created  things  that  exist  on  and  in  the  earth,  such  as 
plants  and  metals.  Yet  we  have  heard  naught  of  those  secrets 
which  delight  the  mind  that  is  wedded  to  wisdom  :  about  Para 
dise,  Purgatory,  Hell,  the  foundations  and  the  wonders  of  the 
world.  Therefore  we  beg  thee  by  thy  love  of  wisdom  and  thy 
loyalty  to  our  throne  to  explain  to  us  the  structure  of  the  earth. 

How  is  the  earth  fastened  above  the  abyss  of  space  ? 

And  how  is  this  abyss  fastened  beneath  the  earth  ? 

Is  there  aught  else  that  bears  the  earth  save  air  and  water  ? 

Or  does  the  earth  stand  fast  of  itself  ? 

Or  does  it  rest  on  the  heavens  below  it  ? 

And  how  many  heavens  are  there  ? 

Who  is  their  director  ? 

Who  mainly  inhabit  the  heavens  ? 

How  far  is  one  heaven  distant  from  another  by  our  measure  ? 

And  if  there  be  many  heavens  what  is  there  out  beyond  the  last  ? 

By  how  much  is  one  heaven  greater  than  another  ? 

In  which  heaven  is  God  Substance,  that  is  in  his  divine  majesty, 

and  in  what  wise  doth  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  heaven  ? 
And  in  what  wise  is  he  accompanied  by  the  angels  and  the  saints  ? 
And  what  do  the  angels  and  the  saints  do  uninterruptedly  in  the 

presence  of  God  ? 

Likewise  tell  us  :  How  many  Hells  are  there  ? 
Who  are  the  spirits  who  dwell  in  them  ? 
And  by  what  names  are  they  called  ? 
Where  is  Hell,  and  Purgatory  where  ? 
And  where  the  Heavenly  Paradise  ?     Under  the  earth  ?     Over  the 

earth  ?     In  the  earth  ? 
And  what  is  the  difference  between  the  souls  who  go  to  Hell  and 

the  spirits  which  fell  from  Heaven  ?    And  how  many  torments 

are  there  in  Hell  ? 
And  does  one  soul  know  another  in  the  next  life  ?    And  can  a 

soul  return  to  this  life  to  speak  or  to  show  itself  to  anyone  ? 
And  what  of  this :  that  when  the  soul  of  a  living  man  passes  over 

into  that  other  life,  naught  can  give  it  power  to  return,  neither 

first  love  nor  even  HATE  as  if  naught  had  ever  happened  ?     Or 

does  it  seem  that  the  soul  careth  naught  for  what  is  left  behind, 

whether  it  be  blessed  or  whether  it  be  damned  ? ' " 

These  questions  at  once  recall  the  apparently  similar  ques 
tions  of  the  Scholastics ;   but  theirs  are  mostly  pure  mental 


352  LINGUISTIC  EXPERIMENT  v.  3 

gymnastics  of  this  type  :  how  would  mankind  have  spread  over 
the  earth  according  to  God's  wish  if  there  had  been  no  Fall  ? 
or  whether  at  the  Resurrection  the  toothless  will  again  grow 
teeth  and  the  bald  grow  hair  ?  Frederick  II,  however,  asks 
about  the  appearance  of  that  other  world.  He  directs  the 
same  practical  curiosity  to  the  conditions  of  that  other  world 
as  dictated  his  questions  to  the  messengers  of  Muslim  princes 
about  the  conditions  of  their  various  foreign  countries.  The 
kingdom  of  God  was  for  him  just  such  another.  The  thought 
of  the  future  life,  which  disturbed  Frederick's  contemporaries 
to  the  core  and  hunted  terrified  men  to  penances  and  flagel 
lations,  was  to  Frederick  in  the  most  amazing  way  simply  an 
innocent  object  of  knowledge  and  "a  delight  of  the  mind." 
He  inquires  because  the  tectonics  of  the  world-structure  seems 
to  him  immeasurably  interesting  ;  he  longs  to  know  just  how 
God  sits  upon  his  throne,  because  he  must  sit  in  like  fashion  ; 
it  is  unquestionably  useful  to  him  as  a  judge  to  know  the  punish 
ments  of  Hell ;  and  the  statesman  in  him  enquires  for  practical 
reasons  about  the  precedence  of  saints,  angels  and  spirits. 

Mysticism  is  entirely  foreign  to  this  method  of  approach, 
which  seeks  objective  representation.  There  is  not  a  trace 
of  any  personal,  emotional  interest,  nor  in  the  imperial  soul 
the  faintest  shadow  of  anxiety.  Eternal  bliss,  everlasting 
contemplation  of  God  offer  no  allurements :  "  What  do  the 
angels  do  uninterruptedly  in  the  presence  of  God  ?  "  That 
other  question,  whether  a  return  to  this  life  is  not  possible  "  not 
even  for  hate,"  corresponds  to  the  Emperor's  saying  on  the 
defection  of  a  certain  town  :  "  If  I  had  one  foot  in  Paradise 
I  would  withdraw  it  to  take  vengeance  on  Viterbo  !  "  Dante 
answered  all  these  questions  soberly  and  practically  too,  but 
interested  in  every  fibre  in  that  world  which  he  never  ceased 
to  picture  tangibly  and  visibly  to  himself  day  and  night.  His 
questions  are  often  the  same  as  Frederick's. 

People  tell  of  Frederick  II,  himself  the  master  of  so  many 
tongues,  that  he  was  anxious  to  discover  by  research  what  the 
primeval  human  speech  had  been.  He,  therefore,  had  a  number 
of  infants  reared  by  nurses  who  were  most  strictly  forbidden 
to  speak  to  them.  "  He  wanted  to  discover  whether  the  chil 
dren  could  speak  Hebrew,  or  Greek,  or  Latin,  or  Arabic  as  the 


MUCH  MARVELLING  353 

original  of  all  languages,  or  whether  they  would  speak  the 
speech  of  their  parents  who  had  borne  them."  The  experiment 
failed,  for  the  children  died.  This  problem  also  attracted 
Dante,  who  deals  with  it  in  his  treatise  on  popular  speech. 
Dante  also,  in  another  little  essay,  de  Aqua  et  terra,  discusses 
just  such  hydrological  phenomena  as  Frederick  II  had  cross- 
examined  Michael  Scot  about.  "  How  does  it  come/'  asked 
the  Emperor,  "  that  sea-water  is  so  salt,  and  that  in  many 
places  far  from  the  sea  salt  water  is  found  and  in  other  places 
sweet  water,  although  they  all  derive  from  the  living  sea  ? 
And  how  comes  it  that  sweet  waters  are  often  spewed  out  by 
the  earth  and  often  drop  from  stones  and  trees,  like  grape  vines 
when  they  are  cut  in  spring  ?  And  how  is  it  that  many  waters 
are  sweet  and  mild  and  sparkling  clear,  and  many  are  wild  and 
others  again  viscous  and  thick  ?  We  marvel  much  about  all 
these  things  although  we  know  long  since  that  all  waters  come 
from  the  sea  and  that  they  flow  through  lands  and  caves  of  many 
kinds,  returning  to  the  sea  which  is  the  bed  and  womb  of  all  the 
streaming  waters/*  Dante  and  his  age  shared  this  conception 
of  the  unity  of  all  earthly  waters. 

This  "  much  marvelling  "  of  the  Emperor's  is  the  vital 
point.  Things  which  for  centuries  everybody  had  seen  and 
accepted  as  facts  challenged  him  to  curious  enquiry.  When 
he  was  staying  at  a  place  like  Pozzuoli  or  Montepulciano  he 
immediately  wanted  to  know  all  about  the  remarkable  springs. 
"  Where  do  the  salt  and  bitter  springs  come  from,  which  in 
many  places  gush  forth  with  violence,  and  the  foul-smelling 
waters  which  are  found  in  many  baths  and  pools.  Do  they 
spring  up  themselves  ?  Do  they  come  from  elsewhere  ?  And 
those  waters  which  in  some  places  are  hot  or  at  least  very  warm 
and  sometimes  even  boiling  as  if  they  had  been  in  a  vessel  over  a 
fire  ?  Has  the  earth  a  hole  in  its  centre,  or  is  it  a  solid  body 
like  a  living  stone  ?  "  The  world  was,  as  it  were,  a  new  discovery 
to  him  fraught  with  questions.  He  must  have  observed  the 
winds  on  his  crusading  voyage  :  "  Whence  comes  the  wind 
which  blows  from  different  parts  of  the  circle  of  the  earth  ? " 
He  probably  means  the  regular  wind-currents.  Volcanoes  are 
another  subject  of  inquiry  :  "  Whence  comes  the  fire  which  the 
earth  vomits  forth  both  out  of  plains  and  mountain  tops  ? 


354  MAGNETIC   NEEDLE  v.  3 

Smoke  too  appears  now  there,  now  here.  Where  is  it  generated 
and  what  causes  it  to  burst  forth  ?  We  see  it  in  many  parts  of 
Sicily  and  near  Messina,  as  in  Etna,  Vesuvius,  the  Lipari 
islands  and  Stromboli."  He  is  probably  thinking  of  sub 
marine  volcanoes  when  he  asks  :  "  How  does  it  come  that 
such  flaming  fire  appears  to  issue  not  only  from  the  earth  but 
in  many  parts  of  the  Indian  Sea  ?  " 

Other  things  that  occupied  the  Emperor's  mind  were  the 
secret  forces  inherent  in  matter,  in  things  themselves,  forces 
which  Frederick  II  was  so  skilful  in  liberating  in  his  State. 
He  had  a  particular  love  for  precious  stones  that  was  not 
unconnected  with  their  magic  properties,  and  he  would  pur 
chase  them  even  when  the  treasury  was  exhausted.  Prester 
John  was  said  to  have  given  him  wonderful  stones ;  and  he 
was  brought  the  legendary  jewels  from  the  crown  of  the 
Babylonian  dragon  which  a  fisherman  had  found.  He  was  inti 
mately  acquainted  with  the  magnetic  needle  and  its  mysterious 
power,  that  wonderful  instrument  of  which  Brunette  Latini 
wrote  at  the  end  of  the  century  to  Guido  Cavalcanti :  "  The 
seafarer  can  steer  correctly  thanks  to  this  magnet,  but  for  the 
present  he  must  use  it  secretly  . . .  for  no  shipmaster  would  dare 
to  employ  him  lest  he  be  suspected  of  witchcraft.  Sailors 
would  refuse  to  serve  on  the  ship  if  they  knew  that  their  captain 
had  in  his  possession  such  inventions  of  the  devil."  Michael 
Scot  had  minutely  instructed  the  Emperor  about  the  different 
properties  of  minerals  and  metals,  a  lore  which  verged  on 
alchemy,  an  art  by  no  means  unknown  at  court.  He  learned,  for 
instance,  that  quicksilver,  the  wonderful  argentum  vivum,  makes 
a  man  deaf  if  dropped  into  his  ear.  He  also  got  Michael 
Scot  to  teach  him  the  properties  of  herbs  and  drugs  (the 
Botany  of  Dioscorides  was  known  in  Sicily)  and  the  wonderful 
qualities  of  lakes  and  rivers,  and  he  sent  special  messengers 
to  Norway  to  investigate  the  petrifying  properties  of  a  certain 
spring. 


Frederick's  great  resource  in  all  his  questionings  was  the 
enormous  work  of  Michael  Scot,  which  was  not  only  an 
astronomical,  astrological  encyclopaedia,  but  a  compendium  of 


UNIVERSAL  KNOWLEDGE  355 

all  the  secret  sciences.  It  was  based  in  many  points  on  danger 
ous  sources,  a  Liber  perditionis  animae  et  corporis  for  instance, 
which  contained  the  names,  dwelling-places  and  powers  of  the 
demons,  and  the  Liber  auguriorum  of  which  Michael  Scot 
(otherwise  a  most  obedient  son  of  the  Church)  writes  that 
he  has  seen  and  owned  the  book  although  the  Roman  Church 
had  banned  it.  His  work  does  not  neglect  the  symbolism  of 
numbers  and  their  mystic  values  :  the  number  seven  rules  the 
world,  for  seven  is  the  number  of  the  planets,  metals,  arts, 
colours,  tones  and  smells.  Everywhere  we  detect  him  striving 
to  relate  everything  in  the  Cosmos  according  to  law  to  every 
thing  else.  Michael  Scot  treats  of  the  music  of  the  spheres  and 
expounds  en  passant  the  old  musical  doctrines  of  Boethius,  and 
the  newer  ones  of  Guido  of  Arezzo  ;  on  another  occasion  he 
explains  the  calendar.  His  immense  astrological  and  astro 
nomical  knowledge  he  owes  not  only  to  the  Almagest  and  to  al 
Fargani,  but  much  also  to  the  ancients,  to  the  obscure  Scholia 
of  Germanicus,  for  instance,  in  which  again  Nigidius  and  Ful- 
gentius,  Hyginus,  Pliny,  Martianus  Capella  and  Aratus  are 
included.  Michael  Scot  took  over  the  star  pictures  of  the 
ancient  Scholia,  and  these  astrological  figures  of  Mars  and 
Jupiter,  the  Archer  and  the  Centaur,  which  followed  the 
ancient  representations,  exercised  in  their  turn  an  influence  on 
Renaissance  painting,  as  can  be  demonstrated  from  Giotto's 
frescoes  at  Padua.  For  his  astrology  Michael  Scot  draws 
largely  on  the  Arabs,  above  all  on  Albumazar  in  whom  more 
ancient  works  were  collected,  Hermes,  Dorotheus,  the  Baby 
lonian  Teucer  and  also  Indians  and  Persians.  In  short,  at  the 
imperial  court  all  the  superstitions  of  the  late  Roman  empire,  a 
prey  as  it  had  been  to  the  stream  of  oriental  influences,  came  to 
life  again,  just  as  Gnostic  teaching  reawakened  amongst  the 
heretics  of  this  same  period. 

Frederick  knew  all  these  things,  or  had  learned  in  conversa 
tion  all  that  was  worth  knowing  about  them.  "  O  fortunate 
Emperor!" — wrote  Michael  Scot — "I  verily  believe  if  ever 
a  man  in  this  world  could  escape  death  by  his  learning,  thou 
wouldest  be  the  one.  .  .  ."  Frederick's  knowledge  must  have 
been  stupendous.  His  mind  enbraced  every  line  of  culture  in 
the  contemporary  world  :  Spanish,  Proven9al,  French,  Roman, 


356  STUPOR  MUNDI  v.  .3 

Italian,  Arab,  Greek  and  Jew.    Add  to  this  his  knowledge 
of  tongues,  of  jurisprudence,  of  ancient  literature,  of  Roman 
educational  literature  and  the  literature  of  Scholasticism,  whose 
methods  were  entirely  familiar  to  him  as  his  Falcon  Book, 
shows.     His  contemporaries,  amazed  and  fearful,  called  him 

STUPOR  MUNDI. 

More  admirable  even  than  the  fulness  of  his  knowledge  was 
the  fact  that  with  it  all  the  Emperor  never  for  a  moment  lost 
his  clarity  of  vision.  Even  in  scientific  matters  he  knew  exactly 
what  things  were  of  importance  for  research.  He  was  himself 
at  home  in  the  mysterious  twilight  of  the  prophets  and  star- 
gazers  and  could  not  value  their  sphere  too  highly  as,  in  a  cer 
tain  sense,  a  training  ground.  His  own  aims,  however,  were 
far  too  simple  and  straightforward  to  be  understood  by  any 
of  these  over-learned  folk.  He  depended  only  on  first  hand 
ocular  observation.  "  No  certainty  comes  by  hearsay  "  was 
one  of  his  maxims.  He  acted  up  to  it.  To  let  people  know 
the  Emperor's  methods  he  once  sent  mutilated  and  blinded 
conspirators  on  a  tour  of  all  countries,  for  "  the  sight  of  the  eyes 
makes  more  impression  on  men  than  the  hearing  of  the  ear." 
He  by  no  means  despised  the  mental  training  that  served  to 
sharpen  the  sight.  An  Arab  scholar  Shahabu  'd  Din  has 
preserved  in  an  essay  on  Optics  :  Attentive  Observation  of 
What  the  Eye  Perceives,  some  questions  of  the  Emperor's. 
He  asked  why  Canopus  looked  larger  at  his  rising  than  at  his 
zenith ;  why  eyes  afflicted  with  cataract  could  see  black 
streaks  and  spots  ;  why  a  lance  plunged  in  water  should  appear 
broken.  Deceptions  of  the  eye  had  a  disturbing  importance 
for  the  man  who  relied  preponderantly  on  visual  observation. 

The  sense  in  which  Frederick  believed  that  knowledge  was 
dependent  on  seeing  is  clear  from  his  laws  about  doctors.  The 
Constitutions  of  Melfi  lay  down  :  "  Since  the  science  of  medi 
cine  cannot  be  mastered  without  a  preliminary  knowledge  of 
logic,  we  command  that  none  shall  study  medicine  who  has  not 
first  studied  logic  for  at  least  three  years."  All  medical  stu 
dents  of  Salerno  were  obliged  to  devote  five  years  to  reading 
Hippocrates  and  Galen  concurrently  with  their  surgical  and 
anatomical  studies,  for  the  purposes  of  which  corpses  were  on 
occasion  placed  at  their  disposal.  After  they  had  passed  their 


PASSIONATE  CURIOSITY  357 

examination  the  Emperor  did  not  grant  them  an  appointment 
as  doctor  until  "  they  had  practised  for  a  full  year  beside  an 
experienced  physician."  After  that  they  became  state  officials. 
The  apothecaries  were  also  state  officials,  and  were  obliged  to 
study  physics  for  one  year.  The  Emperor  himself  had  a  very 
exact  knowledge  of  anatomy,  both  animal  and  human,  and  of 
medicine.  The  Arabs  had  a  great  admiration  for  his  medical 
knowledge,  and  he  quotes  Hippocrates  in  his  Falcon  Book. 
Michael  Scot  wrote  a  medical  treatise,  so  also  did  Master  Theo 
dore,  who,  when  he  was  instructed  to  work  out  a  new  scheme  of 
dietetics,  wrote  to  the  Emperor :  "  Your  Majesty  has  commanded 
me  to  prescribe  certain  rules  for  the  preservation  of  your  health 
.  .  .  but  you  are  long  since  in  possession  of  that  most  ancient 
letter  from  the  "  Secrets  "  of  Aristotle,  which  he  sent  to  the 
Emperor  Alexander  when  the  latter  asked  to  be  instructed 
about  the  health  of  the  body.  All  that  your  Majesty  desires 
to  know  is  completely  contained  in  that  letter."  A  certain 
Adam  of  Cremona  also  worked  out  medical  instructions  for  the 
Emperor.  And  in  Italy  for  many  a  day  powders,  prescrip 
tions  and  healing  lotions  passed  under  Frederick's  name.  In 
addition  to  anatomy  and  medicine  the  Emperor  sought  to 
master  the  science  of  human  physiognomy.  At  his  request 
Michael  Scot  compiled  from  Arab-Hellenistic  sources  an  essay 
on  Physiognomies  which  forms  the  third  part  of  his  great  Hand 
book.  In  the  dedication  he  assures  the  Emperor  that  with  this 
knowledge  in  mind  a  ruler  may  know  the  vices  and  virtues  of 
his  entourage  as  surely  as  if  he  were  himself  in  their  skins. 

Slowly  people  were  progressing  from  mental  blinking  to 
physical  seeing.  Seeing,  observing,  exploring  and  researching 
into  Nature  and  her  laws  became  a  passion  with  Frederick  II. 
The  innumerable  anecdotes,  the  countless  questions  all  betray 
the  same  craving  to  explore  the  living  newly-discovered  world, 
all  disclose  the  same  passionate  curiosity  concerning  the  laws 
of  cause  and  effect,  the  how  and  the  why  of  every  sort  of  life. 
He  shares  this  passion  for  knowledge,  this  curiosity,  with 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  to  whom  Nietzsche  compares  him  :  he  at 
the  beginning,  Leonardo  at  the  end  of  the  same  epoch.  Where 
mere  observation  was  insufficient  Frederick  II  proceeded  to 
scientific  experiment,  which,  like  every  attempt  at  experiment, 


358  RESEARCH  METHODS  v.  3 

seemed  to  the  Middle  Ages  abhorrent  or  insane.  They  tell 
that  he  was  anxious  to  discover  which  of  two  men  had  better 
digested  his  food,  the  one  who  had  rested  after  his  meal  or  the 
other  who  had  taken  exercise  :  he  cut  them  open  to  see.  To 
ascertain  the  length  of  a  fish's  life  Frederick  inserted  a  copper 
ring  in  a  carp's  fin  and  set  it  free.  The  story  of  the  "  Diver  " 
is  told  about  Frederick.  He  made  the  man  dive  into  the  Faro 
to  learn  about  sea  animals  and  plants.  He  organised  the  most 
original  experiments  on  his  Apulian  estates,  where  he  bred 
horses  and  sought  to  improve  the  breed  by  importing  Barbary 
mares.  In  Malta  he  established  a  camel-breeding  station,  not 
to  mention  his  breeding  of  hounds,  poultry  and  pigeons.  To 
study  the  chick's  emergence  from  the  egg,  the  embryo's 
position  in  the  egg,  etc.,  he  built  artificial  incubating  ovens. 
Having  heard  that  ostrich  eggs  are  hatched  by  the  sun  in  hot 
sand  he  procured  ostrich  eggs  from  al  Kamil  and  experienced 
people  along  with  them,  and  tried  to  hatch  them  out  in  the 
heat  of  the  Apulian  summer.  Al  Kamil  also  sent  him  Indian 
cockatoos  and  pelicans,  in  return  for  which  Frederick  sent  him 
presents  of  white  peacocks  and  a  polar  bear.  He  tried  to 
determine  whether  birds  of  prey  detect  their  quarry  by  sight  or 
smell.  "  We  have  often  experimented  in  various  ways.  For 
when  the  falcons  are  completely  blinded  (by  stitching  the  eye 
lids)  they  do  not  even  detect  the  meat  that  is  thrown  to  them, 
though  nothing  impedes  their  power  of  smell."  He  was  the 
first  to  institute  systematic  cultivation  of  game  ;  he  established 
close  seasons,  based  on  an  accurate  observation  of  the  times  of 
pairing  and  breeding,  for  which  the  animals  of  Apulia  were 
supposed  to  have  written  him  a  letter  of  thanks.  He  had 
animal  reservations  in  various  parts  of  his  kingdom,  and  the 
larger  part  of  his  menagerie,  when  not  in  actual  attendance  on 
him,  was  kept  in  Lucera.  On  occasion  he  would  divide  a 
number  of  captured  cranes  among  his  various  castles.  His 
large  vivarium  was  symbolical.  Close  to  Foggia  he  had  a  big 
marsh  laid  out  with  ponds  and  walled  water-conduits  which 
was  alive  with  all  descriptions  of  waterfowl.  A  fantastic 
picture — the  great  palace  with  its  columns  of  marble  and 
serpentine,  with  bronze  and  marble  statues,  the  Emperor  within 
attended  by  Moorish  slaves  and  noble  pages,  visiting  his  pools 


"DE  ARTE  VENANDI  CUM  AVIBUS"       359 

to  study  pelicans,  cranes,  herons,  wild  geese  and  exotic  marsh 
fowl! 


All  these  instincts  of  his  culminated  in  his  passion  for  the 
chase  which  cost  him  the  gravest  defeat  of  his  career — before 
the  walls  of  Parma.  For  Frederick's  ancestors  the  chase  had 
been  a  peacetime  substitute  for  war  ;  for  Frederick  it  was  more, 
it  was  an  art  "  entirely  born  of  love  "  (totum  procedit  ex  amore), 
an  intellectual  exercise  on  a  par  with  his  natural  science  studies. 
Only  hawking,  of  course.  The  charm  lay  in  the  mysterious 
power  of  the  falconer  over  the  freest,  most  elusive  of  all 
birds — the  eagle,  the  buzzard,  the  falcon.  When  six,  eight, 
or  even  ten  falcons  circled  free  in  the  air,  almost  out  of  sight 
and  yet  bound  as  it  were  by  some  invisible  thread,  compelled 
by  some  mysterious  power  that  brought  them  with  infallible 
certainty  back  to  the  falconer's  wrist,  scorning  the  proffered 
liberty,  it  was  not  only  an  exciting  marvel,  it  was  for  Frederick 
the  neplus  ultra  of  perfect  discipline.  The  discipline  Frederick 
would  have  liked  to  see  equally  developed  in  man. 

He  despised  the  hunter  who  hunted  with  snares  or  nets  or 
quadrupeds.  The  noble  sport  was  hawking,  because  it  is  an 
art  that  can  only  be  learnt  from  a  teacher.  "  Hence  it  comes 
that  while  many  men  of  noble  birth  learn  the  art,  the  unedu 
cated  rarely  do  so.  Hounds  and  hunting-leopards  can  be  tamed 
by  force,  falcons  can  only  be  caught  and  trained  by  human 
skill.  Hence  a  man  learns  more  of  the  secrets  of  nature  from 
hawking  than  from  other  kinds  of  hunting/'  thus  Frederick 
writes  in  his  Book  of  Falconry.  This  saying  of  his  explains 
why,  after  the  decay  of  hawking,  intellectual  monarchs  like 
Frederick  the  Great  or  Napoleon  had  no  love  for  the  chase. 
It  is  also  the  revelation  of  what  Frederick  sought  in  the  chase  : 
the  secret  workings  of  nature. 

Frederick's  great  work  is  the  product  of  years  of  observation  : 
de  Arte  venandi  cum  avibus.  "  Thanks  to  his  amazingly 
penetrative  glance,  directed  especially  to  the  observation  of 
nature,  the  Imperator  himself  wrote  a  book  about  the  nature 
and  care  of  birds,  in  which  he  showed  how  deeply  imbued  he 
was  with  a  love  of  knowledge,"  wrote  a  chronicler.  This 


360  FALCON  BOOK  v.  3 

comprehensive  zoological  treatise  is  anything  but  the  superficial 
indulgence  of  a  princely  caprice.  Down  to  the  minutest  detail 
it  is  based  on  his  own  observations  or  those  which  friends  and 
experts  had  made  at  his  instigation.  For  twenty  or  thirty  years 
the  Emperor  had  meditated  the  writing  of  this  Ornithology — for 
it  is  no  less — and  all  the  time  he  had  been  amassing  first-hand 
material  till  at  last,  urged  by  his  son  Manfred,  he  set  about  the 
actual  task  of  writing  the  six  books  in  this  branch  of  Zoology. 
"  He  must  be  reckoned  the  greatest  expert  who  ever  lived," 
so  judged  Ranke.  And  the  statement  is  not  unjustified.  In 
the  most  vital  points  the  book  has  not  even  yet  been  superseded. 
The  most  astonishing  thing  about  it  is  its  absolute  accuracy 
and  matter-of-factness,  which  contains  more  knowledge  of  the 
mysteries  of  nature  than  do  the  cosmic  astral  encyclopaedias 
of  the  court  philosophers  at  which  the  Emperor  was  wont  to 
smile,  even  though  on  occasion  he  participated  in  the  current 
superstitions.  In  that  age  of  intellectual  starvation,  which 
speculated  how  many  angels  could  dance  on  the  point  of  a 
needle,  Frederick  summed  up  his  programme  in  the  injroduc- 
tion  in  the  clear-cut  phrase :  "  Our  intention  is  to  set  forth  the 
things  which  are,  as  they  are  (manifestare  ea  quae  sunt  sicut  sunt) . ' ' 
This  stern  sobriety,  that  seeks  nothing  before  things  or  behind 
things,  but  the  things  themselves,  when  exercised  by  a  wise 
man,  contains  the  vision  of  all  visions.  Everything  is,  first 
and  foremost,  itself.  Neither  the  philosophers  of  the  East  nor 
the  philosophers  of  the  West  had  taught  this  to  Frederick. 
We  reflect  that,  a  century  ago,  when  the  rest  of  Germany  was 
celebrating  orgies  of  emotion  and  philosophy,  many  a  one 
quitted  Weimar  in  disillusionment  because  there  everyone  was 
"  busy  counting  the  legs  of  cockchafers." 

The  Emperor's  book  Concerning  the  Art  of  Hunting  with  Birds 
contains  far  more  than  its  title  promises.  The  first  part  is  a 
general  survey  of  birds,  a  classification  of  species,  their  habits, 
their  breeding,  their  feeding,  their  distribution,  their  methods 
of  nesting.  The  migration  of  birds  is  described  in  detail, 
their  skeletal  structure,  the  organs  and  their  functions  ;  every 
detail  of  the  plumage,  the  number  and  position  of  the  wing 
feathers,  the  flight  itself ;  in  what  relation  the  hardness  of  the 
wing  feathers  stands  to  the  frequency  of  the  wing  beat.  It  is 


HEARSAY  EVIDENCE  361 

surprising  to  note  that  here  Frederick  seeks  explanation  in  the 
various  works  known  to  him,  and  refers,  for  instance,  to  the 
pseudo-Aristotelian  Mechanics.  Each  beat  of  the  wing,  we 
learn,  moves  through  a  segment  of  a  circle,  in  which  movement 
the  outer  feather  describe  the  largest  circle.  According  to  the 
laws  of  the  Mechanics  the  larger  roller  lifts  the  greater  weight. 
Since  the  outer  feathers  have  the  greatest  burden  to  support 
and  the  greatest  circle  to  describe  they  are  correspondingly 
stronger  in  build,  and  the  hardness  of  the  feathers  decreases  in 
given  proportions. 

In  the  second  of  the  six  books  the  Emperor  talks  of  the 
different  types  of  hunting  falcons,  their  capture,  their  training, 
their  temporary  blinding,  by  sewing  the  lids,  the  way  to  carry 
them  and  the  way  to  cast  them.  Frederick  used  to  get  falcons 
sent  or  fetched  from  all  corners  of  the  earth.  He  once  took  a 
condemned  criminal  and  sent  him  down  into  an  abyss  to  fetch 
the  nest  of  a  white  falcon.  When  he  speaks  of  the  birds  of  prey 
which  were  sent  to  him  from  Spain  and  Bulgaria,  the  Near 
East  and  India,  Britain  and  Iceland  (which  he  locates  between 
Norway  and  Greenland),  his  immense  knowledge  of  plant  and 
animal  geography  is  displayed.  He  remarks  that  the  birds  of 
the  Arctic  regions  who  are  nearer  to  the  North  Pole  are  stronger, 
braver,  quicker  and  more  beautiful  than  those  of  more  southern 
lands.  He  explains  precisely  why  this  should  be  so,  and 
recognises  that  two  falcons  generally  considered  to  be  of  two 
different  species  are  really  identical,  and  their  differences  are 
due  only  to  climatic  variations. 

He  collected  observations  from  all  countries.  He  got  experts 
sent  to  him  from  Arabia  and  other  places  and  he  used  their 
information  where  they  "  knew  better."  He  only  claimed  to 
set  forth  "  what  our  own  experience  has  taught,  or  the  experi 
ence  of  others/1  and  he  held  that  "  no  certainty  is  attained  by 
the  ear."  Whatever  he  knows  only  by  hearsay  he  seeks  to 
verify.  He  institutes  enquiries,  for  instance,  about  the  "bar 
nacle-geese,"  which  is  said  to  hatch  out  of  worms  or  shells  or 
the  rotting  ships'  wood  in  the  northern  regions.  He  specially 
sent  envoys  to  the  north  to  fetch  such  wood  and  demonstrated 
the  baselessness  of  the  tale.  From  this  he  concluded  that  this 
type  of  wild  goose  had  her  nest  in  remote  regions  which  were 


362  STYLE  OF  FALCON  BOOK  v.  3 

rarely  visited  by  man.  Reports  which  he  could  not  check  he 
quoted  only  with  reservations  ;  when  he  writes  about  the 
Phoenix  described  by  Pliny  he  adds  :  "We  cannot,  however, 
believe  this/' 

Frederick  II  rated  Aristotle  very  high  as  a  philosopher,  but 
considers  him  a  scholar  wholly  dependent  on  book-learning, 
and  does  not  hesitate  to  dismiss  his  statement  with  a  curt 
"  It  is  not  so."  "  We  have  followed  Aristotle  where  necessary, 
but  we  have  learnt  from  experience  that  he  appears  frequently 
to  deviate  from  the  truth,  especially  in  writing  of  the  nature  of 
certain  birds.  We  have  therefore  not  followed  this  Prince  of 
Philosophers  in  everything  .  .  ,  for  Aristotle  seldom  or  never 
hunted  with  birds,  while  we  have  ever  loved  and  practised 
hawking."  The  Emperor  frequently  corrects  Aristotle :  "  But 
we,  who  have  had  some  practice  in  the  chase,  think  otherwise." 
After  he  has  minutely  described  how  the  chain  or  triangle  of 
flying  waterfowl  change  their  leader  he  adds  "  It  is  therefore 
improbable  that  the  leader  should  remain  unchanged  as  Aris 
totle  maintains.  ..." 

The  Emperor's  book  contains  thousands  of  separate  observa 
tions  which  are  marshalled  formally,  clearly,  and  logically, 
passing  always  from  the  general  to  the  particular  as  scholastic 
method  demanded.  The  sentence  construction  is  usually 
lucid,  the  language — in  contrast  to  the  rhetorical  manifestos  of 
his  Chancery — is  simple,  straightforward,  matter-of-fact,  but 
always  stately,  always  couched  in  the  pluralis  majestatis,  and 
clothed  with  a  certainty  that  defies  refutation.  It  was  often 
difficult — as  the  Emperor  says — to  find  Latin  synonyms  for  the 
Arabic  or  Proven9al  technical  terms.  The  eye  is  appealed  to 
by  many  hundred  drawings  of  birds  which  are  unquestionably 
from  the  Emperor's  own  hand.  It  has  been  expressly  recorded 
that  he  knew  how  to  draw.  One  of  the  first  two-volume 
editions  de  luxe  of  this  book,  which  in  1248  at  Parma  fell  into 
the  enemy's  hands,  and  later  came  to  the  Anjous,  contains 
illuminations  which  are  repeated  in  later  copies.  The  drawings 
are  true  to  life  down  to  the  tiniest  details,  and  the  style  of  pic 
ture,  the  birds  in  flight,  in  various  phases  of  movement,  point 
unmistakably  to  the  eager  observer  himself,  though  the  magni 
ficently  coloured  versions  may  have  been  prepared  by  some 


THE  SEEING  EYE  363 

court  artist  or  other.  It  is  possible  that  Persian  or  Saracen 
drawings  influenced  Frederick,  perhaps  ancient  codices  also. 
However  this  may  be,  experts  pronounce  the  drawings  of  the 
Falcon  Book  to  be  as  amazingly  "  before  their  time  "  as  is 
Sicilian  plastic  art. 

The  Emperor's  book  soon  appeared  in  several  French 
versions,  and  ousted  all  similar  works.  Short  Instructions  to 
Falconers  of  Norman  and  other  origin  had  preceded  the  imperial 
Falcon  Book,  but  they  had  not  the  same  thoroughness  or  zoo 
logical  knowledge,  and  were  not  nearly  so  comprehensive. 
Frederick  justifiably  dismissed  them  as  "  inaccurate  and  in 
adequate."  What  he  was  aiming  at  was  to  lift  hawking  to  the 
level  of  an  exact  science,  which  none  of  the  existing  books  was 
competent  to  do.  The  Emperor  was  doubtless  acquainted 
with  oriental  works.  A  Persian  falcon  book  was  translated 
at  King  Enzio's  command,  an  Arabic  book  of  healing  for 
hunting-birds  was  certainly  not  unknown  to  Frederick. 
He  can  scarcely  have  utilised  them,  however,  since  his  own 
book  was  based  entirely  on  personal  observation.  Wherever 
opportunity  offered  the  Emperor  worked  at  the  writing  of 
his  book  "  in  spite  of  the  unspeakable  number  of  claims  upon 
our  time,"  as  he  writes,  and  we  learn  incidentally  that 
during  the  siege  of  Faenza  he  corrected  Master  Theodore's 
translation  of  an  Arabic  essay  on  hunting,  written  by  the 
imperial  falconer  Muamin.  A  Cremonese  translated  the  same 
essay  for  King  Enzio  into  French.  The  Emperor  wrote  the 
book  only  a  few  years  before  his  death,  and  King  Manfred  out 
of  his  own  knowledge  and  from  loose  sheets  of  the  Emperor's, 
posthumously  filled  many  lacunae. 


The  most  important  thing  about  the  Falcon  Book  is  not  the 
fact  that  Albertus  Magnus  for  instance  used  it,  nor  the  fact  that 
other  hunting  books  sprang  up,  like  one  by  a  German  knight 
who  called  as  witnesses  to  his  prowess  in  the  chase  "  especially 
the  huntsmen  of  the  illustrious  Lord  Frederick,  Emperor  of  the 
Romans."  Vastly  more  important  was  it  that  the  courtiers 
of  the  Emperor  and  his  sons  (who  resembled  their  father) 
acquired  an  eye  for  Nature  so  that  they  learned  the  imperial  art 


364  FREDERICK  AND  FRANCIS  v.  3 

of  seeing,  whatever  they  might  choose  to  apply  it  to.  The  new 
element  in  the  Falcon  Book  is  the  idea  of  seeing  and  telling 
"  the  things  that  are,  as  they  are,"  and  that  this  should  be  done 
not  by  an  unknown  settler  or  scholar  but  by  the  Emperor 
of  the  Roman-Christian  world  :  a  remarkable  parergon  of  a 
great  statesman.  The  Emperor's  immediate  influence  asserted 
itself  further  in  another  work  which  was  widely  circulated, 
translated  into  many  languages,  and  which  acted  as"  a  model 
for  succeeding  generations :  the  Horse  Healing  of  a  Calabrian 
nobleman  and  official ,  Jordamis  Ruffus .  This  was  the  first  book 
of  veterinary  lore  that  the  West  produced,  and  it  was  written 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Emperor.  The  author  expressly 
declares  that  he  received  instruction  to  a  very  large  extent  in 
all  the  matters  treated,  from  the  Emperor  who  was  himself  an 
expert. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  great  scholars  of  della  Vigna's 
circle,  those  of  the  type  of  Michael  Scot,  all  failed  completely 
when  it  came  to  the  use  of  the  eye.  The  Emperor,  King  Man 
fred,  Enzio,  the  noble  official  Jordanus  Ruffus,  the  Arab  fal 
coner  Muamin,  are  the  men  with  seeing  sight.  We  may  say 
that  seeing  "  begins  "  once  more  with  them  ;  not  that  the  gift 
had  been  entirely  lost ;  even  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  peasant 
and  the  huntsman  had  used  their  eyes  as  shrewdly  as  in  other 
ages.  But  those  who  could  put  in  words  what  they  had  seen, 
the  intellectual,  the  learned  of  every  kind,  the  "  educated  "  had 
in  those  days  no  eyes  for  the  material  world.  Frederick  II, 
the  predecessor  of  the  great  empiricists  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  of  the  Dominican  Albertus  Magnus  and  the  Francis 
can  Roger  Bacon,  was  the  first  man  to  make  his  appearance  who 
was  at  once  a  master  of  all  current  learning,  and  as  a  hunter  had 
from  infancy  the  use  of  his  eyes.  It  has  often  been  asserted 
that  the  Falcon  Book  marks  a  turning  point  in  Western  thought, 
the  beginning  of  experimental  science  in  the  West.  And  here 
we  must  recall  the  Emperor's  opposite,  Francis  of  Assisi,  back 
to  whom  they  trace  the  new  feeling  for  Nature.  It  is  true  that 
the  two  approached  Nature  with  different  sense  organs.  If  we 
reckon  Frederick  II  the  first  open-eyed  mind  who  traced  the 
eternal  unvarying  Law  of  Nature  and  of  life  in  type  and  species 
and  gradation,  we  may  with  equal  justice  account  Francis  of 


PHYSIQUE  365 

Assisi,  the  first  open-eyed  soul  who  spontaneously  experienced 
Nature  and  Life  as  magic  and  emotion,  and  traced  the  same 
divine  pneuma  in  all  that  lived.  Dante  was  both  in  one. 


TRANSFORMER  OF  THE  WORLD  !  This  was  what  contem 
poraries  named  Frederick.  Not  least  "transformer"  of  men. 
For  this  intellectual  court  of  his  reared  a  new  human  species 
in  whom  philosophy  was  no  kingly  caprice,  but  a  begetter  of 
life.  The  spiritual  knight  of  the  epoch  of  the  Crusade  was 
gradually  superseded  by  the  intellectual  knight  who  was  to 
prevail  in  the  ensuing  centuries.  Naturally  the  Founder  was 
himself  the  first  of  the  new  species  who  undertakes  a  type 
of  battle  for  centuries  forgotten,  which  from  later  ages  earned 
for  the  Hohenstaufen  Tyrant  of  Sicily  the  name  of  "  Herakles 
Musagetes." 

Frederick  II  was  a  warrior  and  a  fighter  rather  than  a  knight, 
and  we  miss  the  glamour  of  joust  and  tournament  which  sur 
rounded  Barbarossa  even  in  his  old  age  ;  the  "  game  "  for 
Frederick  was  not  the  shock  of  knightly  weapons,  but  the  clash 
of  noble  minds.  When  actual  fighting  was  afoot,  however,  he 
shirked  no  danger.  Seizing  a  shield  he  led  the  attack  against  a 
besieged  town  ;  in  open  battle  he  charged  the  enemy  at  the  head 
of  his  horsemen,  especially  when  wrath  and  vengeance  stirred 
his  blood.  From  boyhood  he  had  trained  his  body  in  the  use  of 
weapons  ;  no  hardships  were  too  great  for  him,  and  to  the  last 
he  was  equal  to  all  the  varied  demands  made  on  his  physique 
by  camping  in  hot  weather  or  in  cold.  He  never  even  betrayed 
signs  of  fatigue.  His  body,  though  but  of  medium  height 
was  kept  in  perfect  condition,  strong  and  muscular,  not  thin, 
inclining  rather  to  stoutness,  never  flagging  in  alertness, 
achievement  or  endurance.  Apart  from  an  occasional  indis 
position  and  the  one  attack  of  plague  he  had  no  serious  illness, 
and  with  all  his  love  of  other  types  of  luxury  he  maintained  a 
Spartan  regime  that  allowed  him  only  one  meal  a  day.  He  had 
learnt  from  the  Orient  a  refined  cult  of  the  body  which  to  his 
contemporaries  appeared  simply  satanic  :  a  mendicant  monk 
querulously  reports  that  he  did  not  forego  his  bath  even  on  the 
days  of  Church  festivals.  This  will  have  helped  to  preserve  a 


366  APPEARANCE  v.  3 

certain  freshness,  elasticity  and  youthfulness  which  characterised 
him.  His  mode  of  life  also  assisted :  he  spent  not  less  than  one- 
third  of  his  time  in  the  saddle,  and  of  that  full  half  was  given 
to  hunting.  To  the  very  end  he  felt  equal  to  any  exertion. 
Two  years  before  his  death  he  was  on  his  horse  for  fully  twenty- 
four  hours.  His  black  horse,  "  Dragon/'  carried  him  at  dawn 
to  the  chase,  at  midday  into  battle,  and  then  all  through  the 
night  at  top  speed  from  Parma  to  Cremona.  He  was  so  little 
fatigued  that  immediately  on  arrival  in  the  terrified  town, 
though  it  was  still  dark,  he  started  assembling  troops  with  which 
he  set  out  to  battle  two  days  later.  Similar  exploits  were  fre 
quent.  Just  as  the  Puer  Apuliae  swam  a  river  on  a  barebacked 
horse,  the  Emperor  at  the  opening  of  his  Lombard  campaign 
accomplished  a  forced  march  of  eighty-seven  miles  with  his 
heavy  cavalry  in  two  nights  and  a  day,  and  at  the  end  of  his 
ride  surprised  and  took  Vicenza  :  a  feat  to  which  his  con 
temporaries  paid  a  due  tribute  of  admiration. 


There  was  nothing  soft  about  Frederick  for  all  his  intellect. 
His  limbs  were  as  powerful  as  they  were  well  built.  He  tore 
open  the  side  of  the  rebel  Saracen  Amir  with  a  blow  of  his 
foot,  and  his  beautiful  and  powerful  hands  will  have  been 
equally  terrible  in  their  grip.  They  were  famed  also  for  their 
skill  and  neat  fingeredness.  Shapely  fingers  may  well  have 
been  part  of  Frederick's  Hohenstaufen  inheritance.  Even 
the  twelfth  century  had  noticed  and  admired  Barbarossa's 
unwontedly  well-formed  hands  ! 

We  have  no  evidence  of  the  changes  Frederick's  appearance 
underwent  with  the  lapse  of  years,  especially  as  the  most 
valuable  witness,  the  great  marble  statue  of  the  Emperor  seated 
on  his  throne  that  adorned  the  gate  of  the  bridge  at  Capua  has 
come  down  to  us  only  as  a  fragment.  Apart  from  scanty  literary 
allusions  we  have  nothing  to  go  on  but  the  golden  coins, 
the  Augustales,  in  particular  the  very  perfect  coins  of  the  later 
mintages.  Every  reference  we  have  confirms  the  fact  that 
the  Emperor  retained  throughout  the  "  cheerful  brow  and  the 
radiant  cheerfulness  of  the  eyes  "'which  had  characterised  the 
Puer  Apuliae.  To  the  very  last  all  the  chroniclers  boast  of 


PERSONALITY  367 

the  cheerfulness  of  his  open  gaze,  and  all  western  observers  agree 
that  he  was  handsome,  with  a  noble  and  distinguished  counten 
ance.  They  all  seek  to  define  the  extraordinary  fascination 
which  he  exercised,  and  which  perhaps  was  not  unconnected 
with  his  mixed  blood  ;  a  brown-tinted  skin  with  rosy  cheeks 
and  auburn-blonde  hair,  which  grew  thinner  with  the  years. 
An  indefinable  something  clung  to  him,  and,  since  he  remained 
always  cleanshaven,  a  something  unaging,  of  eternal  youth. 
The  lack  of  beard  or  moustache  let  all  his  features  be  clearly 
seen,  the  short  powerful  arrogant  nose,  the  remarkably  strong 
chin,  the  mouth  with  its  full  lips  tightly  drawn  in  (so  at  least 
the  coins  imply),  and  its  frequently  mocking  impression.  The 
countenance  of  a  Caesar  worthy  of  the  sculptor's  chisel,  of 
which  no  details  recall  the  accustomed  God-the-Father  type 
of  earlier  German  Emperors  as  Barbarossa  embodied  it,  and  as 
the  Renaissance  Emperors  revived  it  after  Frederick  II. 

One  of  his  enemies  described  him  as  sudden,  sensual,  subtle, 
crafty  and  evil,  but  adds  "  if  he  wished  to  show  favour  he  could 
be  friendly,  cheerful  and  gracious."  A  feeling  of  insecurity 
overtook  everyone  in  his  presence.  Whether  his  countenance 
was  expressing  the  most  charming  and  winning  friendliness  or 
the  most  terrifying  severity  and  sternest  cruelty,  the  glance  of 
his  eye  never  varied,  or  at  most  varied  by  an  imperceptible 
shade.  Part  of  his  magnetism  must  have  lain  in  this  disturbing 
effect  of  his  timeless,  soulless  gaze,  which  let  no  man  guess  his 
true  feelings  ;  it  was  not  dissimulation ;  it  was  something  much 
more  deadly.  One  of  his  friends  said  he  had  the  eyes  of  a 
snake,  thereby  expressing  this  uncanny  fascination.  No  flashing 
penetrating  eye,  but  probably  that  serene  reposeful  glance  which 
perceived  unwaveringly,  and — in  most  unchristian  wise — was 
not  directed  inward.  This  unwaveringness  must  have  been 
more  cruel  and  alarming,  and  a  thousand  times  more  uncanny, 
than  a  sparkling,  lightning  glance.  It  was  probably  the 
amazing  calm  of  two  eyes  set  perfectly  parallel,  working  per 
fectly  in  accord,  which  at  times  produces  almost  the  same 
effect  as  mal  occhio  ;  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  one  Oriental 
described  him  as  "  squinting." 

None  can  say  how  the  daring  dauntless  spirit,  which  ranged 
through  all  the  distances  of  East  and  West,  lay  behind  those 


368  TOTAL  IMPRESSION 

all-perceiving  eerie  eyes,  nor  how  the  mighty  brain  shaped  the 
head  and  cheerful  brow.  The  total  impression,  in  spite  of  its 
broad-necked  power  and  steel-like  strength,  is  one  of  something 
lyrical  and  inspiring,  which  breathes  even  from  the  half- 
Romanised  Augustales — a  German  trait  to  which  neither  a 
Caesar  nor  a  Napoleon  could  lay  claim. 


VI.  GERMAN  EMPEROR 

Pope  and  Emperor  in  harmony Diet  of  Ravenna,  1231 

King  Henry  ;  Diet  of  Worms,  123 1 Diet  of  Friuli, 

1232 Growing    autonomy    of     German     Princes 

Theory    of    German    Empire Burgundy Loss    of 

Cyprus Frederick  aids  Pope  against  Romans Ideal 

relation    of   Empire    and    Papacy Inquisition The 

Great     Halleluja Dominicans     and     Franciscans 

Joachim  of  Flora  :  3  Ages  of  the  world John  of  Vicenza 

Conrad  of  Marburg King  Henry's  rebellion  and 

treason Fate  of  Henry Frederick  marries  Isabella 

of  England Diet  and  Landpeace  of  Mainz Use  of 

German  for  imperial  proclamation Henry  of  Veldeke  ; 

Godfrey  ;    Wolfram  ;    Walther  von  der  Vogelweide 

End  of  Welf-Waibling  feud Jew  ritual  murder  case 

War  with  Lombardy Pope's  manoeuvres Re-burial 

of   St.    Elizabeth,    1236,   at   Marburg "  Execution   of 

Justice  "    against   Lombardy Appeal   to   all   Christian 

monarchs Appeal  to  Romans Art  of  war  in  Middle 

Ages Frederick  of  Babenberg  "  the  Quarrelsome  " 

Arrogance  of  Gregory  IX "  Donation  of  Constantine  " 

Capture  of  Vicenza Diet  of  Vicenza Conrad 

King     of     the     Romans Cortenuova,     1237 The 

"  Triumph  "  in  Cremona 


VI.   GERMAN   EMPEROR 

FREDERICK  II  had  spent  more  than  a  year  in  reorganising  and 
consolidating  the  monarchy  in  Sicily.  In  August  1230  he  had 
made  peace  with  Pope  Gregory,  in  August  1231  the  collection 
of  the  Constitutions  had  been  concluded,  and  a  few  months 
later  the  Emperor  felt  free  to  quit  his  hereditary  kingdom  and 
devote  his  attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  Empire.  His  rule  in 
the  south  seemed  secure  and  would  not  easily  be  shaken,  and  he 
could  now  consider  the  measures  necessary  to  restore  imperial 
power  and  prestige  throughout  the  Empire,  and  could  carry  his 
forcefulness  and  fame  north  into  Northern  Italy  and  Germany. 

The  Lord  of  the  Empire  must  perforce  sail  under  very 
different  colours  from  the  Tyrant  of  Sicily.  The  favour  or 
hostility  of  the  Pope  was  a  matter  almost  of  indifference  in  the 
Sicilian  state,  which  indeed  throve  best  in  open  fight :  the  whole 
constitution  of  the  Empire,  on  the  other  hand,  was  based  on  the 
harmony  of  the  two  powers,  and  the  Empire  at  its  best  required 
a  perfect  balance  of  the  two  in  good  will  and  in  peace.  The 
Imperium,  pillared  on  its  secular  and  spiritual  princes,  was  not 
incorporate  in  the  monarch  alone,  as  was  the  Sicilian  state  with 
its  officials,  but  in  the  dual  power  of  Pope  and  Emperor,  who 
together  constituted  "  a  species  of  individual " :  "  two  swords 
in  one  scabbard, "  two  vicegerents  of  the  true  King. 

The  picture  which  Frederick  II  strove  to  present  to  the  world 
during  the  next  few  years  was  that  of  a  Christian  Imperator 
cooperating  with  the  Pope  in  outward  friendship.  Never  again 
did  he  so  closely  resemble  his  imperial  ancestors,  never  was  he 
so  truly  the  heir  of  Charlemagne,  Otto  and  Barbarossa  as  in  these 
years  of  peace.  His  power,  not  spending  its  strength  in  threats 
of  war,  was  able  to  make  itself  felt  far  and  wide  through  all  the 
countries  of  the  Roman  Empire,  "  whose  length  was  vast  and 
whose  breadth  ended  only  at  the  ends  of  the  earth."  The  days 
of  the  noble  emperors  were  drawing  to  a  glorious  close  ;  with 
Frederick  II  came  the  sudden  crash.  Just  once  more  before 


371 


372  DIET  OF   RAVENNA  vi 

the  end,  the  world  was  to  see  what  the  Middle  Ages  considered 
the  "  correct  conditions  "  established  ;  once  again  Pope  and 
Emperor  in  unison,  once  again  the  Emperor  amid  his  princes  as 
primus  inter  pares.  For  one  last  time  those  ideals  were  realised 
in  all  their  fullness  and  maturity  and  clothed  in  classic  phrases 
which  echo  pitifully  as  empty  catchwords  in  later  days  of  petty 
Kaisers  and  tiara-cr'owned  mid-Italian  landlords.  For  one 
brief  moment  Frederick  II  appeared  radiant  in  the  full  majesty 
of  the  ancient  Holy  Roman  Empire  ;  once  more,  in  the  Pala 
tinates  of  the  Neckar  and  the  Rhine,  the  brilliance  of  imperial 
glory  lit  with  southern  light  flared  dazzlingly,  then  was  for  ever 
quenched.  Only  :  the  Germans  kept  a  yearning  for  it  all. 

From  Foggia  the  Emperor  moved  northwards  to  Ravenna. 
He  took  a  very  modest  Sicilian  retinue.  Berard  of  Palermo 
and  Count  Thomas  of  Aquino  were  the  only  well-known  nobles 
who  accompanied  him.  His  immediate  task  was  to  put  Lom 
bard  and  German  affairs  in  order,  and  the  German  princes  had 
been  long  since  invited  to  a  Diet  at  Ravenna,  to  be  held  in 
November  1 23 1 .  Frederick's  first  intention  had  probably  been 
to  march  into  Northern  Italy  at  the  head  of  his  armies  ;  but  the 
Pope  offered  him  guarantees  for  the  Lombards'  behaviour,  and 
he  abstained  from  any  military  steps,  with  the  result  that  the 
Cremona  fiasco  of  1226,  was,  as  nearly  as  possible,  repeated. 
Although  the  Emperor  announced  himself  as  the  Pope's 
ambassador  on  a  mission  to  suppress  heresy,  and  although 
Gregory  really  endeavoured  to  influence  the  Lombards,  the 
towns  made  not  the  slightest  move  to  send  envoys  to  the  Diet 
which  was  to  serve  "  the  honour  of  God,  of  the  Church  and  of 
the  Empire,  and  the  prosperity  of  Lombardy."  Quite  the 
reverse.  On  the  approach  of  the  Emperor  the  League  which 
had  been  gradually  disintegrating  immediately  reconstituted 
itself,  the  mountain  passes  were  again  seized  by  the  rebels,  and 
passage  denied  to  the  German  forces. 

The  Emperor  was  not,  at  the  moment,  in  a  position  to  inter 
vene  effectively.  The  Diet  was  adjourned  till  Christmas,  and 
the  Emperor  killed  time  in  the  ancient  town  of  Gothic  Kings 
and  Byzantine  Emperors.  He  collected  valuable  building 
materials,  ancient  columns  and  statues,  and  despatched  them 
to  Sicily.  With  remarkable  antiquarian  zeal  he  instituted  the 


i23i  FATHER  AND   SON  373 

first  systematic  excavation.  This  revealed  the  mausoleum  of 
Galla  Placidia,  and  brought  to  light  the  beautiful  mosaics  of  this 
building  which  had  been  completely  submerged  under  boulders 
and  rubble.  Three  alabaster  sarcophagi  were  also  unearthed, 
containing  the  remains  of  this  Empress,  of  her  consort  Theo- 
dosius  II  and  of  St.  Elisha.  Antiquarian  research  had  not, 
however,  been  the  Emperor's  purpose  in  Ravenna.  Gradually 
German  princes  began  to  assemble  in  considerable  numbers. 
Some  had  come  by  sea  from  Venice,  some  had  evaded  the  Vero 
nese  and  crossed  the  passes  in  disguise.  The  German  Grand 
Master,  Hermann  of  Salza  arrived,  and  Gebhard  of  Arnstein, 
a  Thuringian  nobleman,  an  old  acquaintance  of  Frederick's 
who  had  recently  been  appointed  imperial  legate  in  Tuscany, 
came  from  Central  Italy.  The  person,  however,  for  whom 
more  especially  the  Diet  had  been  summoned  was  still  missing  : 
the  Emperor's  son,  King  Henry. 


For  some  time  past  misunderstandings  had  been  talked  of 
between  Frederick  II  and  the  young  German  King,  now  some 
twenty  years  of  age.  Frederick  had  no  serious  crime  with  which 
to  reproach  his  son,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  over  ten  years. 
But  he  had  noticed  a  certain  general  indocility  in  the  German 
King's  attitude,  both  in  personal  matters  towards  his  father 
and  in  political  matters  towards  the  Emperor.  He  had 
been  under  the  tutelage,  first  of  Archbishop  Engelbert  of 
Cologne,  and,  after  the  archbishop's  assassination,  under  Duke 
Lewis  of  Bavaria  ;  but  three  years  ago,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
he  had  begun  to  reign  independently.  He  took  after  his  father 
perhaps,  who  at  twelve  considered  it  "  disgraceful  "  to  be  still 
under  guardianship,  and  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  his 
own  master  at  fourteen.  King  Henry's  first  ambition  was  to  get 
quit  of  every  sort  of  wardship,  and  to  enlarge  his  own  indepen 
dence,  not  in  the  first  place  at  the  expense  of  the  Emperor  but 
rather  at  the  expense  of  the  princes  who  were  thorns  in  the  side 
of  every  German  king.  To  this  end  he  necessarily  leagued 
himself  with  their  opponents,  with  the  townsfolk  who  were 
increasing  in  importance  in  Germany,  as  elsewhere  (the  days  of 
the  town  leagues  were  not  far  off),  with  the  ministeriales,  the 


374  KING  HENRY  VII  vi 

lower  nobility  who  with  knightly  minstrels  were  always  to  be 
found  in  great  numbers  in  his  entourage.  If  King  Henry  had 
in  this  choice  been  prompted  by  political  acumen,  realising 
that  Germany's  strength  and  hope  lay  in  the  knights  and  in  the 
towns,  he  would  have  been  able  to  come  to  some  agreement 
with  his  father,  or  at  least  profitably  to  consult  with  him.  Any 
such  flair  for  a  political  situation  was,  however,  wholly  foreign 
to  his  nature.  He  had  all  the  amiability  and  charm  of 'the 
Hohenstaufens,  but  with  it  an  inconsequence  and  aimlessness 
which  people  called  "  frivolity."  If  he  favoured  townsfolk  and 
ministeriales  he  did  so  from  no  better  reason  than  opposition 
and  hostility  to  the  princes  who  hemmed  him  in. 

It  was  not  long  until  this  line  of  action  on  King  Henry's 
part  became  embarrassing.  When  the  princes  were  staying 
in  Italy  in  1230,  arranging  the  Peace  of  Ceperano  between 
Emperor  and  Pope,  at  a  moment,  therefore,  when  Frederick  was 
more  especially  beholden  to  the  German  nobles,  Henry  made 
an  unmistakably  hostile  move.  The  citizens  of  Li6ge  were 
engaged  in  a  quarrel  with  their  bishop,  and  King  Henry  took 
the  townsfolk  under  his  protection.  The  occasion  itself  was 
unimportant,  but  there  was  a  principle  at  stake,  and  in  a  moment 
the  princes  turned  on  him  to  a  man.  Immediately  after  their 
return  from  Italy,  in  January  1231,  forgetting  all  their  mutual 
quarrels,  united  in  resistance,  they  compelled  the  King  to  hold 
the  unfortunate  Diet  at  Worms  in  May  1231,  and,  confident  in 
the  Emperor's  support,  forced  him  to  surrender  a  great  privv- 
lege.  Except  for  a  few  honorary  royal  rights  the  "  lords  of 
the  land  "  were  to  have  well  nigh  unrestricted  sovereignty  in 
their  own  territories,  especially  over  the  towns.  King  Henry, 
who  had  been  so  eager  to  strengthen  the  Crown  against  the 
growing  encroachments  of  the  princes,  had  thus  succeeded  in 
weakening  it  beyond  all  precedent. 

The  Emperor's  policy  was  diametrically  opposed  to  his 
son's  at  every  point.  Frederick  II  could  not  approve  Henry's 
general  attitude  of  hostility  to  the  princes>  still  less  this  parti 
cular  manifestation  of  it,  directed  against  the  princes  who  were 
absent  in  Italy  in  the  Emperor's  service.  Nothing  could  be 
less  opportune  for  him  than  unrest  beyond  the  Alps,  and 
his  son's  behaviour  was  calculated  to  conjure  up  an  anti- 


A  DISOBEDIENT  SON  375 

Staufen  alliance  of  the  princes.    On  the  other  hand,  by  allow 
ing  the  Privilege  of  Worms  to  be  wrung  from  him,  King  Henry 
had  wantonly  flung  away  valuable  prerogatives .    Frederick  him 
self  had  frequently,  and  that  without  undue  regret,  surrendered 
royal  rights  in  favour  of  the  princes,  but  never  without  an 
adequate  quid  pro  quo.    The  King  by  his  lack  of  address 
had  on  this  occasion  secured  nothing.    There  were  personal 
matters  in  question  also.    Henry  wanted  to  divorce  his  queen, 
Margaret  of  Austria,  although  he  had  issue  by  her,  and  marry 
a  youthful  flame,  Agnes  of  Bohemia.    This  had  been  mooted 
against  the  Emperor's  will,  for  Frederick  had  had  definite 
political  combinations  in  view  when  he  negotiated  the  Austrian 
alliance.     The  question  soon  became  otiose,  for  Agnes  of 
Bohemia,  to  escape  further  discussion,  took  the  veil.    The 
affair  contributed,  however,  to  the  general  unpleasantness. 
On  all  these  counts  the  Emperor  considered  a  personal  talk 
with  his  son  to  be  necessary,  and  had  therefore  invited  him 
to  Ravenna.    Whether  King  Henry  was  right  or  wrong  his 
failure  to  accept  the  Emperor's  invitation  was  unwise.     So  far 
he  might  simply  have  passed  for  a  somewhat  unskilful  diploma 
tist  ;  his  absence  from  Ravenna  (though  he  later  excused  it  on 
the  pretext  of  the  closure  of  the  passes)  made  him  in  his  father's 
eyes  a  disobedient  son.    And  disobedience,  as  he  might  have 
been  aware,  was  not  the  road  to  Frederick's  heart. 


In  the  meantime  Frederick  had  been  negotiating  in  Ravenna 
with  the  German  princes  and  numerous  Italian  bishops,  and 
finally  had  again  banned  the  Lombard  League  when  it  continued 
to  bar  the  passage  over  the  Alps.  The  Emperor  may  not  have 
been  altogether  sorry  to  see  the  Pope  embarrassed  by  the  un 
justifiable  recalcitrance  of  the  confederate  towns,  for  whose 
good  behaviour  he  had  gone  bail  while  secretly  fomenting  their 
resistance.  The  Lombard  action  had  clearly  demonstrated  that 
it  was  impossible  here  to  assert  the  authority  of  the  Empire 
without  resort  to  force.  The  tangled  skein  of  Northern  Italy 
was  obviously  not  to  be  unravelled  by  peaceful  measures,  for 
every  edict  of  the  Emperor's  introduced  fresh  complications. 
He  had,  for  instance,  given  orders  when  outlawing  the  League, 


376  QUITS  RAVENNA  vi 

that  the  loyal  towns  of  Lombardy  should  not  elect  their  annual 
podesta  from  any  of  the  rebel  towns.  This  immediately  caused 
friction  with  Genoa,  who  had  just  done  him  exceptional  honour 
by  sending  a  magnificent  embassy  ;  for  the  Genoese  had  ap 
pointed  a  podesta  from  Milan,  and  were  now  faced  by  the  delicate 
choice  of  offending  the  League  by  rejecting  the  Milanese  6r 
offending  the  Emperor  by  retaining  him.  The  Emperor  could 
not  permit  an  exception  immediately  after  issuing  his  command. 
In  spite  of  the  strong  imperial  feeling  in  Genoa  the  Milanese 
was  installed.  Though  he  was  reluctant  to  disturb  his  good 
relations  with  Genoa  the  Emperor  at  once  retaliated  by  mea 
sures  which  injured  the  Genoese  trade  in  Sicily.  It  was 
frankly  impossible  to  conduct  politics  in  Lombardy  without  an 
army. 

Pope  Gregory  had  again  volunteered  to  mediate  between 
Frederick  and  the  League.  The  Emperor  cannot  have  built 
much  on  his  offer,  for  he  had  had  some  experience  of  papal 
mediation  and  arbitration.  His  misgivings  were  not  unjustified. 
Though  Gregory  ostensibly  supported  the  Emperor  his  choice 
of  arbitrators  and  their  line  of  action  showed  clearly  in  whose 
favour  the  so-called  impartial  verdict  was  to  be  given.  The 
arbitrators  were  declared  enemies  of  the  Emperor,  cardinals 
who  were  natives  of  the  League  towns.  Instead  of  bearing  to 
the  rebels  the  terms  proposed  by  the  aggrieved  Emperor  they 
treated  first  with  the  confederate  revolutionaries,  and  finally 
set  out  for  Ravenna  with  the  cut-and-dried  proposals  of  the 
Leaguers.  The  Emperor  did  not  wait  to  hear  their  award  : 
he  knew  perfectly  what  to  expect,  but  he  was  unwilling  at  the 
moment  to  fall  out  with  the  Pope.  When  the  papal  arbitrators 
arrived  in  Ravenna  at  the  beginning  of  March  they  were  sur 
prised  to  find  the  Emperor  gone.  He  rode  out  to  the  town  one 
afternoon,  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing.  A  fully-equipped 
galley  was  at  anchor  off  the  coast  ready  to  sail ;  he  embarked 
with  a  few  attendants  and  disappeared.  He  had  made  all  pre 
parations  long  before.  Foreseeing  a  protracted  absence  he 
had  sent  Thomas  of  Aquino  back  to  Sicily  as  Captain  of  the 
kingdom,  had  dismissed  the  other  participants  in  the  Ravenna 
diet,  only  retaining  the  German  princes,  and  adjourned  his 
Court  till  Easter  in  Aquileia.  He  did  not  invite  his  son's  pres- 


VENICE  377 

ence ;  he  commanded  his  attendance  in  Aquileia,  and  betook 
himself  thither  by  sea. 


The  princes  who  had  been  left  behind  in  Ravenna  soon 
heard  the  unexpected  news  that  the  Emperor  was  on  his  way 
first  to  Venice.  Most  of  them  made  haste  to  follow  him  by 
land.  As  Frederick's  relations  with  Verona  were  for  the 
moment  unsatisfactory  he  now  sought  to  secure  Venice  for  his 
ally,  and  to  take  advantage  for  his  own  purposes  of  the  rivalry 
between  the  two  towns  in  the  East.  He  had  other  weighty 
incentives.  As  the  mountain  passes  were  under  a  constant  threat 
the  road  via  Venice  and  Friuli  was  the  only  certain  route  to 
Germany,  and  a  good  understanding  with  the  Venetians  was 
therefore  of  the  utmost  importance.  He  sailed  by  Comacchio, 
Loreto  and  Chioggia.  He  halted  for  a  short  time  in  Loreto, 
and  there  received  the  envoys  of  the  independent  Republic 
(no  appanage  of  the  Empire)  who  hastened  thither  to  greet  him. 
To  them  he  confided  his  desire  to  visit  Venice  to  worship  St. 
Mark,  their  patron  saint*  The  Venetians  immediately  con 
vened  their  Grand  Council  and  decided  to  grant  the  Emperor's 
request.  Frederick,  therefore,  continued  his  journey  to  Chiog 
gia.  When  Frederick  landed  on  the  shores  of  St  Mark  and  stood 
beside  the  Doge,  Jacopo  Tiepolo,  he  brought  all  his  charm  and 
amiability  into  play.  The  Venetians  received  him  with  pomp 
and  ceremony  ;  he  presented  costly  gifts  of  gold  and  precious 
stones  to  their  saint,  and  received  from  their  rich  store  of  relics 
a  splinter  of  the  True  Cross  :  he  loaded  them,  almost  against 
their  will,  with  privileges  and  trade  prerogatives  for  Sicily  ; 
but  nothing  dispelled  the  distrust  of  these  traders  and  seafarers, 
a  distrust  equalled  only  by  their  unlimited  arrogance.  Thanks 
to  their  immense  possessions  in  the  Levant,  especially  in  the 
Latin  Empire,  the  Venetians  felt  themselves  almost  the  Emperor's 
equals.  They  did  not  intend  to  be  under  any  obligation  to  the 
Hohenstaufen.  A  Venetian  goldsmith  was  commissioned  by 
Frederick  to  make  him  a  crown  ;  the  Grand  Council  granted 
permission,  only  on  the  condition  that  no  harm  should  arise 
from  it  to  the  Republic.  The  Emperor's  power  alarmed  Venice ; 
they  wanted  no  dealings  with  him.  On  the  first  opportunity 


378  HENRY'S  HUMILIATION  vi 

the  Republic  joined  Frederick's  Lombard  enemies :  on  the 
other  hand,  Venice  was  the  first  town  to  conclude  Peace  with 
the  Emperor,  when  a  Genoese  became  Pope. 

At  Easter  1232  the  German  princes  were  assembled  in  un 
usual  numbers  round  Frederick  II  in  Aquileia.  King  Henry 
at  first  attempted  to  evade  his  father's  command.  Some  of 
the  princes,  however,  who  were  on  their  way  back  from 
Ravenna  met  the  king  in  Augsburg,  and  told  him  of  the 
Emperor's  mood.  Their  urgent  representations  induced 
Henry  to  appear,  however  reluctantly,  at  the  Diet  summoned 
expressly  for  him.  The  Emperor  appointed  the  adjacent 
Cividale  for  his  residence  with  some  attendants,  but  ordered 
Aquileia  to  be  closed  to  him.  In  a  business-like  way,  as  if 
negotiating  with  a  foreign  prince,  Frederick  conducted  from 
Aquileia  the  discussions  with  his  son*.  After  Henry  had 
submitted  to  the  imperial  conditions,  and  not  before,  he  was 
permitted  to  see  his  father  face  to  face,  for  the  first  time  in  ten 
years.  As  father  he  reproved  the  son  ;  as  Emperor  he  made 
heavy  demands  on  the  disobedient  king.  In  Cividale,  where 
the  Court  repaired  after  some  weeks,  King  Henry  was  compelled 
solemnly  to  swear,  in  the  presence  of  his  princely  opponents,  to 
obey  all  commands  of  the  Emperor  in  future,  and  to  treat  the 
German  princes  henceforward  with  due  respect,  as  "lights 
and  protectors  of  the  Empire  "  and  "  apples  of  the  Emperor's 
eye."  The  oath  was  further  reinforced  by  a  written  document 
in  which  Henry  himself  released  the  princes  from  their  oaths 
of  fealty  in  case  of  fresh  disobedience,  and  adjured  them  in 
that  event  to  rise  against  him  on  the  Emperor's  behalf.  The 
Emperor  pressed  his  advantage  further,  and  compelled  King 
Henry  to  write  also  to  the  Holy  Father  and  inform  him  what 
oath  he  had  sworn  to  the  "  divine  Augustus,"  and  beg  Pope 
Gregory  to  excommunicate  without  further  notice  the  German 
King  if  he  should  break  the  promise  made  to  his  father. 
Frederick  II  had  thus  harnessed  to  his  will  the  two  forces  which 
were  wont  to  strive  against  the  Roman  Emperor — at  the  ex 
pense,  it  is  true,  of  his  recalcitrant  son.  For  Henry  the  Light- 
hearted,  under  the  supervision  of  Princes  and  Pope,  was  granted 
only  a  period  of  probation  :  an  intolerable  position,  in  compari 
son  with  which  deposition  would  have  been  kinder  and  less 


GERMAN  CONSTITUTION  379 

severe.  All  royal  freedom  of  action  was  denied  him,  who  had 
sought  to  be  independent  and  self-sufficing.  The  Emperor 
treated  him  as  he  was  wont  to  treat  a  rebellious  town  :  demand 
ing  unconditional  surrender  to  his  will,  an  oath  of  obedience, 
and  submission  to  imperial  supervisors.  King  Henry  would 
have  been  no  Hohenstaufen  if  this  end  of  his  dreams  had  not 
proved  the  beginning  of  his  tragedy. 

The  Friuli  Diet,  which  dragged  on  till  the  end  of  May  (being 
transferred  from  Cividale  to  Udine,  and  then  to  Pordenone  so 
that  the  whole  burden  might  not  fall  on  one  town),  was  im 
mensely  important  to  the  German  constitution.  It  is  a  common 
place  that  the  results  of  decisions  there  taken  are  still  to  be 
felt.  Since  King  Henry  had  allowed  the  Privilege  of  Worms 
to  be  wrung  from  him,  the  Emperor  had  no  option  but  to 
confirm  this  "  Edict  in  favour  of  the  Princes/1  It  thus  came 
about  that  Frederick  II,  the  last  of  the  German  Emperors 
who  had  been  elected  as  Duke  of  a  race  in  the  old  sense,  saw 
the  end  of  the  Germanic  kingship  based  on  race  and  armies. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  constitutional  history  Germany 
may  henceforth  be  styled  a  Confederation  of  Princes  or  a 
Princely  Oligarchy. 


Every  German  statesman  is  faced  by  the  same  problem  :  to 
establish  the  ideal  relation  between  the  Empire  and  its  members. 
Each  preceding  answer  seems  to  have  been  suitable  as  a  momen 
tary,  but  questionable  as  a  permanent  solution :  each  has  been 
big  with  fate.  In  Frederick's  day  the  problem  might  have 
been  stated  somewhat  as  follows  :  everywhere  each  state  was 
pressing  on  towards  immediacy ;  the  absolutism  of  such  a 
state  as  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily,  for  instance,  must  in  some  way 
be  reconciled  with  the  existing  kingship  of  the  Germans  based 
on  race  and  feudal  force.  Contrary  to  what  might  have  been 
expected  Frederick  II  never  even  contemplated  the  attempt 
to  transform  the  whole  of  Germany  into  a  unified  officialised 
Germany,  comparable  to  the  Sicilian  monarchy.  It  is  true  that 
in  later  days  Frederick  from  his  Italian  base  pushed  forward 
his  Sicilian  bureaucratic  regime  as  far  as  Burgundy  and  the 
Tyrol,  and  even  in  a  modified  form  as  far  as  Austria,  so  that 


380  POWER  OF  PRINCES  vi 

the  thesis  might  be  sustained  that  Frederick  had  simply  been 
unable  to  complete  the  "  Sicilianisation  "  of  the  Empire,  which 
was  creeping  steadily  from  South  to  North,  because  he  died 
prematurely  before  he  was  sufficiently  master  of  Lombardy. 
There  is  no  sign,  however,  that  the  Emperor  was  planning 
to  push  his  Sicilian  official  system  further  northwards.  All 
historical  and  spiritual  forces  in  the  country  would  at  once  have 
failed  him,  and  one  essential  was  lacking :  the  cultivated  lay 
man  and  the  cultivated  townsman  who  existed  in  Italy  ;  the 
whole  great  stratum  of  lay  jurists  which  replaced  the  feudal 
system  as  the  basis  of  the  Sicilian- Italian  State.  Frederick  II 
never  contemplated  undermining  the  feudal  forces  of  extensive 
and  deeply  subdivided  Germany,  and  ruling  through  officials 
without  the  intervention  of  the  princes.  The  German  princes, 
moreover,  were  not  Sicilian  barons  and  duodecimo  clerics,  they 
were  the  Emperor's  peers. 

Since  the  Emperor  renounced  all  intention  of  exercising  in 
Germany  his  new  methods  of  rule,  the  task  of  ruling  must 
fall  on  the  German  princes  who  were  in  any  case  striving 
for  greater  independence,  and  whose  rights  were  long  since 
steadily  increasing  at  the  expense  of  the  rights  of  the  Crown. 
Frederick  II  allowed  the  princes  to  continue  in  this  path,  nay 
even  supported  them,  because  this  exactly  fitted  his  imperial 
policy  which  was  narrowing  down  into  a  Lombard  policy. 
More  than  any  preceding  Emperor,  Frederick  was  first  and  fore 
most  the  super-national  Roman  Imperator,  whose  great  mid- 
European  Imperium  stretched  from  Syracuse  to  Friesland  and 
the  Baltic.  To  strengthen  the  Empire  his  first  need  was  an 
utterly  submissive  Lombardy.  Without  this  the  Empire  was 
rent  in  two.  To  reduce  Lombardy,  Frederick  needed  the 
forces  of  Germany,  but  needed  even  more — as  security  also 
against  the  Pope — an  assurance  of  peace  in  the  North  and  the 
protection  of  his  rear  by  the  trusty  princes  of  Germany,  both 
spiritual  and  temporal.  By  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  revenues 
and  prerogatives  he  could  purchase  all  this  from  the  powerful 
nobles  who  had  clipped  the  wings  of  so  many  victorious 
Emperors  before  him.  For  the  sake  of  the  cause  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  make  the  sacrifice,  the  less  because  his  Sicilian 
wealth  and  resources  were  ample  compensation.  Sicilian 


LORDS  OF  THE  LAND  381 

gold  was  potent  in  money-lacking  Germany,  and  Frederick's 
generosity  won  the  attachment  of  the  princes  to  his  person,  an 
attachment  which  withstood  amazingly  the  protracted  intrigues 
and  machinations  of  the  Church. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  practical  considerations  and  the 
higher  necessities  of  the  Roman  Empire  prompted  Frederick 
to  these  sacrifices  in  favour  of  the  princes.  What  followed, 
whether  with  or  against  his  will,  was  the  almost  sovereign 
independence  of  each  individual  prince  in  his  own  territory. 
The  concessions  which  Frederick  in  his  early  days  had  made 
to  the  spiritual  princes  were  extended  by  the  new  charters  of 
Worms  and  Friuli  to  the  temporal  princes  also,  so  that  a  certain 
uniformity  prevailed  throughout  Germany.  The  princes ,  being 
thus  all  on  more  or  less  the  same  footing,  began  to  feel  them 
selves  more  of  a  corporate  body  than  formerly,  and  became 
aware  of  a  community  of  interest,  advantageous  or  disadvan 
tageous  for  the  Emperor  as  the  case  might  be.  Renouncing 
most  of  the  Crown  rights  in  the  princes'  territories,  Frederick, 
according  to  the  new  privileges,  had  agreed  to  abandon  royal 
rights  of  coinage,  the  right  of  building  imperial  fortifications, 
the  royal  jurisdiction  throughout  all  the  lands  of  the  princes,  or, 
as  they  now  came  to  be  significantly  called,  the  "  Lords  of  the 
Land."  The  princes'  authority  vis-d-vis  their  subjects  was 
enhanced,  for  the  inferior  courts  of  law  were  placed  under  the 
immediate  jurisdiction  of  the  princes,  and  jurisdiction  other 
than  theirs  was  abolished  or  greatly  limited.  Other  clauses 
pointed  in  the  same  direction,  so  that  the  princes  exercised 
almost  autocratic  power  in  their  own  domains,  or  were  on  the 
high  road  to  acquiring  it.  An  intensification  of  state  organisa 
tion  was  thus  set  on  foot  in  Germany  as  in  Sicily,  not  emanating 
from  and  re-enforcing  the  central  royal  authority,  but  strength 
ening  the  separate  parts,  the  princes.  It  was  now  possible  for 
them  to  consolidate  their  states,  and  the  constructive  forces 
inherent  in  unity  of  race  and  country  were  immensely  easier  to 
release,  develop,  exploit  under  the  direct  thorough-going  rule 
of  a  minor  monarch  than  under  mediate  rule  of  an  Emperor 
hampered  by  the  princes,  or  of  a  prince  hampered  by  the 
existence  of  intrusive  royal  rights.  This  clean  sweep  of  all  the 
powers  that  interfered  between  the  lord  of  the  land  and  his 


382  CLEAVAGES   OF   GERMANY  vi 

territories  made  it  possible  for  the  individual  states  to  begin 
government  in  earnest. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  Emperor's  policy  of  strengthen 
ing  the  prince  appears  as  a  simplication  of  the  whole  German 
state,  and  of  untold  importance  for  the  consolidation  of  the 
loosely-strung  widely-spreading  German  lands,  in  which  from 
of  old  all  strength  and  statesmanship  had  lain  in  the  individual 
clans  and  not  in  the  congeries  of  German  races.     It  was,  how 
ever,  a  policy  fraught  with  immense  danger.     The  stronger  the 
constituent  states  grew  the  less  hope  there  was  of  unifying  them 
into  one  German  super-state,  and  Frederick's  course  of  action 
prolonged  the  subdivision  of  Germany.     He  definitely  hindered 
the  amalgamation  of  the  German  people  into  one  "  German 
State."     The  policy,  moreover,   reacted  injuriously   on  the 
Empire  as  a  whole,  for  the  princes,  each  immersed  in  the 
development  of  his  own  domains,  displayed  little  active  interest 
in  the  fate  of  the  Empire.     The  important  gain  for  Frederick 
was  that  the  princes  kept  the  peace  and  were  ready  at  need  to 
stand  behind  him  to  a  man  ;    a  state  of  affairs  that  lasted 
twenty  years  and  more.    It  is  common  knowledge  how  disas 
trous  this  increased  independence  proved.    With  the  decline  of 
the  Roman  Irnperium  the  last  unifying  impulse  was  gone.   Each 
lord  of  the  land  pursued  the  aims  and  interests  of  his  own 
territory,  and  developed  a  narrow  provincial  outlook  which  took 
no  heed  of  the  world  at  large,  of  Germany,  or  Emperor,  or 
Empire.     Cleavages  and  clefts  that  the  pressure  of  the  Empire 
had  kept  closed  now  yawned  and  widened. 


However  ready  Frederick  was  to  subordinate  Germany's 
advantage  to  the  World  Empire,  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that 
a  statesman  of  his  calibre  can  have  failed  to  visualise  one  united 
northern  kingdom,  suited  to  the  conditions  of  the  expiring 
Middle  Ages.  He  would  gain  nothing  from  a  mere  semblance 
of  power,  and  if  this  was  to  be  avoided  he  must  re-organise  the 
whole  kingdom  on  a  new  basis,  with  due  regard  to  the  new 
conditions.  A  few  individual  measures  destined  to  enhance 
the  central  imperial  power  show  that  he  had  some  definite 
scheme  in  mind.  If  the  Lombard  struggle  had  ended  quickly 


GERMAN  POLICY  383 

and  happily  we  can  imagine  that  the  Emperor  would  have  intro 
duced  some  uniform  method  of  administration  for  all  terri 
tories.  While  preserving  their  sovereignty  intact  he  might 
have  metamorphosed  the  princes  into  viceroys,  parallel  to  the 
later  Vicars  General  of  Italy,  with  their  princely,  even  royal 
state.  Frederick  is  credited  with  the  intention  of  making  a 
collection  of  imperial  law  and  legal  procedure.  He  must  cer 
tainly  have  had  such  a  work  in  mind  which  would  have  guided 
the  princely  governments  into  definite  lines.  It  was  not  long 
after  this  time  that  Frederick  appointed  a  Grand  Justiciar  for 
Germany,  thereby  implying  that  the  Emperor's  supreme  juris 
diction  should  be  asserted,  while  the  normal  administration  of 
justice  in  each  country  should  remain  with  the  individual 
princes. 

The  essential  thing,  however,  was  that  the  Emperor  should 
have  some  positive  force  at  his  disposal  to  guarantee  the  good 
faith  of  the  princes  and  to  compensate  for  the  securities  he  had 
foregone.  He  required  a  sufficient  force  to  compel  obedience 
at  need  and  enforce  the  unity  of  the  Empire.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  interest  to  note  what  deductions  Frederick  II  drew  from 
the  reshuffling  of  the  German  powers.  The  Emperor  had 
divested  himself  of  so  many  prerogatives  that  he  could  no 
longer  claim  to  be  the  foremost  and  the  mightiest  in  virtue  of 
his  privileges  ;  he  must  prove  himself  so  by  actual  strength. 
The  personal  private  resources  of  the  monarch  had  to  fill  the 
place  of  the  impersonal  imperial  property  and  crown  rights. 
This  change  is  foreshadowed  in  the  efforts  of  the  Hohenstaufens 
to  secure  for  themselves  a  firm  working  basis  in  the  south. 
Now  for  the  first  time  Sicily  provided  an  Emperor  with  just 
such  a  personal  possession.  It  lay  wholly  outside  the  range 
of  the  German  princes,  and,  secure  in  his  Sicilian  resources, 
Frederick  had  been  able  to  abandon  his  German  prerogatives. 
In  securing  Sicily  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperors  had  not  had 
this  policy  in  view.  Sicily,  like  the  other  countries,  was  there 
to  serve  the  Empire  as  a  whole.  Frederick  II,  standing  on  the 
borderline  between  the  two  epochs,  was  the  first  to  feel  the 
need  of  founding  a  personal  power  in  the  North  within  Ger 
many  itself :  setting  the  precedent  which  the  Hapsburg  was 
so  happily  to  follow — a  remarkable  coincidence.  In  1236  the 


384  PERSONAL  MAGIC  vi 

Emperor  crushed  the  rebellion  of  the  last  of  the  Babenbergs, 
Frederick  the  Fighter,  of  Austria  and  Styria.  The  Emperor 
confiscated  his  dukedoms  and  retained  them  under  the 
immediate  administration  of  the  Empire,  instead  of  grant 
ing  them  to  some  new  fiefholder  after  a  year  and  a  day,  as 
custom  was.  Thus  in  the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  kingdom, 
where  Bohemia,  Hungary  and  the  dukedom  of  Austria  still 
offered  large  unbroken  stretches  of  territory,  the  Hohenstaufen 
Frederick,  whose  Swabian  patrimony,  though  scattered,  was 
still  of  considerable  extent,  sought  to  build  up  a  new  power. 
The  war  against  the  Austrian  Duke  was  only  a  minor  action 
in  larger  campaigns,  and  the  Duke  ultimately  succeeded  in 
recovering  the  bulk  of  his  lands.  An  agreement  was  reached 
later,  and  at  one  stage  the  Dukedom  of  Austria  was  to  be 
elevated  into  a  kingdom.  This  plan,  however,  fell  through. 
Frederick  the  Fighter,  last  of  the  Babenbergs,  ultimately 
died  childless  in  1246  and  his  vacant  fief  fell  to  the  Empire. 
Frederick  II  forthwith  revived  his  original  scheme,  retained  the 
dukedom  for  himself,  entrusted  its  administration  to  Sicilian 
Captains  General,  and  bequeathed  it  as  hereditary  Hohen 
staufen  property  to  his  grandson.  The  Emperor's  fighting 
was,  in  future,  mainly  confined  to  Italy,  and  the  importance  of 
the  Hohenstaufen  personal  Austrian  domain  was  slight.  The 
amazing  thing  is  the  astounding  foresight  of  this  world-states 
man  and  his  unerring  intuition  of  what  was  to  come. 

The  Emperor  thus  sought  to  forestall  the  dangers  conjured 
up  by  his  own  surrender  of  innumerable  safeguards  and  by  his 
strengthening  of  the  imperial  princes.  Frederick's  greatest 
power  lay,  nevertheless,  in  his  own  personality.  At  the  zenith 
of  his  glory  Frederick  II,  most  Roman  of  all  German  Emperors, 
possessed  not  only  the  armed  force,  but  the  personal  magic,  to 
sway  the  princes  to  his  will  and  direct  their  gaze  to  the  great 
problems  of  the  Roman  world.  In  these  glorious  years  the 
strengthened  princes  and  the  double  renown  of  the  ancient 
kingdom-in-arms  and  the  new  Empire  brought  about  that 
unique  fulfilment  which  preluded  the  end :  that  full  perfec 
tion  of  the  German  Empire,  a  mighty  Emperor  surrounded  by 
his  mighty  princes.  The  dream  of  their  return  lulled  anaemic 
generations  for  centuries  to  come.  Germany  as  Imperium  was 


A   SUPER-NATIONAL  EMPIRE  385 

at  that  moment  the  symbol  and  embodiment  of  the  great  con 
ception  of  a  Roman  Empire  embracing  and  unifying  all  peoples 
and  races  of  the  world,  conterminous  and  identical  with  a 
great  Christian  Empire.  This  was  possible  because  Germany 
preserved,  for  weal  or  woe,  the  multitude  of  races  and  princes 
which  corresponded  to  that  ideal  and  imaginary  community 
of  Europe's  peoples  and  kings.  In  contrast  to  her  shrewd, 
practical  neighbours  in  the  West,  Germany  remained  always 
"  the  Empire." 

The  ideal  World-Empire  of  the  Middle  Ages  did  not  involve 
the  subjection  of  all  peoples  under  the  dominion  of  one.  It  stood 
for  the  community  of  all  kings  and  princes,  of  all  the  lands  and 
peoples  of  Christendom,  under  one  Roman  Emperor,  who  should 
belong  to  no  nation,  and  who,  standing  outside  all  nations,  should 
rule  all  from  his  throne  in  the  one  Eternal  City.  Only  thus 
could  the  perfect  Germany  arise,  setting  before  princes  and 
races  the  idea  :  the  Imperium  Romanum — and  yet :  nations. 


The  domination  of  one  race  over  the  other  would,  therefore, 
have  been  a  betrayal  in  favour  of  one  peculiar  type — Saxon  or 
Frank,  Swabian  or  ultimately  Prussian.  For  in  the  State 
dominated  by  one  race  (iix  spite  of  the  attainment  of  a  genuine 
non-national  unity)  the  best  powers  of  all  the  races  could  never 
flourish  equally,  to  produce  the  one  world-embracing  German. 
Less  fortunate,  perhaps,  than  lonians  and  Dorians,  no  single 
race,  whether  Saxon  or  Swabian  or  Frank,  possessed  a  world- 
sense,  though  each  alone  was  well-equipped  with  state-sense  : 
the  feeling  for  the  universal — divorced  alas  from  the  feeling  for 
the  state — was  incorporate  only  in  the  super-national  German 
whole.  Frederick  never  contemplated  such  a  betrayal,  never 
aimed  at  ruling  Germany  with  Swabian  knights  and  esquires. 
He  was  no  Swabian  Duke,  no  German  King,  he  was  solely 
Roman  Caesar  and  Imperator,  he  was  Divus  Augustus — as  none 
before  him  and  none  since.  As  Roman  Caesar,  centring  in 
himself  and  in  his  own  person  the  German  whole,  he  became  the 
symbol,  foreign  though  it  was,  which  supplied  the  one  possible 
form  of  the  self-fulfilment  Germany  was  then  seeking  :  self- 
fulfilment  within  the  Roman  Empire. 


386  "  PRIMUS  INTER  PARES"  vi 

The  great  Empire  of  this  great  Emperor  was  not  a  German 
National  State  on  the  model  of  Sicily,  or  of  France  under  the 
Capets.    The  true  statesman  does  not  apply  one  hard  and  fast 
scheme  to  all  countries.    Yet  in  a  higher  sense  Frederick  II 
perfected  and  completed  the  unified  German  Empire.    He  did 
not  here  pose  as  the  priest-like  Emperor  and  imperial  Mediator 
who  figured  in  the  Sicilian  bureaucratic  State,  nor  yet  as  the 
Demi-God  sent  from  heaven,  nor  yet  as  the  Son  of  God.    The 
oriental  love  of  hero-worship  is  radically  foreign  to  the  Ger 
manic  mind,  especially  while  the  hero  is  still  in  the  flesh. 
Amongst  the  Germans  he  aimed  rather  at  creating  the  impres 
sion  of  the  King  soaring  to  heaven,  borne  aloft  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  princes.    The  release  of  the  princes  from  feudal  fetters 
and  their  unlimited  powers  (which  now  for  the  first  time 
united  them  in  the  "  voluntary  unity  "  of  the  late  Middle  Ages) 
made  the  Hohenstaufen  autocrat,  in  literal  truth,  amongst 
his  autocrats,  primus  inter  pares — the  first  amongst  his  peers. 
Further,  since  all  royal  authority  and  all  royal  rights  had  been 
withdrawn  throughout  the  princes'  territories,  his  imperial 
throne  had  no  longer  any  basis  upon  earth.    As  the  German 
princes  themselves  phrased  it  at  the  Friuli  Diet :  "  The  imperial 
throne,  to  which  we  are  attached  as  the  limbs  are  attached  to 
the  head,  rests  like  the  head  upon  our  shoulders  and  is  firmly 
upheld  by  our  body,  so  that  the  Majesty  of  the   Emperor 
shines  forth  in  glory  and  our  princely  rank  reflects  the  glory 
back  again."    This  is  the  traditional  conception  of  the  Empire, 
which  at  last  finds  ultimate  expression  and  literal  realisation  ; 
for  a  brief  span,  and  almost  against  the  ruler's  desire.    Unlike 
his  predecessors  Frederick  never  weakened  or  oppressed  the 
princes  to  make  his  own  greatness  look  the  greater  by  contrast 
with  their  weakness.    He  strengthened  the  princes'  power, 
even  created  a  new  dukedom,  with  more  exalted  statesmanship 
believing  that  the  power  and  the  glory  and  the  brilliance  of  his 
own  imperial  sceptre  would  not  pale  in  giving  forth  light,  but 
would  gain  in  radiance  and  would  shine  the  brighter  the  more 
mighty  and  brilliant  and  majestic  were  the  princes  whom 
Caesar  Imperator  beheld  "  as  equals  round  his  judgment  seat." 
The  princes  are  no  longer  columns  bearing  as  a  burden  the 
weight  of  the  throne.    Like  the  officials  of  the  South,  and  yet 


A  RIDDLE  387 

very  differently,  they  become  piers  and  pillars  expressive  of 
upward-soaring  strength,  preparing  the  glorious  elevation  of 
the  "  prince  of  princes  and  king  of  kings  "  who  is  borne  aloft 
on  the  shoulders  of  his  peers,  and  who  in  turn  exalts  both  kings 
and  princes. 

Life  was  always  unthinkable  for  Frederick  without  the  sense 
of  tension  ;  here  is  an  incomparably  daring  gamble,  in  which 
the  slightest  reshuffling  of  the  cards  will  mean  ruin.  Frederick 
faced  the  situation  unflinching,  with  wide-open  eyes.  He 
wrote  later  :  "  Germania's  princes  on  whom  hangs  our  eleva 
tion — and  our  fall."  The  danger  was  proportional  to  the 
elevation,  no  more.  The  Germans  recognised  Frederick  II  as 
fate  incarnate  and  as  doom ;  they  yearned  for  him,  they 
shrank  from  him.  With  him  the  Empire  fell ;  but  more 
enduring  than  a  century  of  safety  were  the  few  hours  during 
which  a  German  Emperor  was  privileged  to  tread  such  danger 
ous  heights.  The  increased  power  of  the  princes  was  a  necessary 
factor  therein.  If  the  correct  balance  was  to  be  maintained 
in  Germany  feeble  limbs  could  not  support  an  over-weighty 
head  :  princes  and  Emperor  together  represented  that  super- 
national  German,  symbolised  the  "  illustrious  body  of  the 
Holy  Empire,"  the  corpus  mysticum  of  the  "  German-as-a- 
Whole,"  which  Frederick  II  justifiably  identified  with  his  own 
body.  For  this  stranger,  this  Roman  of  Swabian  race,  em 
bodied  that  European- German  personage  whom  men  had 
dreamt  of,  who  combined  the  triple  culture  of  Europe :  the 
cultures  of  the  Church,  the  East,  the  Ancients.  The  Church 
was  to  Frederick  II  something  complete  and  finished,  which  he 
had  in  himself  outgrown,  which  lay  behind  him.  Nietzsche 
called  Frederick  "  to  my  mind  the  FIRST  EUROPEAN,"  and  wrote 
of  "that  magic,  intangible,  unfathomable  Riddle  of  a  man 
predestined  to  victory  and  betrayal."  The  type  was  one  most 
difficult  for  the  Germans  to  assimilate  by  reason  of  just 
that  Roman  chiselling,  that  secretiveness,  that  complete  self- 
sufficingness. 


The  solemn  speech-making  of  Friuli  was  the  prelude  to 
Frederick  IFs  personal  intervention  in  German  affairs,  and  it 


388  DIET  OF  FRIULI  vi 

was  German  business  which  here  chiefly  engaged  attention. 
Counsel  was  taken,  however,  about  other  countries  of  the 
Empire,  and  much  important  business  transacted.  A  favourable 
turn  was  given  to  the  Lombard  question  by  Frederick's  success 
in  winning  over  the  brothers  Eccelino  and  Alberigo  of  Romano, 
who  were  just  then  acquiring  great  importance  in  the  March 
of  Treviso.  By  a  skilfully-engineered  rising  they  succeeded 
in  making  Frederick  master  of  Verona,  so  that  the  Alpine  passes 
were  now  open  to  the  Germans.  The  kingdom  of  Burgundy 
also,  which  was  very  loosely  attached  to  the  Empire,  was  drawn 
into  closer  relationship,  and  before  long  Burgundian  forces 
were,  for  the  first  time,  commandeered  for  imperial  purposes. 
Envoys  of  the  French  King,  Louis  IX,  St.  Louis,  arrived  to 
conclude  a  pact  of  friendship.  And  here  the  ambassadors  of 
the  "  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain,"  the  head  of  the  Assassins, 
came  to  find  Frederick,  and  the  ambassadors  of  the  Sultan  of 
Damascus,  who  brought  a  planetarium  made  of  gold  and  jewels 
to  the  Maliku  1  Umara,  the  King  of  the  Amirs.  The  Feast  of 
the  Hijra  came  round.  In  honour  of  the  Muslim  envoys  the 
Emperor  celebrated  the  day  of  the  Prophet's  Flight  by  a  brilliant 
banquet,  attended  by  German  princes  and  bishops. 

After  an  absence  of  many  months  from  Germany  the  princes 
were  finally  loaded  with  costly  gifts  and  dismissed  in  the  middle 
of  May,  amongst  them  King  Henry,  on  whose  behaviour  the 
peace  of  the  North  now  hung.  Frederick  himself,  with  his 
oriental  escort,  took  ship  to  Apulia.  On  his  way  he  made  a 
successful  attack  on  the  Dalmatian  pirates,  took  many  prisoners 
and  flung  them  into  chains.  His  next  immediate  affairs  were 
negotiations  with  the  Pope. 


The  outward  vision  of  concord  did  not  alter  the  fact  that  the 
peace  between  the  Emperor  and  Pope  was  a  secret  battle,  con 
ducted  with  the  weapons  of  an  infinitely  delicate  diplomacy. 
The  tension  between  Frederick  II  and  Gregory  IX,  just  veiled 
for  the  moment,  had  reached  a  height  unprecedented  in  the 
long  warfare  between  Empire  and  Papacy.  Henry  VI  and 
Innocent  III  had  not  held  the  stage  together  ;  equal  powers 
now  existed  simultaneously  and  stood  face  to  face  awaiting  the 


POPE  AND  EMPEROR  389 

outburst  of  the  final  battle  ;  but  both  postponing  it  a  while  and 
both  willing  for  expediency  to  exercise  moderation  and  control. 
Deadly  enemies,  each  as  capable  as  the  other  of  savage  passion, 
but  for  the  moment  unable  to  dispense  with  each  other,  and 
each  benefiting  by  the  momentary  truce.  The  Emperor 
benefited  perhaps  even  more  than  the  Pope,  his  wish  for  peace 
with  Gregory  was  certainly  more  sincere,  was  even  too  sincere, 
though  his  hate  for  the  old  man  in  Rome  was  deep. 

No  sooner  was  peace  concluded  than  an  amazing  diplomatic 
game  began  between  Court  and  Curia,  a  game  which  was  to  last 
for  some  years  yet,  though  with  ever-growing  embitterment. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  two  powers  still  figure  as  Father 
and  Son,  and  while  both  weigh  each  several  step  with  utmost 
caution,  and  each  watches  lynx-like  to  exploit  any  chance  of 
weakness  on  the  other's  part,  each  is  equally  eager  to  seize 
opportunities  of  offering  civility  and  assistance,  so  as  to  place 
the  other  under  an  obligation.  Each  side  had  difficulties  and 
to  spare.  Pope  Gregory  was  openly  at  war  with  the  Romans. 
He  had  had  to  quit  the  town  because  the  citizens  had  risen 
against  their  bishop,  as  had  been  occurring  long  since  in  the 
other  communes  of  Italy.  The  thought  of  the  ancient  republi 
can  freedom  of  Rome  was  not  without  influence  on  men's 
minds,  and  they  craved  territorial  expansion.  The  Romans 
always  cast  covetous  glances  on  the  Campagna  and  the  Patri- 
monium.  As  enemies  of  their  bishop  they  were  the  natural 
allies  of  the  Emperor,  yet  Frederick,  at  the  Pope's  request,  had 
sent  a  detachment  of  troops  to  Viterbo,  which  was  usually  the 
first  point  of  their  attack. 

Frederick  on  his  side  was  not  without  serious  embarrassments. 
Apart  from  Lombard  problems  he  had' to  assure  himself  of  the 
Pope's  concurrence  in  all  questions  relating  to  his  son  Henry, 
so  as  to  be  secure  against  surprise.  The  kingdom  of  Syria,  too, 
provided  endless  difficulties.  Not  that  the  Saracens  had  broken 
the  truce,  but  because  the  Christians  raged  against  each  other. 
The  Syrian-Cypriot  nobles,  under  the  leadership  of  the  some 
time  administrator  of  Cyprus,  John  of  Ibelin,  and  supported 
by  the  Patriarch  Gerold  and  the  people,  had  inflicted  a  severe 
defeat  on  the  imperial  marshal,  Richard  Filangieri,  who  had 
enjoyed  some  initial  successes.  It  ended  within  a  year  with 


390  PAPAL  DIPLOMACY  vi 

the  loss  of  Cyprus.  Pope  Gregory  had  now  at  last  granted 
the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor  the  long- withheld  title  of  King  of 
Jerusalem.  It  cost  him  nothing  to  take  the  Emperor's  part  on 
the  distant,  now  indifferent,  oriental  scene,  and  it  laid  on  Frede 
rick  the  obligation  of  some  return  service.  So  Pope  Gregory 
loudly  denounced  Patriarch  Gerold,  whom  we  know  of  old,  and 
abruptly  recalled  him  ;  the  Curia  having  been  suddenly  as 
sailed  with  misgivings  about  his  behaviour  during  the* Crusade. 
"  People  whisper  in  secret  and  openly  proclaim  that  the  Syrian 
kingdom  of  our  well-beloved  son  in  Christ,  Frederick,  the  ever- 
exalted  Emperor  of  the  Romans,  King  of  Jerusalem  and  Sicily, 
has  been  unsettled  by  thy  means,  for  thy  hand  has  lain  behind 
the  hands  of  the  disturbers  of  the  peace."  This  was  the  new 
note  in  the  Pope's  letters  to  Gerold,  whom  he  replaced  by  the 
Patriarch  Albert  of  Antioch.  The  Pope  was  similarly  ready  to 
go  to  any  lengths  against  King  Henry  ;  his  reasons  were  trans 
parent.  The  ruin  of  the  German  King,  if  skilfully  exploited, 
might  mean  the  collapse  of  the  whole  Hohenstaufen  rule  north 
of  the  Alps.  On  Frederick's  side  it  was  the  usual  game  of 
harnessing  opposition  forces,  when  he  himself  requested  the 
Pope,  nay  even — to  enhance  the  effect — compelled  King  Henry 
to  request  the  Pope  to  excommunicate  the  son  if  he  should 
prove  rebellious  to  the  father.  Emperor  and  Pope  were  here 
able  to  indulge  in  the  amusement  of  mutually  obliging  each 
other — each  secure  in  the  faith  that  he  would  ultimately  outwit 
his  foe — and  of  presenting  to  the  world  the  edifying  spectacle  of 
their  affectionate  harmony. 

Frederick  was  perfectly  aware  that  this  untroubled  amity 
would  not  last  a  day  longer  than  Gregory's  Roman  embarrass 
ment,  and  he  was  therefore  in  no  hurry  effectively  to  end  this, 
hoping  to  derive  some  advantage  for  himself  in  his  Lombard 
affairs  from  the  present  favourable  situation.  The  Romans 
themselves  increased  the  pressure  on  the  Pope  so  greatly  that 
by  the  end  of  July  1232,  shortly  after  Frederick's  return  from 
Aquileia,  Pope  Gregory  decided  definitely  to  request  the  Em 
peror's  help  against  the  Romans,  though  knowing  well  that  he 
would  have  to  requite  his  imperial  ally  by  concessions  in  other 
spheres.  The  Emperor  received  the  papal  letter  exhorting  him 
"  to  dash  to  the  ground  the  pride  of  these  overweening  Romans 


i232  IMPERIAL  DIPLOMACY  391 

with  his  triumphant  and  illustrious  right  hand,  to  scatter  the 
demon  hosts  and  break  the  horns  of  the  ungodly.*'  Frederick 
was  obliged,  most  reluctantly  he  said,  to  refuse.  He  had,  in 
fact,  tthe  luck  to  hear  at  the  same  moment  of  the  rebellion 
in  Messina,  which  imperatively  recalled  him  to  Sicily,  and 
claimed  all  the  fighting  forces  of  his  kingdom.  So  the  most 
the  Emperor  could  do  was  to  place  his  good  friends  the  Romans 
under  the  imperial  ban.  But  he  immediately  summoned  the 
Germans,  the  feudal  knights  of  Provence,  and  of  the  whole 
kingdom  of  Burgundy,  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  harassed 
Pope.  The  imperial  diplomat  killed  several  birds  with  this 
one  stone.  It  was  the  first  time  in  history  that  the  feudal 
army  of  Burgundy  had  been  summoned  for  service  in  Italy,  and 
Frederick  created  this  weighty  precedent  not  in  his  own  but 
ostensibly  in  the  Pope's  sole  interest.  Further,  this  sum 
mons  gave  Frederick  an  opportunity  of  sending  an  imperial 
plenipotentiary  to  the  Burgundian  court,  with  the  remark  that 
it  was  a  very  long  time  since  Burgundy  had  performed  any 
service  for  the  Empire  ;  not  indeed  that  he  wished  to  cast  this 
fact  in  her  teeth,  since  she  had  not  been  offered  the  opportunity. 
Thirdly,  Frederick  had  great  hopes  that,  though  he  personally 
had  displayed  the  utmost  promptitude,  it  would  be  a  consider 
able  time  before  help  actually  reached  the  Pope.  Meantime, 
he  had  not  antagonised  the  Romans  whose  friendship  might 
at  any  moment  be  valuable,  and  amongst  whom  he  had  built 
up  a  strong  aristocratic  party.  Finally,  he  could  now  devote 
himself  in  peace  to  restoring  order  in  Messina  and  the  other 
towns  in  the  island  of  Sicily. 

The  Pope  had  hoped  that  Frederick,  the  King  of  Sicily,  the 
feudal  vassal  of  the  Holy  See,  would  appear  in  person  before 
the  walls  of  Rome  ;  he  expressed  himself,  however,  grateful 
for  the  assistance  promised.  A  remarkable  correspondence 
now  set  in  between  Pope  and  Emperor,  taking  its  rise  in  the 
immediate  circumstances,  but  laying  down  in  the  most  perfect 
form  the  ideal  relationship  between  Empire  and  Papacy  and 
the  principles  of  their  mutual  assistance.  It  was  a  remarkable 
feature  of  the  time  that  in  treating  any  question  of  the  moment 
the  eternal  order  of  the  universe  was  always  included.  Pope 
Gregory  expressed  his  thanks  that  "  the  Emperor's  spirit 


392  MASTERLY  CORRESPONDENCE  vi 

had  been  illuminated  and  rightly  directed  by  a  ray  of  divine 
radiance  and  the  inspiration  of  God  himself,  who  had  united 
the  son  to  his  mother  (the  Church)  and  the  mother  to  her 
son,  to  restore  the  rights  of  Church  and  Empire.*'    The  wily 
Gregory  supplied  precisely  the  phrases  that  Frederick  had  long 
and  eagerly  awaited;  for  in  view  of  the  triangular  struggle 
of  Emperor,  Pope  and  Lombards,  nothing  was  so  dear  to 
Frederick's  heart  as  a  rapprochement  with  Gregory  that  would 
loosen  the  Pope's  disastrous  attachment  to  the  towns.    Frede 
rick  hastened,  therefore,  to  answer  in  similar  style  in  a  lengthy 
letter,  which  the  writer,  Piero  della  Vigna  and  the   Grand 
Justiciar  Henry  of  Morra,  both  of  them  negotiators  in  Lombard 
affairs,  were  entrusted  to  carry  to  the  Pope.     This  masterly 
composition,  enriched  by  all  possible  resources  of  style  and 
playing  on  words,  formulated  a  universal  doctrine  :   God,  the 
all-foreseeing  physician,  had  in  time  diagnosed  the  double 
oppression  of  the  Church  by  heretics  and  rebels,  and  to  combat 
these  two  diseases  had  prepared  not  two  separate  medicines 
but  a  double  treatment :  "  The  ointment  of  the  priestly  office  by 
which  the  inner  infirmity  of  false  servants  is  spiritually  healed, 
and  the  might  of  the  imperial  sword  which  cleanses  with  its 
edge  the  suppurating  wounds,  and  with  its  whetted  blade  of 
worldly  Empire  hews  off  from  the  conquered  foe  all  that  is 
infected  and  decayed."    Again  :  "  This,  Most  Holy  Father,  is 
in  truth  the  one,  yet  dual,  healing  for  our  sickness.    Although 
Holy  Empire  and  Holy  Priesthood  from  their  names  appear 
two  separate  entities  yet  they  are  in  the  effective  sense  one  and 
the  same,  being  of  like  origin,  consecrated  by  the  divine  power. 
They  are  to  be  guarded  by  the  same  reverent  homage  and — I 
shudder  to  say  it — annihilated  by  the  same  overthrow  of  their 
common  faith. " 

It  is  worth  noting  that  there,  in  writing  to  the  Pope,  as  else 
where  in  speaking  to  the  princes,  Frederick  alludes  to  the 
downfall  of  the  Empire.  He  was  perfectly  aware  that  his 
throne  was  a  volcano.  His  statecraft  in  Sicily  is  based  on  a 
knowledge  of  the  insecurity  of  existing  institutions .  The  inter 
dependence  of  Empire  and  Papacy  has  never  been  more  clearly 
expressed  than  by  Frederick  II.  It  is  Dante's  vision  of  the  two 
Suns  of  Rome,  based  on  the  immediate  relation  of  the  Emperor 


THE  INQUISITION  393 

to  God,  which  Frederick  here  emphasises,  and  which  the  Church 
never  recognised.  We  shall  see  later  that  Frederick's  picture 
of  the  ideal  Pope  anticipates  Dante's  most  exactly.  This 
doctrine,  however,  apart  from  its  general,  eternal,  universal 
validity,  had  a  very  present  practical  application  :  "  Therefore, 
Most  Blessed  Father,  since  we  are  one,  and  assuredly  feel  alike, 
let  us  take  thought  as  one  for  the  common  service  :  let  us 
restore  the  Church's  impaired  freedom,  and  while  we  renew  the 
rights  of  Church  and  Empire  let  us  sharpen  the  swords  en 
trusted  to  us  against  the  underminers  of  the  faith  and  the  rebels 
of  the  Empire.  .  . ."  This  return  to  present  affairs  meant,  in 
fact,  would  the  Pope  be  so  good  as  to  enforce  obedience  on 
the  Lombard  rebels  with  the  same  zeal  as  Frederick  showed 
against  heretics — "  for  time  is  pressing  and  quibbling  out  of 
place  !  " 

Frederick  II  had  entrusted  to  the  Pope  the  mediation  in 
Lombardy.  The  Emperor's  general  position,  after  the  Friuli 
Diet,  and  after  the  alliance  with  Eccelino  and  Verona,  and 
after  various  imperial  successes  in  Northern  Italy,  seemed 
so  unusually  favourable  that  the  Lombards  were  prepared  to 
make  many  concessions.  Only  on  two  points  were  the  parties 
irreconcilable  :  the  Emperor  demanded  satisfaction  for  the 
closure  of  the  Verona  passes,  and  refused  to  recognise  the 
Lombard  League  as  such.  For  the  confederation  was  to  him  a 
rebel  state  within  the  State,  which  split  the  Empire  in  two  and 
severed  Sicily  from  Germany.  This  was  why  the  Lombard 
question  was  the  fountain  head  of  all  quarrels  between  Court 
and  Curia  :  Frederick  needed  an  unconditionally  submissive 
Lombardy  to  round  off  his  Empire  ;  while  the  Pope,  to  stave 
off  this  encircling  power,  was  bound  in  defiance  of  right  or 
custom  to  look  with  favour  on  such  a  buffer  as  the  League  pro 
vided.  Since  the  Pope  at  the  moment  wanted  Frederick's  help 
he  skilfully  evaded  contentious  matters  and  put  off  the  whole 
Lombard  question.  This  expedient  was  probably  not  unwel 
come  to  the  Emperor,  for  it  left  all  possibilities  still  open.  They 
were  thus  partially  at  one  on  the  subject  of  Lombards  and  rebels, 
and  even  of  heretics,  though  they  held  different  views  on  the 
methods  of  the  Inquisition.  After  the  Sicilian  insurrection 
Frederick  permitted  his  imperial  officials  and  a  few  docile 


394  DOMINICANS  vi 

clerics  to  carry  on  an  Inquisition  of  a  markedly  political  type, 
but  he  excluded  all  papal  assistants ;  whereas  in  Lombardy 
the  Inquisitors  were  all  the  Pope's  creatures,  Dominicans  for 
the  most  part.  The  Pope  was  none  too  well  pleased  with  the 
imperial  methods  of  heretic-hunting,  while  Frederick  strongly 
objected  to  the  Lombard  Inquisition's  proceeding  without  the 
presence  of  imperial  officials,  for  he  had  sound  reason  to  fear 
disturbance  of  the  loyal  towns.  For  Emperor  and  Pope  alike 
utilised  the  edicts  against  heretics  as  a  welcome  political 
weapon,  and  ere  long  the  papal  interdict  lay  heavy  on  Verona, 
with  her  new  imperial  leanings,  and  on  her  ruler,  Eccelino. 
Anyone,  in  fact,  who  failed  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  papal 
or  the  imperial  will  was  a  heretic :  for  this  was  manifest 
rebellion  against  God. 


While  Pope  and  Emperor,  each  in  his  own  way,  persecuted 
the  heretics,  an  event  suddenly  took  place  which  can  only  be 
compared  to  some  great  natural  cataclysm.  The  entire  North 
of  Italy  succumbed  simultaneously  t<?  the  madness  and  con 
fusion  of  the  penance  mania.  This  movement  is  probably  not 
unconnected  with  the  Dominican  persecutions  in  the  North. 
Dominicans  were  amongst  the  chief  leaders  of  the  penitents, 
and  rivalry  with  the  Franciscan  Order  may  have  been  another 
factor.  Francis  of  Assisi  had  long  since  been  canonised,  and  in 
July  1232  another  Franciscan,  Anthony  of  Padua,  had  been 
beatified,  whereas  twelve  years  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of 
Dominic,  and  no  one  had  yet  officially  recognised  his  saintliness 
or  honoured  him  by  canonisation.  A  bishop  who  was  in  close 
touch  with  the  preaching  monks  even  challenged  the  brothers  : 
"  Now  that  *  Brothers  Minor '  have  a  saint  of  their  own, 
get  yourselves  one  somehow,  even  if  you  have  to  throw  him 
together  out  of  wooden  stakes."  People  took  saints  very 
seriously  in  Italy.  The  penance-movement  was  so  successful 
that  the  other  great  Founder,  Dominic,  was  presently  canonised 
too  (in  1234). 

The  most  natural  ambition  of  the  Dominicans,  to  know  that 
their  Founder  was  a  Saint,  set  no  doubt  a  certain  goal  for  some 
of  the  leaders.  Other  impulses,  however,  underlay  the  move- 


THE  THREE  AGES  395 

ment  as  a  whole.  For  over  thirty  years  prophetic  sayings  had 
stirred  and  terrified  Italy  with  words  of  dread,  and  the  popu 
lace  here  more  than  in  any  other  region  was  kept  in  a  state 
of  continuous  excitement  in  anticipation  of  the  Last  Trump. 
Abbot  Joachim  of  Flora  had  introduced  the  turn  of  the  century 
with  terrifying  visions  of  the  Last  Day,  which  profoundly 
influenced  the  whole  thirteenth  century  till  Dante.  The 
greatest  effect  was  exercised  by  his  remarkable  doctrine  of  the 
three  ages  :  the  first  begins  with  the  Creation  of  the  World  and 
the  creation  of  Adam  ;  the  second  with  the  birth  of  Christ ; 
the  third  was  just  about  to  dawn.  Similar  divisions  of  time 
were  not  new.  Joachim,  however,  referred  the  three  ages  to 
the  Trinity  and  named  the  first  the  Age  of  the  Father,  the  second 
the  Age  of  the  Son  on  which  should  follow  the  third,  the  Age 
of  the  Spirit.  As  the  three  members  of  the  Trinity  are  co 
equal  it  follows  that  the  three  ages  must  be  essentially  identical 
and  the  courses  of  the  three  must  correspond.  The  world 
situation  at  the  opening  of  the  third  age  must  resemble  that  of 
the  dawn  of  the  first  and  second,  the  ages  of  Creation  and 
Redemption.  This  was  the  same  conception  as  Frederick  had 
employed  in  order  to  place  himself  on  a  par  with  Adam  and 
with  Christ  as  the  bringer  of  the  third  and  last  age. 

From  this  starting  point  people  began  to  reinterpret  the 
Bible.  If  the  three  ages  were  exactly  to  reproduce  each  other, 
the  prophets  of  the  Old  Covenant  who  associated  all  the 
terrors  of  destruction  with  the  coming  of  the  Saviour,  must 
again  be  valid  for  the  present  age  which  was  once  more  expect 
ing  the  Messiah.  The  sayings  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah  and  Daniel, 
prophesying  destruction  and  salvation,  raged  once  again 
through  the  towns  of  Italy  ;  the  awe-inspiring  visions  of  John's 
Revelation  and  other  apocryphal  Apocalypses  broke  in  upon 
the  terror-stricken  world,  which  took  all  these  sayings  as  apply 
ing  to  itself  and  to  the  immediate  future.  Abbot  Joachim,  with 
his  interpretations  of  the  Apocalypse  and  the  Commentary  on 
Jeremiah  which  was  ascribed  to  him,  had  set  the  ball  rolling, 
and  in  a  short  time  he  found  innumerable  imitators,  especially 
amongst  the  mendicant  monks.  Matters  reached  such  a  pitch 
that  every  occurrence  on  earth  was  interpreted  as  the  "  fulfil 
ment  "  of  a  Bible  dictum,  and  the  chronicles  of  the  mendicants 


396  PENANCE  EPIDEMIC  vi 

are  full  of  such  interpretations  :  this  and  that  word  of  Scripture 
was  accomplished  in  this  and  that  event,  the  Law  has  been 
fulfilled.  When  Frederick  II  announced  that  he  had  come  to 
fulfil  the  Law,  and  found  the  salvation  of  the  world  in  the  ful 
filment  of  the  Law,  he  was  speaking  to  an  age  that  was  craving 
this  fulfilment. 

Where  Abbot  Joachim's  sayings  were  insufficient  other 
joachite  promises  and  interpretations  were  "speedily  .invented. 
Genuine  and  false  sibylline  verses,  magic  sayings  of  Merlin, 
prophecies  of  Michael  Scot,  oriental  oracles,  Spanish  fore 
bodings,  all  contributed  to  confuse  and  excite  minds  which 
were  already  living  in  terror  of  the  imminent  coming  of  Anti- 
Christ,  the  End  of  the  World  and  the  Day  of  Judgment,  and 
were  yet  buoyed  up  by  lingering  hopes  of  the  approach  of  the 
Messiah,  the  peace  of  the  world  and  the  golden  age  of  Apollo. 
For  though  Anti-Christ  would  woefully  assail  the  Church  he 
would  yet  be  overcome  by  the  effective  intervention  of  an 
Order,  living  a  life  of  Apostolic  simplicity.  Such  was  the 
promise.  And  not  long  after  Abbot  Joachim  Francis  of 
Assisi  made  his  appearance :  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy. 
With  similar  weapons  Dominic  took  up  the  war  against  here 
tics.  In  Padua  Anthony  was  worshipped  as  a  Saint.  The 
Italian  people  were  thirsting  for  peace  and  weary  of  never- 
ending  feuds.  In  this  time  of  crisis  and  confusion,  tortured 
with  the  throes  of  a  new  birth,  all  spiritual  and  other  forces 
were  tense  and  at  fever  heat,  and  men  fell  an  eager  prey  to  any 
miracle  that  promised  easier  and  better  things.  In  the  midst 
of  all  this  the  preachers  appeared  everywhere  simultaneously, 
calling  to  penance,  and  coupling  their  terrifying  words  with  the 
message  of  peace  they  stung  the  people  to  raving  and  madness. 
The  epidemic  spread  like  wildfire.  "All  were  drunk  with 
heavenly  love,  for  they  had  quaffed  of  the  wine  of  the  spirit  of 
God  after  testing  which  all  flesh  begins  to  rave."  The  peace 
and  penance  mania  of  the  year  1233  is  known  as  the  "  Great 
Halleluja ! "  because  the  penance-preachers  overran  the  country 
with  this  cry  in  praise  of  the  Three-in-One.  Externally  it  was 
everywhere  the  same.  In  Parma  a  preacher  appeared  in  fan 
tastic  garb  who  belonged  to  no  Order  :  wearing  a  black  beard 
and  with  a  high  Armenian  cap  on  his  head,  shrouded  in  a 


1233  GREAT   HALLELUJA  397 

sacklike  garment  and  bearing  a  gigantic  red  cross  on  breast 
and  back.  The  brother  played  on  a  little  copper  trumpet, 
from  which  he  drew  now  sweet  now  terrifying  sounds.  He 
lured  the  people,  especially  children,  after  him  like  the  Pied 
Piper  of  Hamelin.  They  followed  with  boughs  and  burning 
tapers  through  streets  and  market-places,  joining  loudly  in  the 
brother's  Halleluja.  On  his  arrival  all  enmities  were  suddenly 
forgotten,  all  battles  abandoned :  "  A  time  of  happiness  and 
joy  began  ;  knights  and  people,  burghers  and  peasants  struck 
up  hymns  and  songs  in  praise  of  God  ;  people  fell  on  each 
other's  necks,  there  was  no  wrath,  no  strife,  no  confusion  :  only 
Love  and  Peace." 

Almost  the  whole  of  Italy  fell  under  the  spell  of  the  Halle 
luja.  Sicily  was  an  exception :  one  such  penance-monger  was 
ejected  across  the  border  by  imperial  officials.  Florence  also 
greeted  these  proceedings  with  witticism  and  merriment,  and 
met  the  miracle-working  of  the  preachers  with  practical  jokes. 
In  Milan  the  multitude  was  led  by  the  Dominican  Peter  of 
Verona,  the  same  who  was  later  murdered  and  honoured  by  the 
title  of  "  Martyr  " ;  in  Piacenza  by  Leo  the  Franciscan ;  the 
Dominican,  John  of  Vicenza,  worked  north  from  Bologna  up 
wards,  and  in  Parma  Brother  Gerard,  a  Minorite,  took  the 
apostolic  office,  performing  many  miracles.  Another  Minorite 
brother,  Salimbene  of  Parma,  relates  vividly  the  manner  of  these 
miracles.  Every  here  and  there  all  the  great  preachers  must 
have  held  conferences  and  agreed  on  the  day,  hour,  place  and 
theme  of  their  sermons,  and  then  gone  their  several  ways 
and  preached.  "  There  stood  Brother  Gerard  in  the  Piazza 
of  Parma  on  a  wooden  stair  which  he  had  had  made  for  his 
addresses  as  I  saw  with  my  very  eyes,  and  while  the  people 
hearkened  he  ceased  and  drew  his  hood  over  his  head,  as 
if  he  sank  himself  in  God.  After  a  long  time,  to  the  admira 
tion  of  the  people,  he  removed  the  hood  and  continued  his 
speaking,  as  who  should  say  '  I  was  in  the  spirit  on  the  Lord's 
day.'  "  And  then  he  informed  the  amazed  populace  he  had 
been  hearing  Brother  John  in  Bologna  speaking  on  such  and 
such  a  text,  and  Brother  Leo  on  such  another.  The  people 
of  Parma  assured  themselves  by  messengers  of  the  truth  of  his 
visions  and  many  entered  the  Order.  What  the  preachers 


398  JOHN  OF  VICENZA  vi 

achieved,  by  whatever  means,  was,  in  fact,  a  complete  and 
sudden  cessation  of  all  hostilities. 

In  some  towns  matters  went  so  far  that  mendicant  monks 
snatched  the  reins  of  authority,  like  the  Dominican  Savonarola 
250  years  later,  and  ruled  according  to  mendicant  principles. 
The  Minorite  Brother  Gerard,  who  was  an  admirer  and  sup 
porter  of  Frederick  II,  did  so  in  Parma,  for  instance,  and  Brother 
John  of  Vicenza,  the  Emperor's  foe,  who  was  worshipped  as  a 
saint  in  Bologna,  cast  the  whole  town  under  a  spell,  and  there 
upon  continued  his  campaign  of  peace  in  the  March  of  Treviso. 
Finally,  at  Verona  he  mounted  the  carroccio  of  the  town  and 
preached  to  the  multitude  who  streamed  in  from  Padua, 
Treviso,  Ferrara  and  Mantua  ;  thousands  were  assembled, 
who  acclaimed  him  Duke  and  Rector  of  Verona.  None  dared 
oppose  the  will  of  the  excited  populace  and  their  leader.  The 
authorities  were  impotent.  In  a  moment  the  rule  of  Eccelino 
in  Verona  was  at  an  end  :  he, c<  Satan  in  person,"  was  compelled 
to  swear  obedience  to  the  Brother,  and  did  so  with  tears  in  his 
eyes — tears  of  emotion,  opined  the  multitude. 

The  service  of  penance  of  1233  was  only  a  foretaste  of  the 
much  wilder  and  more  savage  outburst  of  the  Flagellants  in 
1260  after  Frederick's  death,  fanatic  figures  who  are  not  far 
removed  from  the  cycle  of  legend  that  centres  round  Frederick. 
For  the  still  living  Emperor  the  Great  Halleluja  had  the  most 
inconvenient  political  consequences.  The  only  person  who 
profited  was  Pope  Gregory.  With  the  loss  of  Verona  Frede 
rick  had  again  lost  his  mountain  pass  ;  the  Pope  had  seized  this 
opportunity  of  making  peace  with  the  Romans.  He  was  now 
triumphant  in  Rome  without  the  Emperor's  help,  and  had  now 
not  the  smallest  intention  of  meeting  Frederick  half-way  in  the 
Lombard  question,  just  at  the  moment  when  it  was  peculiarly 
acute.  The  Lombards  did  not  stand  by  their  concessions, 
and  though  the  Pope  did  not  accede  to  their  more  outrageous 
demands  he  evolved  an  expedient.  He  revived  in  essentials 
the  treaty,  none  too  favourable  to  Frederick,  that  had  been  con 
cluded  by  his  predecessor  Honorius  III,  and  instead  of  achiev 
ing  a  settlement  everything  was,  as  before,  in  the  melting-pot. 
This  procedure  of  the  Pope's  stirred  to  bitterness  and  resent 
ment  not  only  Frederick  but  several  of  the  Cardinals.  The 


'ADVOCATUS'  OF  ROME  399 

Cardinals  made  no  secret  of  their  feelings  ;  they  refused  to 
follow  Gregory  to  Rome,  but  remained  in  Anagni,  and  when 
the  Pope  returned  to  Anagni  they  immediately  betook  them 
selves  to  Rieti.  To  everyone's  amazement  the  Emperor, 
though  not  recognising  the  League,  acquiesced  in  the  Pope's 
proposals,  partly  for  expediency,  partly  because  he  had  other 
schemes  brewing.  He  had  not  yet  received  satisfaction  for  the 
interference  with  his  Diet. 

The  Halleluja  came  to  an  abrupt  conclusion.  At  the  last 
and  greatest  feast  of  peace  in  Paquera  400,000  North  Italians, 
it  was  computed,  assembled  round  Brother  John  of  Vicenza. 
Solemnly  a  pact  of  eternal  peace  was  sworn.  Four  days  later 
in  Lombardy  and  the  March  of  Treviso  the  war  of  the  towns 
broke  out  again.  All  flew  at  each  other's  throats,  and  Brother 
John,  "  Duke  "  of  Verona,  sat  in  the  dungeon  of  one  of  his 
innumerable  foes.  The  balance  between  Emperor  and  Pope 
was  gradually  restored  when  the  Romans  had  sobered  again 
after  their  orgy  of  peace.  In  1234  Luca  Savelli  was  elected 
Senator  of  Rome.  He  declared  papal  Tuscany  and  the 
Carnpagna  to  be  the  property  of  the  Roman  people,  and  he 
demanded  homage  from  the  towns  of  these  areas.  The  Pope 
fled  to  Rieti,  and  excommunicated  the  Romans,  who  were 
looting  the  Lateran  and  the  cardinals'  houses,  and  called  the 
whole  Christian  world  to  his  relief. 


Now  was  Frederick's  opportunity.  In  the  sight  of  the 
whole  world  he  could  pose  as  Advocatus  of  Rome  and  Pro 
tector  of  the  Pope.  He  could  draw  the  temporal  sword  to 
defend  the  Church,  exactly  as  world-ideals  demanded,  exactly 
as  he  had  pictured  in  his  recent  letter  to  the  Pope.  He  offered 
active  assistance  to  the  Pope  and  joined  him  in  Rieti,  taking 
his  six-year-old  son  Conrad  with  him  to  hand  over  to  the  Pope 
as  a  hostage  for  the  purity  of  his  motives.  Then  he  entered 
Viterbo  with  his  troops  to  besiege  the  Roman  fortress  of 
Rispampani  from  this  base.  The  gesture  was  here  the  thing. 
The  Pope,  of  course,  could  not  accept  the  hostage,  and  the  Em 
peror,  who  had  no  desire  for  a  fight  with  the  Romans,  preferred 
to  loose  his  falcons  in  the  Campagna  and  hunt  in  papal  purlieus. 


400  KING  HENRY  VII  vi 

As  the  siege  grew  protracted  he  returned  to  Sicily,  while  his 
troops,  after  a  while,  forced  the  Romans  to  make  peace.  The 
Emperor  had  accomplished  all  he  wanted.  It  was  no  trifle. 
The  latest  news  from  Germany  indicated  that  the  moment 
had  arrived  to  assign  to  the  Pope  his  role  in  the  coming 
events. 

The  Sicilian  Book  of  Laws  depicted  the  Emperor  as  Fate 
itself.  The  Emperor's  own  son  was  the  first  victim.  Since  the 
day  when  King  Henry  opposed  his  father's  wishes  by  absent 
ing  himself  on  the  first  occasion  from  Ravenna  his  fate  had 
been  sealed ;  slowly,  steadily,  inevitably  he  moved  towards  his 
doom.  When  decision  was  forced  on  him  at  Cividale  he  had 
no  choice  but  to  bow  unconditionally  before  his  father's  might, 
to  swear  obedience,  and  to  treat  the  princes  with  respect.  When 
once  he  had  returned  to  Germany  he  felt  the  full  pressure  of 
the  fetters  he  had  donned.  He  sought,  cautiously  at  first,  to 
slip  them  from  him.  It  was  not  long  till  circumstances 
compelled  him  to  defy  Princes,  Pope  and  Emperor.  There  is 
no  riddle  here  to  read  !  In  forfeiting  his  father's  confidence  he 
had  forfeited  his  own  freedom  of  action.  Spied  upon  by  a  host 
of  hirelings,  looked  upon  with  suspicion  and  often  thwarted  by 
the  Emperor,  the  very  aimlessness  of  his  movements  often  lent 
them  a  compromising  air.  Henry  himself  felt  insecure,  he 
gave  orders,  countermanded  them  ;  whatever  he  did,  right  or 
wrong,  turned  at  once  to  his  own  destruction. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  pursue  in  detail  the  successive 
phases  of  his  fall.  One  episode  will  show  the  luckless  star 
under  which  the  young  king  sailed.  Roughly  about  the  time 
that  the  Hallelujas  of  the  penance  preachers  were  echoing 
through  the  towns  of  Northern  Italy,  the  German  Inquisitor, 
Conrad  of  Marburg,  a  narrow  gloomy  fanatic,  distinguished 
himself  in  the  papal  service  as  a  heretic-hunter.  The  chief 
German  heretics  appear  to  have  been  the  various  sects  of 
Luciferians  who  magnified  Satan  as  the  Creator.  The 
Emperor,  in  the  edicts  we  already  know,  had  commanded  the 
eradication  of  heresy,  and  King  Henry  and  the  German  princes 
were  at  first  whole-heartedly  on  the  side  of  the  Inquisition. 
Before  long,  however,  Conrad  of  Marburg  began  to  behave  like 
an  irresponsible  maniac  ;  he  accepted  every  denunciation  and 


AN  ILL-STARRED   PRINCE  401 

accusation  as  a  proof  of  guilt ;  he  declared  burghers  heretics 
and  flung  them  to  the  flames  till  the  Rhine  towns  gazed  in 
paralysed  horror  at  his  rage,  not  knowing  how  to  avert  it. 
Finally,  Conrad  without  rhyme  or  reason  accused  several  of  the 
German  nobles  of  heresy :  the  Counts  of  Arnsberg  and  Solms, 
and,  especially,  Henry  of  Sayn,  thus  trespassing  on  the  juris 
diction  of  the  bishops.  At  this  point  King  Henry,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  princes,  called  a  halt  to  the  increasingly 
savage  behaviour  of  the  Inquisitor  and  sent  a  protest  to  the  Pope 
in  Rome.  This  document  unfortunately  reached  Pope  Gregory 
at  the  same  moment  as  the  news  that  Conrad  of  Marburg  had 
meantime  been  murdered  by  embittered  enemies.  The  Pope, 
in  a  fury,  tore  up  King  Henry's  letter.  In  the  meantime 
Henry  at  a  Diet  in  Frankfurt  had  declared  himself  opposed  to 
all  such  courts  as  Conrad's,  and  had  complained  that  the  Bishop 
of  Hildesheim  was  preaching  a  heretic-crusade. 

In  all  this  the  King's  procedure  had  been  above  reproach, 
but  the  fact  that  he  should  just  at  this  moment  draw  down  on 
himself  the  Pope's  wrath  was  in  the  highest  degree  inopportune 
for  the  Emperor.  Just  at  this  moment  the  consequences  of 
the  penance  epidemic  had  given  the  Pope  an  advantage  over 
the  Emperor,  and  he  had  been  able  to  return  to  Rome,  while 
Frederick  saw  his  whole  position  in  North  Italy  undermined 
by  the  activity  of  the  preachers,  and  he  was  particularly 
anxious  to  be  on  good  terms  with  Gregory.  He,  therefore, 
strongly  disapproved  of  his  son's  course.  At  the  same  time 
Bong  Henry  had  most  unhappily  mixed  himself  up  in  almost 
treasonable  doings,  had  made  friends  with  the  Emperor's 
enemies,  and  had  contrived,  most  unjustly,  to  injure  his  father's 
special  friends,  the  brothers  Godfrey  and  Conrad  of  Hohen- 
lohe,  and  the  Margrave  of  Baden.  Finally,  something  very 
like  anarchy  was  beginning  to  spread  through  Germany.  The 
princes  compelled  Henry  to  proclaim  a  Public  Peace  :  which 
altered  nothing.  Just  as  Frederick  was  taking  the  field  against 
the  Romans  the  son,  after  having  been  severely  reproved  by  his 
father,  raised  the  standard  of  insurrection.  He  was  in  Boppard 
with  a  handful  of  trusty  friends,  a  heterogeneous  group  of  all 
ranks,  united  only  by  the  most  various  impulses  of  opposition. 
Some  townsfolk  and  ministeriales  and  a  few  bishops,  such  as 


402  POPE'S   DILEMMA  vi 

Augsburg,  Wiirzburg  and  Worms,  the  Abbot  of  Fulda,  and  a 
few  secular  lords,  were  on  his  side.  It  is  hard  to  see  what  suc 
cess  King  Henry  can  have  hoped  for.  The  Emperor  had  all 
the  real  power  behind  him,  the  Princes  and  the  Pope.  Frede 
rick  designated  his  son's  behaviour  as  "  boyish  defiance/'  and 
his  son  as  "  a  madman  who  imagined  he  could  hold  the  nor 
thern  throne  in  our  despite."  It  was  really  an  act  of  utter 
despair  when  Henry  was  tempted  to  a  further  and  final  folly. 
In  the  late  autumn  of  1234,  in  order  to  hinder  or  delay  the 
Emperor's  return  to  Germany,  he  allied  himself  with  the  deadly 
enemies  of  his  father  and  his  forefathers  and  of  the  whole  house 
of  Hohenstaufen  :  with  Milan  and  the  confederate  Lombard 
towns.  After  this  no  accommodation  was  possible. 

King  Henry  could  no  longer  stem  the  tide  of  events.  Frede 
rick  II  wrote  once  :  "  The  power  of  the  Empire  takes  no  ac 
count  of  individuals.  .  .  ."  Foreseeing  the  future  he  had  long 
since  prepared  the  net  for  his  son,  he  now  drew  it  slowly  in, 
mesh  by  mesh,  without  speed  or  haste.  King  Henry's  alliance 
with  the  Lombards  was  rendered  valueless  before  it  was  con 
cluded.  When  the  first  disturbing  rumours  from  Germany 
reached  Frederick,  just  as  he  was  visiting  the  Pope  in  Rieti,  and 
offering  his  youngest  son  as  a  hostage,  he  himself  negotiated  the 
excommunication  of  his  eldest.  Pope  Gregory  IX  was  pleased, 
only  too  eager,  to  accede  to  Frederick's  wish,  and  issued  the 
papal  ban.  With  that  move  Gregory  lost  the  game.  He  sat 
firm  in  the  Emperor's  snare  just  when  he  was  preparing  a  trap 
for  Frederick.  For  when  the  alliance  of  his  Lombard  friends, 
Milan  and  her  train,  with  King  Henry  became  known,  the  Pope 
was  in  an  extremely  delicate  position.  He  could  not  join  this 
Lombard- German  conspiracy  to  overthrow  the  Emperor  or 
gravely  endanger  him,  for  by  his  excommunication  of  King 
Henry  he  had  declared  himself  his  enemy.  Far  from  being 
able  to  stand  by  the  Lombards  he  ought  by  rights  to  have 
damned  them  also  as  the  allies  of  the  excommunicated  king. 
He  did  not  go  quite  so  far  as  this  ;  nor  did  the  Emperor  press 
the  point.  Frederick,  however,  was  not  slow  to  take  advantage 
of  the  Pope's  embarrassment.  It  was  impossible  now  for  the 
Pope  to  uphold  his  Lombard  friends,  guilty  of  high  treason. 
Frederick  could  find  no  delegate  more  apt  to  his  purpose  than 


FREDERICK  IN  GERMANY  403 

the  astonished  Pope,  so  he  entrusted  to  the  faithful  hands  of 
the  High  Priest  himself  the  task  of  exacting  satisfaction  and 
inflicting  punishment  for  the  new  treachery  of  the  League, 
which  could  not  this  time  be  explained  away.  The  Pope  was 
paying  dearly  for  Frederick's  help  against  the  Romans.  And 
Frederick  could  set  out  for  Germany  with  an  easy  mind.  He 
had  already  written  to  the  German  nobles  "  there  is  no  doubt 
of  our  fortunate  arrival.5' 


The  news  of  the  Emperor's  arrival  in  Ratisbon  was  enough. 
The  quite  considerable  insurrection  in  Germany  at  once  col 
lapsed,  and  King  Henry  was  quickly  persuaded  by  Hermann  of 
Salza  to  unconditional  surrender.  Fear  of  the  'Judge,  though 
approaching  alone  from  the  south,  exercised  a  paralysing  effect. 
Without  an  army,  without  a  train  of  Sicilian  nobles  (whom  he 
dismissed  at  the  frontier),  Frederick  had  set  out  in  the  spring 
of  1235,  using  his  galleys  to  convey  him  from  Rimini  to 
Aquileia,  northwards  through  Friuli  and  Styria.  He  took  the 
seven-year-old  Conrad  with  him  and  his  personal  exchequer, 
whose  coffers  he  had  replenished  by  a  new  tax,  well  knowing 
what  means  would  avail  him  best  in  Germany.  Just  as  on  that 
former  occasion  when  the  Puer  Apuliae  arrived  almost  alone 
in  Constance  to  be  soon  surrounded  by  thousands,  so  now  the 
Emperor's  following  grew  from  day  to  day,  and  the  number  of 
adherents  who  streamed  to  him.  As  often  before,  in  Germany, 
in  Syria,  in  Sicily,  Frederick  II  trusted  once  again  to  his  per 
sonal  presence,  the  glory  and  the  magic  of  his  name.  He  was 
master  of  the  various  arts  that  cast  men  under  a  spell,  and  ac 
cording  to  circumstances  used  now  one  method,  now  another. 
In  Syria  he  had  captivated  the  Orientals  by  learned  talk  about 
mathematics  and  astronomy  ;  in  Sicily  he  conjured  up  the  fear 
of  the  Divine  Power,  incarnate  as  Law  upon  the  earth,  charms 
which  were  too  close  and  immediate  to  be  potent  in  Germany, 
which  unfailingly  reacted  to  the  magic  of  the  far-away.  The 
marvel  of  southern  strangeness  had  helped  the  Puer  Apuliae 
whom  men  called  David  to  victory,  and  now  the  great  Charle 
magne  of  tale  and  story  seemed  bodily  risen  again,  and  came 
as  one  of  the  wise  kings  of  the  East,  wealthy,  magnificent,  the 


4o4  IMPRESSION  ON   GERMANY  vi 

Emperor  of  the  End,  with  his  train  of  exotic  animals — and 
conquered  once  again. 

The  German  chroniclers  tell  of  Frederick's  magnificence 
with  bated  breath.  "  As  befits  the  imperial  majesty,  he  pro 
gressed  with  the  utmost  pomp,  and  many  quadrigae,  chariots, 
followed  him  laden  with  gold  and  with  silver,  with  byssus 
and  with  purple,  with  gems  and  costly  vessels.  He  had  with 
him  camels,  mules,  dromedaries,  apes  and  leopards,  with 
Saracens  and  dark-skinned  Ethopians  skilled  in  arts  of  many 
kinds,  who  served  as  guards  for  his  money  and  his  treasure." 
All  the  fairy-tale  magnificence  of  the  south,  the  exotic  treasures 
and  the  marvels  of  his  treasury,  "  of  which  the  west  has  scanty 
store,"  the  Emperor  displayed  in  the  towns  of  the  Danube,  the 
Neckar  and  the  Rhine.  And  when  by  chance  the  uncanny 
monarch  flung  to  his  leopard-keeper  a  few  commands  in  Arabic, 
the  foreign  words  were  not  without  effect  on  the  people  nor  on 
his  train  of  princes,  knights  and  nobles.  This  picture  of  the 
Emperor  stamped  itself  indelibly  on  the  German  mind  :  In 
the  days  of  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  a  "false  Frederick"  arose: 
he  sought  to  prove  his  authenticity  by  possessing  three  Moorish 
attendants  and  some  heavily-laden  mules.  And  the  pictures 
of  the  divine  majesty  in  Berthold  of  Ratisbon's  sermons  are 
unquestionably  coloured  by  memories  of  that  triumphant 
imperial  progress. 

When  Frederick  with  his  magnificent  escort  rode  from 
Wimpfen  into  the  Swabian  Palatinate  on  one  of  his  noble 
Andalusian  or  Barbary  steeds  he  found  that  King  Henry  had 
hastened  thither  before  him,  to  cast  himself  at  his  father's 
feet.  His  life  was  forfeit  for  insurrection.  The  Emperor  did 
not  permit  his  son  to  enter  his  presence.  Henry  was  first 
compelled  to  accompany  as  prisoner  his  father's  triumphal 
progress  down  the  Neckar  valley  to  Worms.  Frederick  was 
solemnly  welcomed  by  the  people,  and  twelve  bishops  waited 
at  the  portals  of  the  cathedral  to  greet  him.  The  Emperor  saw 
amongst  them  Landulf  of  Worms,  one  of  the  chief  supporters 
of  the  rebellious  king.  He  ordered  him  out  of  his  presence  and 
commanded  them  to  strip  his  bishop's  robes  from  him.  King 
Henry  was  flung  into  prison,  and  the  troubadours  tell  that  in 
the  morning  when  his  armour  was  taken  from  him  he  was 


SACRIFICE  OF  FIRST-BORN  405 

still  singing  ;  but  when  at  evening  they  brought  him  food 
he  wept. 

Not  till  some  days  later  did  Frederick  sit  in  judgment  on 
his  son.  In  the  presence  of  many  nobles,  counts  and  princes, 
the  Emperor  sat  enthroned  in  sacra  majestas.  King  Henry 
entered  the  hall  and  flung  himself  at  the  feet  of  his  judge,  and 
as  a  traitor  to  his  sovereign  who  sues  for  pardon  bowed  his 
forehead  to  the  ground  before  the  Emperor's  unchanging 
glance.  Amidst  an  oppressive  silence  he  was  obliged  to  retain 
this  position  for  a  long  time,  and  no  one  bade  him  rise.  At  last, 
on  the  prayer  of  several  of  the  princes,  the  Emperor  allowed  the 
command  to  be  given  that  he  should  stand  up.  Shocked  and 
bewildered  he  stood  and  commended  himself  to  the  Emperor's 
mercy,  renouncing  his  kingly  dignity  and  all  that  he  possessed. 
His  submission  saved  his  life,  but  he  had  forfeited  his  freedom. 
He  had  made  all  hope  of  this  impossible  by  at  first  refusing 
to  surrender  the  castle  of  Trifels  which  his  supporters  were 
defending  and  in  which  the  crown  jewels  were  lodged  ;  he  had 
even  attempted  flight.  He  was  first  imprisoned  in  Heidelberg 
and  then  despatched  to  Apulia.  Any  rebels  who  had  not  yet 
surrendered  were  defeated.  Frederick  showed  great  leniency 
to  all;  he  even  took  Bishop  Landulf  into  favour  again  and 
released,  after  a  short  time,  the  Lombard  envoys  captured  in 
Trifels.  Only  the  son  felt  the  full  severity  of  father,  emperor 
and  judge.  For  weary  years  he  remained  a  prisoner  in  Rocca 
San  Felice  near  Melfi  ;  then  he  was  transferred  to  Nicastro. 
After  a  further  six  years  of  imprisonment  he  was  to  be  again 
transferred.  The  story  is  that  he  was  about  to  be  released 
but  had  not  yet  been  so  informed.  Weary  of  life  and  fearing 
yet  severer  treatment  King  Henry  on  the  road  from  Nicastro 
to  his  new  place  of  confinement  rode  his  horse  over  a  mountain 
precipice.  He  was  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  buried  in  the 
church  of  Cosenza  in  a  marble  sarcophagus,  clad  in  a  shroud  of 
gold  and  silver  tissue  into  which  eagles*  feathers  were  woven. 
A  Minorite  preached  the  funeral  sermon,  according  to  Apulian 
custom,  and  chose  as  his  text :  "  Aind  Abraham  stretched  forth 
his  hand  and  took  the  knife  to  slay  his  son."  The  sermon 
concluded  with  a  peroration  in  praise  of  Justitia,  the  God  of 
the  State,  to  whom  Frederick  had  had  to  sacrifice  his  first- 


406  ISABELLA  OF  ENGLAND  vi 

born.  We  must  not  forget  how  severely  Frederick  himself 
suffered.  In  the  mourning  letter  he  wrote  when  giving  orders 
for  the  obsequies  there  echoes  still  the  sorrow  of  that  judgment 
day  in  Worms,  when  the  father  had,  to  pass  sentence  on  the  son 
according  to  his  own  saying  :  human  nature  must  of  necessity 
bow  to  justice.  "  The  pity  of  a  tender  father  must  yield  to 
the  judgment  of  the  stern  judge  :  we,  mourn  the  doom  of  our 
first-born.  Nature  bids  flow  the  flood  of  tears,  but%  they  are 
checked  by  the  pain  of  injury  and  the  inflexibility  of  justice." 


To  describe  the  imperial  stay  in  Germany  is  to  describe  a 
series  of  most  brilliant  festivities.  For  when  the  great  attain 
the  summit  of  their  fame  they  love  to  hold  stately  review  of  all 
the  forces  and  the  spirits  they  command.  The  first  celebra 
tions  honoured  the  occasion  of  the  Emperor's  re-marriage. 
Conrad,  King  of  Jerusalem,  was  now  the  sole  remaining 
legitimate  heir  to  the  throne,  and  Frederick  determined  to 
take  him  a  third  wife.  Pope  Gregory,  like  his  predecessors, 
chose  the  bride.  She  was  Isabella,  sister  of  King  Henry  III 
of  England.  Soon  after  the  Emperor's  meeting  with  Pope 
Gregory  in  Rieti,  Piero  della  Vigna  had  been  despatched  to 
London  to  negotiate  the  marriage  treaty.  It  was  a  most 
important  step  in  view  of  both  home  and  foreign  politics,  for 
Frederick  had  hitherto  on  strictly  German  grounds  always 
inclined  to  the  side  of  France  against  England,  lover  of  the 
Welfs.  The  marriage  with  the  English  Isabella  was  the  first 
step  in  the  solemn  renunciation  which  was  soon  to  follow,  of 
the  ancient  Welf-Hohenstaufen  feud. 

While  King  Henry  was  still  a  prisoner  in  Worms  awaiting 
his  sentence  people  were  already  making  preparations.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  July,  and  Isabella  had  been  in  Cologne 
since  May  awaiting  the  Emperor's  arrival  in  Germany. 
Matthew  Paris,  the  English  chronicler,  with  the  Englishman's 
love  for  the  "  intimate  "  details  about  the  great,  cannot  relate 
with  sufficient  minuteness  the  whole  story  of  the  wedding  of 
the  beautiful  young  Empress  of  scarcely  twenty-one,  scion  of 
the  ancient  house  of  Plantagenet.  He  begins  even  before  the 
engagement.  After  the  English  King  had  given  his  consent  to 


1235  WEDDING  407 

his  sister's  wedding  the  imperial  envoys  had  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  see  the  princess,  and  Isabella  was  escorted  from  her 
home  in  the  Tower  of  London  to  the  Palace  of  Westminster  to 
show  herself  to  them.  They  had  gazed  long  upon  her  with 
delight,  esteeming  her  in  all  ways  worthy  of  the  Emperor's  bed, 
had  placed  the  engagement  ring  on  her  finger  in  Frederick's 
name,  and  greeted  her  as  Empress  of  the  Roman  Empire.  All 
the  details  are  now  recorded  of  her  jewellery  and  the  individual 
items  of  her  clothing  and  of  her  plenishing,  down  to  the  gay 
silken  counterpanes  and  soft  cushions  of  the  bridal  bed,  and 
the  cooking  pots  which  were  of  unalloyed  silver,  "  a  thing  that 
Seemed  to  all  superfluous."  Then  the  Empress's  journey  and 
sea- voyage  are  described,  and  especially  the  festive  and  joyous 
reception  which  the  people  of  Cologne  prepared  for  her.  Tens 
of  thousands  flocked  out  to  welcome  her  with  flowers  and  palm 
branches  and  music.  Riders  on  Spanish  horses  had  performed 
with  their  lances  the  nuptial  breaking  of  staves,  while  in  ships 
which  appeared  to  sail  upon  dry  land,  but  were  drawn  by 
horses  concealed  under  silken  coverings,  the  clerks  of  Cologne 
played  new  airs  upon  their  instruments.  The  matrons  seated 
on  their  balconies  sang  the  praises  of  the  Empress's  beauty, 
when  Isabella  at  their  request  laid  aside  hat  and  veil  and 
showed  her  face.  Six  weeks  later,  on  the  fifteenth  of  July, 
with  all  conceivable  pomp  and  ceremony,  the  wedding  was 
celebrated  in  Worms. 

People  told  each  other  with  amazement  that  the  Emperor 
did  not  consummate  the  marriage  the  first  night,  but  waited 
till  early  the  next  morning  till  the  hour  which  the  astrologers 
had  indicated  as  the  most  favourable  for  procreation.  Then 
Frederick  handed  over  his  consort  to  the  care  of  Saracen 
eunuchs  (a  state  measure  as  important  as,  but  no  more  signifi 
cant  than  any  other)  telling  her  that  she  was  pregnant  of  a  son, 
a  fact  which  he  also  set  in  writing  in  a  letter  to  the  English  King. 
In  contrast  to  his  predecessors  Frederick  II  looked  on  his 
consorts  simply  as  mothers  of  his  legitimate  heirs  and  succes 
sors  ;  they  had  no  importance  as  Empresses.  His  imperial 
forefathers,  especially  in  making  pious  foundations,  habitually 
drew  up  their  charters  in  the  name  of  the  royal  pair  :  Henry 
and  Kunigunde  for  instance,  Frederick  I  and  Beatrice,  even 


4o8  FREDERICK  AND  WOMEN  vi 

Henry  VI  and  Constance.  With  the  sole  exception  of  the  few 
documents  relating  to  marriage  settlements  the  records  of 
Frederick  II,  the  last  Emperor,  contain  no  allusion  to  his 
consorts.  Frederick  II  stands  alone,  a  fact  that  was  not 
without  influence  on  his  sons.  Although  he  himself  frequently 
referred  to  his  parents,  and  celebrated  his  Divine  Mother  in 
phrases  such  as  no  German  ruler  had  ever  used  before,  his 
sons  called  themselves  only  Dim  Augusti  Imperatoris  Filius, 
This  cold-blooded  attitude  to  his  wives  has  often  been  made 
responsible  for  Frederick's  "  lack  of  sentiment/7  Be  that  as  it 
may  :  any  other  relation  was  unthinkable.  For  Frederick  was 
in  an  unprecedented  way  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  world,  which 
none  could  share  with  him.  The  picture  of  an  imperial  pair 
was  possible  for  a  German  Emperor,  but  inconceivable  for  a 
Tyrant  of  Sicily  or  for  a  Roman  Caesar.  Even  the  appearance 
of  sentiment  and  domesticity  was  out  of  the  question  for  Frede 
rick,  who  could  more  readily  be  seen  in  company  with  a 
Saracen  beauty  than  with  his  royal  consort.  The  English 
King  complained  that  after  years  of  wedlock  the  Empress  had 
never  worn  the  crown  in  public.  Enemies  accused  the  Emperor 
of  imprisoning  his  wives  in  the  "  labyrinth  of  his  Gomorrah  " 
(that  is  in  his  harem,  as  contrasted  with  Sodom),  rendering 
them  almost  invisible  and  making  them  strangers  to  their 
children.  This  was  all  true  enough.  There  was  no  room  round 
Frederick  in  which  a  woman  could  strike  root.  All  his  wives 
died  after  a  few  years  of  marriage,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  his 
mistresses  shared  the  same  fate  :  none  of  them  survived  him. 
In  the  rarefied  atmosphere  of  these  brilliant  heights  no  human 
being  but  himself  could  thrive  :  none  even  of  his  friends  could 
hold  out  for  long  ;  no  woman  could  have  breathed  there. 
Hence,  the  English  Isabella,  surrounded  by  her  imperial  house 
hold  and  dignities,  watched  by  eunuchs,  disappeared  forthwith 
into  the  "  harem." 


The  happy  Hohenstaufen  days  saw  an  unprecedented  out 
burst  of  artistic  creativeness  in  Germany  in  which  all  races  in 
common  found  their  own  characteristic  expression  :  human 
forms  were  created  in  a  perfection  never  since  attained  :  it  is 


COURT  AT  MAINZ  4°9 

the  only  period  in  which  German  plastic  art  spontaneously  and 
unconsciously  approaches  the  antique.  In  August  1235,  soon 
after  the  wedding  festivities  of  Worms,  Kaiser  Frederick  held  a 
great  Diet  at  Mainz.  Never  was  the  "  better  nature  "  of  the 
Germans,  the  reconciliation  of  their  great  eternal  contradictions, 
so  strikingly  realised  as  on  this  occasion.  This  great  imperial 
celebration  must  have  awakened  many  memories  of  that 
"  incomparable  festival "  in  which  Barbarossa  celebrated 
the  sword-investiture  of  his  sons  with  a  noble  and  chivalrous 
ceremonial  never  before  seen  in  Germany.  Barbarossa, 
though  well  over  sixty,  had  himself  taken  part  in  the  tourna 
ment,  and  was  hailed  by  the  minstrels  as  a  new  Alexander, 
Caesar,  King  Arthur.  The  fresh  glory  of  this  beginning  of 
courtly  chivalry  in  Germany  was  happily  symbolised  by  the 
exchange  of  greeting  and  handclasp  between  Henry  of  Veldeke, 
one  of  the  earliest  of  German  singers,  and  a  French  troubadour. 
The  next  fifty  years,  the  period  of  Gottfried  and  Wolfram  and 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  brought  blossoming  and  promise, 
and  full  in  the  midst  of  all  this  outburst  of  German  genius  the 
Puer  Apuliae  was  wafted  into  Germany  from  the  South,  and  was 
caught  up  and  transfigured  by  its  glory.  Now  Frederick  II, 
himself  in  the  forties,  revisited  Germany  after  twenty  years 
and  found  the  Springtime  over  and  the  moment  ripe  for  him  to 
garner  the  first  fruits.  Now  seemed  the  time  to  give  perman 
ence  to  the  beautiful  Roman-German  form  that  had  been  just 
evolved,  to  help  it  to  a  still  finer  perfection,  to  weld  the  whole 
into  a  conscious  unity  :  princes  and  races  into  one  people.  To 
strengthen  and  harden  into  an  enduring  state,  as  sculptors  then 
were  fashioning  enduring  monuments  of  stone,  this  German 
growth  that  bore  the  impress  of  Rome,  neither  by  cutting  it 
adrift  from  Rome  nor  by  abolishing  the  princely  power,  but 
by  persistently  inspiring  princes  and  races  with  the  thought  and 
the  spirit  of  state-building. 

Frederick  IFs  great  curia  solemnis  of  Mainz  was  the  begin 
ning  :  law,  speech,  blood  and  feudal  faith  (which  here  had 
more  weight  than  in  the  south)  were  the  links  of  the  chain  the 
Roman  Caesar  forged.  He  appeared  in  exotic  magnificence 
before  this  dazzling  assembly,  at  which  almost  without  excep 
tion  all  the  German  princes  were  for  once  united,  with  all 


4io  LANDPEACE  OF  MAINZ  vi 

the  solemn  dignity  pertaining  to  the  God-appointed  Provider, 
Protector,  Preserver  of  peace  and  justice.  He  opened  the  Diet 
with  a  proclamation  of  Public  Peace,  from  the  opening  words 
of  which  there  echoes  the  pride  of  the  Law-giver  who  for  the 
first  time  erects  Tables  of  the  Law,  "  for  men  throughout  all 
Germany  in  private  quarrels  and  in  legal  suits  at  present  live 
according  to  the  age-old  traditions  and  customs  and  according 
to  unwritten  Law."  The  Proclamation  of  the  Landpeace  of 
Mainz  contained  both  old  and  new  laws,  and  far  excelled  in 
importance  all  previous  pronouncements  of  the  sort.  It  was  to 
form  the  basis  of  all  future  imperial  legislation,  a  foundation 
which  all  later  lawgivers  must  build  upon,  and  to  which  they 
must  ever  and  again  recur.  Town  confederations  and  princes 
and  kings  like  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  Adolf  of  Nassau,  Albert  of 
Austria  have  frequently  renewed  the  Landpeace  of  Mainz  in  its 
entirety.  The  nine-and-twenty  sections  dealt  with  the  juris 
diction  of  princes  and  bishops,  rights  of  mintage  and  transport, 
the  abolition  of  unjust  dues,  the  prohibition  of  self-vindication, 
the  limitation  of  ordeal  by  battle,  and  much  else. 

The  Emperor,  as  himself  the  Law,  Incarnate,  always  con 
ceived  his  personal  actions  as  constituting  a  precedent,  he  there 
fore  created  an  imperial  law  out  of  his  own  sentence  of  perpetual 
imprisonment  against  his  son,  and  the  Landpeace  begins  with 
the  decree  :  "  Whatever  son  shall  drive  his  father  out  of  his 
castles  or  other  property,  or  shall  burn  it  or  shall  plunder  it, 
or  shall  conspire  with  his  father's  foes,  or  plot  against  his 
father's  honour  or  seek  his  father's  destruction  .  .  .  that  son 
shall  forfeit  property  and  fief  and  personal  possessions  and  all 
inheritance  from  father  or  mother,  and  neither  judge  nor 
father  shall  be  able  to  reinstate  him,  for  ever."  And  it  con 
tinues  with  a  sinister  note  ringing  through  the  Middle  High 
German  of  the  original  words :  whatsoever  son  lays  hands  upon 
his  father's  body  or  criminally  attacks  him  "  he  shall  be  without 
honour  and  without  right  for  ever,  so  that  he  may  never  again 
come  into  his  own." 

An  important  innovation,  copied  from  Sicily,  was  the 
installation  of  an  Imperial  Grand  Justiciar,  who  was  daily 
without  fee  to  preside  over  the  High  Court  and  represent  the 
Emperor.  He  was  to  hold  office  for  at  least  a  year,  and  he  was 


GERMAN  LANGUAGE  411 

given  the  services  of  a  special  notary,  who  must  be  a  layman, 
"  so  that  he  may  pay  the  penalty  "  if  he  does  wrong.  We  can 
detect  here  and  there  echoes  of  Sicilian  laws,  but  nothing  that 
does  violence  to  natural  German  Law,  rather  another  offshoot 
from  the  same  root,  clothing  itself  in  forms  that  have  proved 
useful  elsewhere. 

The  Proclamation  of  Mainz  was  presumably  only  a  prelimi 
nary  regulation,  as  in  Sicily  the  Capua  Proclamation  had  been 
the  forerunner  of  the  great  Constitutions  of  Melfi.  Frederick 
may  well  have  planned  a  similar  work  for  Germany.  We 
know  that  he  had  Sicilian  High  Court  Judges  in  his  train,  and 
that  the  idea  of  a  great  imperial  codification  of  law  was  in  the 
air  at  the  time.  The  English  poet,  Henry  of  Avranches,  who  was 
an  ardent  admirer  of  the  Emperor,  adjured  him  to  win  ever 
lasting  renown  by  publishing  a  Summa  of  the  numerous 
scattered  number  of  imperial  laws  which  should  be  a  companion 
to  the  Pope's  Collection  of  Decretals  which  Gregory  IX  had 
published  a  year  before. 

It  was  a  matter  of  the  highest  significance  that  this  "  Italian  " 
Frederick  published  his  proclamation  in  German,  and  recorded 
it  in  writing  in  German,  and  had  it  translated  from  the  German 
into  Latin.  It  was  the  first  time  that  German  had  been  utilised 
for  a  proclamation,  and  the  importance  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
thus  recognised  as  on  an  equality  with  Latin  for  an  edict  of  the 
Roman  Emperor  needs  no  emphasis.  It  proves  that  this  most 
Roman  of  Emperors  was  also  the  most  German.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  an  individuality  in  the  State  as  a  whole  (not  only 
in  the  subsidiary  states),  the  first  record  of  German  law  in  Ger 
man,  the  first  laying  aside  of  the  Latin  scaffolding  as  no  longer 
indispensable  to  speech. 


It  would  be  difficult  to  overrate  this  first  tentative  of  Frede 
rick's  to  raise  with  the  co-operation  of  the  princes  a  German 
state  structure  comparable  to  the  contemporary  German  achieve 
ments  in  art  and  literature.  This  historic  Diet  was  rich  in 
memorable  and  symbolic  events,  but  the  pan-German  legisla 
tion  might  easily  rank  as  the  most  important  of  them  all,  were 
its  pride  of  place  not  disputed  by  the  termination  of  the  age-old 


412  END  OF  A  FEUD  vi 

racial  feud  of  Welf  and  Waibling.  Otto  of  Liineburg,  the  Welf 
nephew  of  Kaiser  Otto,  was  present.  Frederick  announced  : 
"  At  this  solemn  Diet  of  Mainz,  with  the  princes  ranged  round 
our  illustrious  throne,  Otto  of  Liineburg  hath  done  us  homage, 
and  unmindful  of  all  hate  and  harassment  that  existed  between 
our  forefathers  hath  placed  himself  under  our  protection  and 
at  our  service."  Frederick  confirmed  Otto  in  all  his  Liineburg 
possessions,  which  he  first  took  over  for  the  Emperor  i;i  order  to 
grant  them  back  as  an  imperial  fief.  Further,  he  augmented 
the  Welf  territory  by  the  gift  of  Brunswick  which  he  had  ac 
quired  by  purchase  for  himself,  and  created  a  new  dukedom 
of  Brunswick-Limeburg.  When  Otto  the  Welf  above  the 
imperial  crucifix  placed  his  hands  in  Kaiser  Frederick's  and 
swore  the  oath  of  allegiance,  voluntarily  committing  himself 
and  his  possessions  to  the  good  faith  of  the  Waibling,  to  whom 
he  showed  respect  in  every  manner  possible,  Frederick  in 
return  entrusted  him  with  the  newly-created  dukedom  as  a 
hereditary  imperial  fief,  and  solemnly  bestowed  on  the  Welf 
the  banner  that  custom  demanded.  The  racial  feud  of  earlier 
days  had  become  an  anachronism  in  a  Germany  flooded  as  far 
as  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea  by  the  glory  of  Imperial  Rome. 
There  was  no  longer  Welf  nor  Waibling  in  the  North.  The 
age-old  prophecy  had  been  literally  fulfilled  which  laid  down 
the  correct  constitution  for  Germany  :  the  Welfs  should  ever 
provide  mighty  Dukes,  but  only  Waiblings  should  be  Emperors, 
Frederick  II  was  well  justified  in  giving  command  :  "  This  day 
shall  be  recorded  in  all  the  annals  of  the  Empire  because  it  has 
added  another  duke  to  the  Empire.  .  .  ."  This  also  gave  him 
a  reason  for  proceeding  next  day  to  the  cathedral,  crowned  with 
the  imperial  diadem,  arid  after  high  mass  giving  a  royal  feast  to 
all  the  German  princes  and  the  12,000  knights  of  their  escorts. 
This  was  the  last  great  imperial  feast  of  the  old  aristocratic 
regime  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  before  the  onset  of  a 
duller  bourgeois  world  which  Frederick  was  trying  to  hold 
at  bay  by  strengthening  the  princely  power ;  a  world  which 
lacked  the  spaciousness  of  an  Empire,  but  from  its  own 
narrow  confines  reached  upwards,  seeking  to  win  the  empire 
of  the  skies. 


JEWISH  LAW  SUIT  413 

Frederick  had  come  to  Germany  as  the  Judge,  showing  him 
self  for  the  first  time  in  this  capacity  to  all  Europe,  and  pre 
sently  an  opportunity  offered  to  figure  as  the  highest  judge  of  all 
the  Christian  world  in  a  case  which  aroused  much  interest  and 
excitement  and  which  he  himself  contrived  to  magnify  into  an 
affair  of  the  whole  Occident.  It  must  have  been  shortly  after 
the  great  day  of  Mainz  that  the  case  was  brought  before  him 
while  he  was  halting  in  Hagenau  in  the  imperial  Palatinate. 
The  Jews  of  Fulda  were  accused  of  having  committed  a  ritual 
murder  on  a  Christian  boy  at  their  Easter  festival.  The  first 
result  of  this  was  a  massacre  of  Jews  in  Fulda  and  several  other 
German  towns.  Then  the  people  had  waited  till  the  Emperor's 
arrival  to  seek  a  decision  in  all  the  unrest,  and  both  parties, 
Jews  and  Christians,  now  appealed  to  Frederick  in  Hagenau. 
As  a  witness  against  the  Jews  the  Christians  had  kept  the  child's 
corpse  and  dragged  it  along  to  Hagenau.  Frederick  heard  the 
case  and  passed  a  sentence  worthy  of  Solomon.  First  he  pointed 
to  the  body,  and  said  drily  to  the  Christians  :  "  When  they  are 
dead,  bury  them.  It's  all  they're  fit  for."  He  satisfied  him 
self  that  the  Jews  were  innocent,  but  imposed  a  large  fine  on 
them,  because — innocent  or  guilty — that  had  been  the  cause 
of  a  disturbance.  Thus  peace  was  restored  in  Germany. 

The  case,  however,  did  not  end  here.  The  Emperor  vowed 
if  ritual  murders  were  possible  he  would  slay  every  Jew  in  the 
Empire,  and  he  instituted  a  full  and  complete  enquiry  to 
elucidate  the  truth.  His  first  step  was  to  apply  to  princes, 
nobles,  great  men,  abbots,  and  various  Church  dignitaries  in 
the  Empire  to  ask  their  opinion.  The  complete  contempt, 
however,  which  the  autocrat  and  the  scholar  felt  for  the  findings 
of  such  a  body  finds  voice  in  his  ultimate  decision :  "  These 
men,  being  different  all,  expressed  different  opinions  in  the 
matter,  but  showed  themselves  incompetent  to  give  an  adequate 
judgment  in  the  case.  We,  therefore,  out  of  the  secret  depths 
of  our  own  knowledge  perceived  that  the  simplest  method  of 
procedure  against  the  Jews,  who  were  alleged  guilty  of  the 
aforementioned  crime,  would  be  through  such  men  as  had  been 
Jews  and  had  been  converted  to  the  Christian  faith.  They, 
being  opponents,  would  not  conceal  what  they  might  know 
against  Jews  or  against  the  books  of  Moses  or  through  the 


414  A  "  ROYAL  COMMISSION'  vi 

Old  Testament.  Now,  though  we  ourselves  in  our  wisdom, 
acquired  from  many  books  which  our  Majesty  has  learned  to 
know,  intelligently  consider  that  the  innocence  of  these  Jews 
has  been  proved,  yet  we  are  anxious  both  to  satisfy  the  law  and 
to  appease  the  unlettered  populace.  Hence  we  have  decided 
with  wholesome  foresight  and  in  concurrence  with  the  princes, 
nobles,  great  men,  abbots  and  Church  dignitaries,  to  despatch 
special  messengers  to  all  the  kings  of  the  Western  lands,  and 
request  them  to  send  us  from  out  their  realms  the  greatest 
possible  number  of  newly-baptised  who  are  learned  in  Jewish 
law.'* 

This  really  took  place.  King  Henry  III  wrote  from  Windsor 
that  he  had  received  the  Emperor's  messenger,  an  imperial 
marshall,  joyfully  and  with  honour  as  was  seemly.  His  illustri 
ous  and  imperial  Majesty  had  earned  the  king's  deepest  thanks 
since  His  Majesty  had  been  pleased  to  impart  this  hitherto 
unheard-of  case  which  had  recently  occurred  in  his  imperial 
territories.  So  far  as  in  him  lay  the  King  of  England  would 
endeavour  to  meet  the  imperial  desires,  and  he  was  therefore 
sending  the  two  most  eminent  of  the  newly-baptised  whom  he 
had  been  able  to  find  in  England,  who  would  be  happy  to  obey 
all  imperial  commands.  The  other  European  monarchs  must 
have  replied  in  much  the  same  strain.  It  was  a  case  which 
concerned  them  all.  This  "  royal  commission,"  assuredly  the 
first  that  any  Emperor  ever  summoned,  expended  no  little 
time  in  consultations,  of  whose  tenor  the  Emperor  kept  himself 
exactly  informed.  Finally,  they  announced  as  their  certain 
conclusion  that,  as  the  Emperor  had  supposed,  the  Hebrew 
scriptures  contained  no  such  suggestion,  that  they  rather  for 
bade  all  blood  sacrifices,  and  that  the  Talmud  and  the  Bere- 
shith  laid  heavy  penalties  on  bloody  animal  sacrifices.  On  the 
basis  of  this  finding  the  Emperor  granted  the  Jews  a  pronounce 
ment  which  severely  forbade  any  similar  accusation  in  future 
throughout  the  entire  Empire. 

Frederick's  main  purpose  in  all  this  inquiry  was  to  summon 
as  Emperor  a  judicial  court  for  the  western  world,  and,  secondly, 
to  display  before  such  a  gathering  his  own  immense  learning, 
which  he  was  never  at  pains  to  conceal,  well  knowing  that  the 
European  kings  would  hear  of  it  from  their  delegates.  It  made 


WINTER  IN  HAGENAU  415 

no  small  impression  in  Germany,  though  in  some  quarters 
they  took  it  ill  that  the  Emperor  had  given  his  decision  against 
the  Christians.  With  what  curiosity  and  amazement  these 
foreigners  must  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Emperor 
who  showed  himself  not  only  surrounded  by  exotic  brilliance 
and  luxury,  but  who  held  discussions  about  the  Talmud,  who 
seemed  more  completely  master  of  Arabic  than  of  German,  and 
who  gave  visible  proof  of  the  truth  of  those  reports  that  he  made 
use  "  of  these  Saracen  augurs  and  soothsayers  whom  people 
call  mathematicians  and  astronomers."  Philosopher  in  those 
days  meant  much  the  same  as  wizard  and  magician,  master  of 
all  secret  arts,  and  even  amanlike  Albertus  Magnus  was  reputed 
to  deal  in  magic.  Later  German  legends  relate  that  Kaiser 
Frederick  visited  Albertus  in  his  magic  garden  at  Cologne,  as 
others  tell  that  Averroes  lived  at  his  court.  The  Germans, 
indeed,  always  felt  the  Emperor  to  be  somewhat  uncanny ;  but 
their  awe  was  blent  on  the  whole  with  profound  admiration 
rather  than  repugnance,  and  with  a  secret  yearning  to  love  him. 
Frederick  II  spent  the  winter  in  Hagenau,  a  place  he  pre 
ferred  to  all  the  others.  He  always  designated  Alsace,  in  climate 
and  in  customs  the  most  southern  German  province,  as  the 
favourite  of  his  German  hereditary  lands.  He  stayed  here 
for  months  with  short  interruptions,  surrounded  by  numerous 
princes,  settling  quarrels,  making  agreements,  receiving  am 
bassadors.  Some  came  from  Spain,  bringing  valuable  horses, 
and  the  Russian  Duke  (of  Kiev  ?)  had  sent  messengers  with 
gifts.  During  this  period  in  his  own  personal  German 
domains  where  he  was  "  Lord  of  the  Land  "  he  seems  to  have 
carried  through  some  constitutional  measures  and  at  least 
established  a  centralised  customs  department,  probably  not 
very  different  from  his  Sicilian  one.  Otherwise  he  occupied 
himself  with  increasing  his  private  and  imperial  possessions. 
With  Sicilian  money  he  redeemed  certain  claims  on  Swabia 
exercised  by  the  King  of  Bohemia,  and  he  acquired  imperial 
rights  in  Uri  which  were  so  far  important  as  they  gave  him  the 
land  at  this  end  of  the  newly-opened  St.  Gothard  Pass  and  thus 
secured  him  an  alternative  passage  across  the  Alps.  It  was 
scarcely  possible  yet  to  use  the  pass  for  troops  to  attack  Milan 
in  the  rear,  for  instance.  Frederick  will  have  had  the  ancient 


416  LOMBARD  SITUATION  vi 

route  over  the  Septimer  or  Julier  passes  in  mind  when  he  con 
ceived  the  plan,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Lombard  campaign, 
of  invading  Lombardy  with  two  armies  at  once.  The  Rhenish 
and  Low  Country  knights  were  to  assemble  in  Basel,  and  those 
who  were  crossing  by  the  Brenner  Pass  in  Augsburg  ;  perhaps 
the  first  great  strategic  conception  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


The  Lombard  War  could  no  longer  be  averted.  At  Mainz 
the  German  princes  had  unanimously  voted  for  the  campaign 
against  the  Lombards,  whose  alliance  with  King  Henry  was 
treachery  to  the  Empire.  According  to  German  custom  they 
pledged  themselves  by  shout  and  lifted  hand,  instead  of  oath, 
to  be  ready  for  war  in  the  spring.  Frederick  had  not  only  right 
but  might  on  his  side.  Pope  Gregory  suddenly  found  himself 
completely  deserted.  He  had  informed  himself  by  a  courier  of 
German  affairs.  His  position  was  desperate.  An  alliance  with 
the  Emperor  against  the  Lombards  meant  the  strangulation  of 
the  Papacy  as  a  political  power  :  the  States  of  the  Church  would 
be  wedged  into  an  imperial  Italy  and  would  in  all  likelihood 
soon  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  Emperor.  Neither  could  Gregory 
declare  openly  for  the  Lombards.  They  had  undeniably 
offended  in  the  highest  degree  against  the  majesty  of  the 
Empire,  and  when  the  Pope  sought  to  treat  with  them  the 
towns  cared  as  little  about  his  commands  as  about  the  Emperor's. 
Gregory  himself  now  began  to  complain  of  their  "  insolence/1 
To  maintain  neutrality  was  practically  to  declare  for  Frederick 
and  to  abandon  the  towns  to  the  imperial  vengeance. 

Pope  Gregory's  first  effort  was,  therefore,  directed  to  trying 
to  postpone  for  a  little  the  punishment  threatening  his  Lom 
bard  friends.  There  was  suddenly  nothing  so  urgently  vital 
for  the  Christian  world  as  a  new  crusade  and  the  regulation  of 
affairs  in  general  in  the  Holy  Land,  where  the  Christians,  to 
the  Emperor's  detriment  rather  than  to  that  of  the  Curia, 
were  mutually  fighting  each  other.  The  Pope  wrote  to  the 
princes  still  assembled  in  Mainz  and  begged  them  to  abandon 
the  Lombard  War  for  the  sake  of  the  Holy  Land.  He  begged 
in  vain.  Frederick  would  not,  in  any  circumstances,  have 
consented  to  breaking  the  ten  years'  truce  with  his  friend  al 


POPE  AS  ARBITRATOR  417 

Kamil,  which  was  not  to  terminate  till  1239.  Nevertheless,  he 
gave  the  Pope  one  more  chance.  If  he,  as  arbitrator,  could 
persuade  the  Lombards  between  the  August  and  Christmas 
of  1235  to  offer  terms  satisfying  to  the  honour  of  Emperor 
and  Empire  no  armed  intervention  need  take  place.  Where 
upon  Pope  Gregory  made  the  utterly  impossible  demand  that 
Frederick  should  pledge  himself  beforehand  to  accept  uncon 
ditionally  the  Pope's  award  in  the  matter,  whatever  it  might  be. 
The  Emperor,  in  view  of  his  previous  experience,  returned  an 
emphatic  refusal,  but  sent  the  German  Grand  Master  as  nego 
tiator  to  the  Pope,  to  rejoin  Piero  della  Vigna  who  had  been 
for  a  long  time  in  charge  of  the  imperial  cause  in  Rome. 

Hermann  of  Salza  now  began  his  great  r61e  of  go-between. 
He  enjoyed  a  high  reputation  with  Pope  Gregory,  who  always 
recognised  his  honourable  disinterestedness,  and  he  was  almost 
Frederick's  friend.  The  Pope  had  untruthfully  asserted  the 
Lombards'  unconditional  readiness  to  abide  by  his  arbitration, 
but  week  after  week  the  Grand  Master  awaited  their  messengers 
in  vain.  At  length  he  returned  to  his  master — not  wholly 
empty-handed.  Pope  Gregory  had  been  endeavouring  to  wean 
Verona  from  her  imperial  allegiance  by  suddenly  installing 
there,  without  the  shadow  of  right,  a  papal  podesta.  Hermann 
of  Salza,  accompanied  by  the  imperial  legate,  Gebhard  of  Arn- 
stein,  had  arrived  in  the  nick  of  time,  and  rescued  the  most 
important  town  for  the  Emperor,  of  which  Gebhard  now  took 
control.  No  sooner  had  Hermann  quitted  Italy  than  the 
ambassadors  of  the  Lombard  League  appeared  before  the  Pope, 
in  no  wise  minded  to  submit.  Gregory  despatched  an  express 
messenger  to  urge  the  Grand  Master's  return !  Hermann  of 
Salza's  reply  was  that  his  master's  orders  were  to  proceed>  and 
he  went  on  his  way  to  Germany.  The  period  allotted  by 
Frederick  II  had  meantime  run  out,  and  all  hope  of  peace  was 
wrecked  by  the  intransigeance  of  the  Lombards,  who  were  fully 
aware  how  dire  was  the  Pope's  need  of  them  and  took  liberties 
with  the  Curia  accordingly. 

Pope  Gregory  now  had  recourse  to  another  weapon  which 
had  served  him  at  the  time  of  Frederick's  first  excommunica 
tion.  Then  the  real  cause  of  friction,  the  delay  of  the  Crusade, 
was  pushed  into  the  background  and  Sicilian  politics  were  made 


4i8  TENSION  vi 

the  rock  of  offence.  Similarly  now  the  Pope  dropped  the 
Lombard  question.  He  unexpectedly  made  complaints  about 
the  conduct  of  Sicilian  officials,  about  Sicilian  taxes  on  churches 
and  clerics,  about  the  Saracen  colony  of  Lucera,  and  other 
kindred  topics  :  he  joined  battle  on  another  field.  The  com 
plaints  now  raised  bore  no  relation  to  the  burning  Lombard 
question  and,  right  or  wrong,  had  not  arisen  since  Frederick  had 
quitted  Sicily  in  complete  harmony  with  the  Pope  a  few  months 
ago.  As  if  nothing  had  been  on  the  tapis  for  a  long  time  past 
but  the  state  of  affairs  in  Sicily,  Pope  Gregory  closed  his  letter 
with  the  ominous  words  :  "  We  can  no  longer  lock  such  matters 
in  our  breast  without  injury  to  the  majesty  of  God,  without 
detriment  to  our  reputation  and  our  conscience." 

Ere  long  a  second  letter  followed.  This  time  it  was  the 
CruSade  which  had  to  serve  the  Pope's  turn.  Pope  Gregory 
suddenly  found  it  absolutely  essential  and  wrote  in  conclusion  : 
"  The  Church  cannot,  with  equanimity,  be  a  witness  of  any 
oppressive  measures  towards  the  Lombards,  who  have  trusted 
themselves  to  her  protection,  for  in  this  way  the  Crusade  is 
being  delayed.  ...  In  a  case  where  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer 
is  at  stake  the  Pope  cannot  be  a  respecter  of  persons.".  .  . 
This  was  the  flimsiest  of  pretexts.  When  the  Crusade  later  was 
in  progress,  and  it  seemed  that  the  result  might  strengthen  the 
Emperor,  Pope  Gregory  was  the  first  to  prevent  its  setting  forth. 

The  German  princes  were  solid  behind  Frederick,  and  this 
time  the  Pope  had  tried  their  patience  once  too  often.  In  a 
letter  of  unspeakable  bitterness  Frederick  goes  through  the 
Sicilian  complaints  point  by  point  and  seeks  to  refute  them. 
But  even  if,  in  his  absence,  irregularities  had  taken  place,  it 
was  not  possible  for  him  from  Germany  to  keep  the  eyes  of  a 
lynx  on  his  Sicilian  kingdom  and  make  himself  heard  there  in 
the  thunder  !  He  would  be  coming  soon  enough  to  Italy,  and 
would  then  be  ready  to  discuss  such  matters.  The  imperial 
reply  to  the  second  letter  stated  briefly  that  foreign  excursions 
were  excluded  until  peace  was  restored  within  the  Empire. 
This  cast  the  die  for  an  imperial  campaign  against  the  Lom 
bards. 

As  Frederick's  relations  with  the  Roman  Curia  grew  tenser 
and  more  doubtful  he  seemed  to  wish  visibly  to  demonstrate 


ST.  ELIZABETH  419 

once  more  the  essential  unity  of  Church  and  Empire,  Emperor 
and  Pope.  At  his  coronation  in  Aix  as  a  mere  boy  he  had  set 
the  seal  of  sanctity  on  his  German-Roman  kingdom  by  unex 
pectedly  taking  the  Cross  and  by  the  solemn  re-interment  of 
the  sainted  Charlemagne.  Now  that  he  was  about  to  leave 
Germany  he  closed  the  circle  with  a  kindred  ceremony.  He 
went  to  Marburg  to  exhume  and  re-inter  the  childlike  St. 
Elizabeth,  Landgravine  of  Thuringia. 


St.  Elizabeth,  the  chaste  and  beautiful  princess  of  the 
Wartburg,  is  still  remembered.  The  greatest  miracle  she 
wrought  was  to  combine  a  tender  love  for  husband  and  children 
with  a  life  devoted  to  the  poor  and  the  sick  ;  to  temper  dignity 
and  pride  of  race  with  gentleness  and  humility.  The  memory 
of  the  penitent  of  Marburg,  clad  in  the  robe  of  a  Brother  Minor, 
girt  with  a  cord,  flogging  herself,  is  forgotten  in  the  picture  of 
the  gracious  lady.  Elizabeth  was  a  daughter  of  the  King  of 
Hungary,  she  had  spent  her  childhood  at  the  Thuringian  court 
and  was,  at  an  early  age,  betrothed  to  the  Landgrave  Lewis. 
Later  centuries  related  miracles  of  her  childish  days.  The 
generous-hearted  girl  had  filled  a  basket  with  food  for  the  poor  ; 
some  one  reproved  her  severely  for  her  generosity,  and  lo ! 
beneath  its  covering  cloth  the  basket  was  full  of  fragrant  roses. 
When  Elizabeth  first  met  the  disciples  of  Francis  of  Assisi 
in  Eisenach  she  was  fifteen  years  old.  The  teaching  of  the 
Tuscan-Umbrian  saint  fell  on  well-prepared  soil.  His  demand 
for  chastity  and  humility,  and  above  all  for  poverty,  pointed 
the  path  which  the  princess  resolved  to  tread  when  presently 
she  found  herself  a  widow.  Landgrave  Lewis  had  always 
been  benevolently  tolerant  to  her  enthusiasms,  and  when 
he  fell  a  victim  to  the  plague  in  Brindisi  on  his  way  to  Frederick 
IFs  Crusade,  Elizabeth  ardently  desired  to  exchange  her  life 
as  a  princess  for  that  of  a  beggar  woman.  Her  confessor  was 
Conrad  of  Marburg,  the  same  who,  after  her  death,  developed 
into  the  nightmare-haunted  fanatic  of  the  Inquisition.  He 
persuaded  her  to  avoid  excess.  She  quitted  the  Wartburg, 
renounced  her  children,  and  built  herself  a  hut  of  wood  and 
mud,  as  St.  Francis  had  commanded  his  followers  to  do  ;  but 


420  RE-INTERMENT  vi 

she  retained  her  princely  rank  and  used  her  widow's  riches  to 
help  and  to  feed  the  poor  and  suffering.  She  housed  diseased 
and  leprous  children,  washed  their  wounds  and  cared  for  them, 
and  even  kissed  them,  overcoming  her  revulsion  with  a  smile. 
One  Good  Friday  in  an  ecstacy  she  was  granted  heavenly  visions. 
She  did  not  abandon  herself  to  visions,  however,  still  less  gave 
them  publicity  and  she  claimed  no  miracles  in  her  short  life  of 
twenty-four  years.  When  she  was  about  to  die,  and  lay  on  her 
pallet  in  an  intensity  of  joy,  people  said  that  the  sweetest  sounds 
of  angelic  music  were  heard  from  her  throat  though  her  lips 
were  tightly  closed.  The  very  day  after  her  burial  the  saint 
began  to  work  miracles,  and  people  came  from  far  to  secure 
scraps  of  her  garment,  of  her  hair  and  nails  as  relics.  Not  long 
afterwards  the  Pope  canonised  her  at  the  request  of  Land 
grave  Conrad  of  Thuringia,  who  himself  entered  the  Teutonic 
Order.  Kaiser  Frederick  came  to  Marburg  in  May  1236  to 
give  his  sainted  kinswoman  royal  burial. 

An  uncounted  multitude — people  spoke  of  twelve  hundred 
thousand  ! — had  streamed  into  Marburg  when  Frederick  II, 
in  the  presence  of  many  bishops  and  princes  and  especially 
knights  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  lifted  the  first  stone  from  the 
grave  of  the  young  saint.  Forthwith  from  the  sacred  body  oil 
began  to  flow,  which  the  Teutonic  knights  collected  and  dis 
tributed  to  churches  and  monasteries.  The  corpse  was  then 
enclosed  in  an  oaken  casket  overlaid  with  skilfully  wrought  gold, 
and  richly  adorned  with  silver  figures  and  antique  gems. 
Frederick  presented  the  saint  with  the  golden  beaker  from 
which  he  was  wont  to  drink,  and  crowned  the  head  of  the 
Landgravine  with  a  golden  crown,  thus  doing  homage  to  the 
saint  and  princess,  his  kinswoman.  The  foundation  stone  of 
the  Church  of  St.  Elizabeth  in  Marburg  was  laid  at  this  time  ; 
its  stained-glass  windows  represent  their  patron  saint  as  the 
daughter  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven,  receiving  a  crown  from 
the  Virgin  Mother,  while  St.  Francis  at  her  side  is  being 
crowned  by  the  Son  of  God  himself.  They  give  no  picture 
of  the  barefoot  servant  of  the  poor,  clad  in  white  flowing 
garments,  distributing  alms. 

Frederick's  interest  in  the  exhumation  of  any  chance  mendi 
cant  saint  would  have  been  scarcely  seemly.  People  seem  to 


1236  "  EXECUTION  OF  JUSTICE"  421 

have  hinted  this,  for  Frederick  defends  himself  against  the 
innuendo  that  his  homage  was  paid  less  to  the  saint  than  to 
the  princely  kinswoman.  The  two  things — he  wrote — are  not 
easy  to  dissociate  :  "  For  it  fills  us  with  joy  to  know  that  our 
Saviour,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was  a  shoot  of  King  David's  royal 
stem  ;  and  the  tables  of  the  Old  Testament  bear  witness  that 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  might  be  touched  only  by  the  hand 
of  the  nobly-born."  Thus  Frederick  expressed  himself  in  a 
letter  about  the  Marburg  ceremonies  to  the  Minister-General 
of  the  Franciscan  Order. 


Marburg  marked  the  close  of  this  German  period.  They 
were  days  of  solemn  festival,  happy  days  of  brilliance  and  of 
peace,  a  peace  which  lay  over  the  whole  of  Germany  and  over 
almost  all  the  lands  of  the  Roman  Empire.  An  atmosphere 
of  world  peace  prevailed  ;  the  chroniclers  report  an  over 
whelming  wine  harvest  and  a  mild  warm  winter ;  all  signs 
which  seemed  to  prove  that  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Emperor 
ofjustitia,  was  reigning.  It  might  well  seem  so,  for  Frederick 
had  always  succeeded  in  conquering  without  weapons  ;  all  the 
great  successes  that  had  raised  him  to  these  heights  had  been 
won  by  peaceful  means,  at  most  by  a  threatening  gesture. 
If  the  Lechfeld  this  summer  was  echoing  to  the  clash  of  arms 
as  the  warriors  assembled  round  their  Emperor  this  army  was 
to  bring  the  world  the  gift  of  peace.  The  Emperor  called  the 
coming  campaign  an  "  Execution  of  Justice,"  and  he  failed 
to  understand  how  Pope  Gregory  could  damn  with  so  ugly 
a  word  as  "  war  "  the  "  peace-restoring  intentions  "  of  the 
imperial  Judge.  The  peace  which  God  designed  to  fill  the 
world  under  the  Emperor  of  Justice  was  nigh  at  hand,  dis 
turbance  flickered  here  and  there  only  in  the  Lombard  corner. 
It  was  now  his  duty  to  bring  peace  to  this  quarter  also,  this  easily- 
excited,  bloodthirsty  region  which  had  brought  on  itself  the 
punishment  of  the  Judge  and  the  Avenger.  He  was  bringing 
peace  with  the  sword — but  only  because  the  Lombards  would 
not  have  it  otherwise. 

All  the  Emperor's  letters  at  this  time  are  full  of  similar 
statements  :  the  ten  or  twelve  towns  of  the  Lombard  League 


422  WAR  vi 

are  the  disturbers  of  the  peace,  and  the  task  has  been  assigned 
to  the  Emperor  by  God  to  compel  them  to  repose.  "  In  the 
eastern  world  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  the  inheritance  on 
his  mother's  side  of  Conrad,  our  most  well-beloved  son,  is, 
in  obedience  to  the  will  of  heaven,  steadfast  in  its  loyalty  to 
our  name  ;  and  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily  no  less,  the  glorious 
inheritance  of  our  mother's  race,  and  also  the  mighty  overlord- 
ship  of  Germania.  We  therefore  believe  that  the  Providence 
of  the  Redeemer  has  guided  our  steps  so  mightily  and  won- 
drously  to  this  one  end  alone,  that  we  should  bring  back  to  its 
allegiance  towards  our  illustrious  throne  that  centre  of  Italy 
which  is  on  all  sides  surrounded  by  our  strength,  and  that  we 
should  thus  restore  the  Empire's  unity."  The  conquest  of 
Lombardy,  that  centre  of  the  Empire,  has  been  set  him  as  a 
task  by  Providence,  and  God  has  directed  his  steps  towards  the 
goal.  "  We  believe  therefore  that  we  are  rendering  the  most 
welcome  service  to  the  living  God  when  we  think  the  more 
joyfully  on  the  peace  of  the  whole  Empire  as  we  more  clearly 
read  the  portents  which  indicate  the  heavenly  will/' 

It  is  rare  to  find  Frederick  thus  expounding  his  political 
actions.  This  one  instance  is  all  the  more  illuminating.  The 
punitive  campaign  against  the  Lombards  is  in  the  Judge's  eyes 
a  service  to  God,  and  happily  that  which  God  has  foreordained 
corresponds  remarkably  with  the  passionate  personal  impulse 
of  the  Emperor.  He  can  fulfil  the  divine  purpose  and  renew 
the  peace  of  the  peoples,  and  gratify  at  one  and  the  same  time 
his  ancient,  inborn  hatred  of  Milan.  He  writes  to  the  King  of 
France  :  "  No  sooner  had  we,  in  the  years  of  our  ripening 
adolescence,  in  the  glowing  power  of  mind  and  body  ascended 
the  highest  peaks  of  the  Roman  Empire  against  all  expectations 
of  men  and  by  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence  alone  .  .  .  than  all 
the  acuteness  of  our  mind  was  continually  directed  to  one  end 
...  to  avenge  the  injury  offered  (by  the  Milanese)  to  our  Father 
and  to  our  Grandfather,  and  to  trample  under  foot  the  offshoots 
of  abhorred  freedom,  already  carefully  cultivated  in  other  places 
also."  Such  hate  has  in  it  something  Providential,  something 
God-intended.  Everything  therefore  points  to  one  goal :  Provi 
dence,  the  world's  weal,  and  personal  impulse  :  peace  must  be 
imposed  on  the  Lombards. 


SYMPATHY  OF  THE  KINGS  423 

The  Lombard  war  against  heretics  and  rebels  becomes  no 
less  a  Holy  War  than  a  Crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  it  is 
again  inconceivable  to  the  Emperor  why  Pope  Gregory  should 
arrest  the  arm  of  imperial  justice.  The  completion  of  his 
purpose  is  the  first  pre-requisite  for  fighting  in  Syria  :  "  For 
on  our  side  we  have  frankly  no  other  aim  behind  our  procedure 
than  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  Crucified  One.  This,  however, 
cannot  occur  until  the  peoples  round  are  by  the  might  of 
Justice  reduced  to  peace."  So  he  wrote  to  King  Louis  of 
France,  and  on  other  occasions  he  resolutely  denied  that  he  was 
waging  war  for  his  own  advantage  :  "  When  once  the  discord 
in  the  bosom  of  this  Italy  is  triumphantly  brought  to  an  end,  to 
the  glory  of  God  and  of  the  Empire,  we  hope  to  be  able  to  lead 
forth  a  powerful  army  to  the  Holy  Land."  Had  the  Emperor 
here  other  things  in  mind  ?  Those  prophecies  perhaps  which 
had  often  been  interpreted  as  referring  to  him,  the  redeemer 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  ?  That  after  the  pacification  of  the 
West  the  Messiah-Emperor  should  return  to  the  East,  and  there 
in  the  Holy  of  Holies  lay  aside  the  Crown  of  all  the  World,  and 
hang  up  lance  and  shield  on  the  dry  tree  as  a  token  of  the  last 
Judgment  ?  Did  Frederick  hope  literally  to  fulfil  this  prophecy 
also  ? 

Frederick  took  extremely  good  care  not  expressly  to  say  this, 
nor  to  bind  himself  too  exacliy.  The  nearness  of  the  Last 
Day,  however,  and  the  Empire  of  Peace  are  implicit  in  all  he 
said.  It  was  a  question  of  peace  .  .  .  not  only  the  peace  of  the 
actual  Roman  Empire  but  in  this  fulness  of  time  the  peace  of  the 
whole  Christian  world.  The  Lombard  war,  therefore,  con 
cerned  the  world.  The  Emperor  invited  the  ambassadors 
of  all  the  kings  of  Europe  to  a  Lombard  Diet  in  Piacenza 
in  order,  in  common  with  them,  to  reduce  the  few  remaining 
disturbers  of  the  world's  peace — behind  whom,  though  not 
always  openly,  the  Pope  had  taken  his  stand.  Frederick 
had  struck  the  right  note.  Europe's  Christian  kings  now  rallied 
to  his  side,  though  they  did  not  send  their  armed  assistance  till 
his  success  in  the  war  was  assured.  The  King  of  England 
wrote  :  he  would  have  preferred  to  gird  on  his  sword  and  come 
himself.  At  the  same  time  he  spontaneously  sent  letters,  in 
which  he  expressed  himself  very  forcibly  about  the  Lombards' 


424  BELA  OF  HUNGARY  vi 

arrogance,  to  the  Pope  and  some  friends  of  his  who  were 
Cardinals :  they  really  ought  to  take  up  the  Emperor's  cause 
against  the  confederate  towns.  Even  more  emphatic  was  the 
document  which  King  Bela  of  Hungary  directed  to  the  Pope 
in  the  June  of  this  year  1236  :  he  had  heard  that  the  insolence 
of  the  Lombards  was  seeking  to  induce  the  Pope  on  the  pre 
text  of  necessary  service  for  the  cause  of  the  Holy  Land  to 
oppose  the  imperial  measures  for  strengthening  the  Empire. 
He  would  beg  the  Pope  not  to  give  ear  to  the  Lombards. 
Unquenchable  dissension  between  Empire  and  Papacy  would 
be  the  consequence.  He  added  that  such  an  encroachment  by 
the  Pope  on  the  secular  rights  of  the  princes  would  be  a 
warning  to  himself  and  to  the  other  princes  of  Europe. 

These  manly  words  of  the  Hungarian  King  show  how  warmly 
the  other  western  monarchs  felt  the  Emperor's  cause  to  be 
their  own,  and  show  also  how  high  Frederick's  reputation  stood 
amongst  them  ;  he  is  felt  to  be  by  far  the  first  amongst  them, 
not  in  virtue  only  of  his  imperial  crown  but  in  virtue  of  his 
actual  strength.  It  now  became  the  ultimate  political  goal  of 
the  Empire  to  cement  the  unity  of  the  Christian  kings  of  the 
west.  There  was  nothing  insincere  in  his  statement,  just  on 
the  eve  of  the  greatest  display  of  his  power  :  "  More  than  ever 
the  whole  world  lives  by  the  breath  of  the  Empire  ;  grows 
feeble  if  the  Empire  is  enfeebled,  and  rejoices  when  the 
Empire  thrives."  Again  :  "  The  Roman  Empire  must  strive 
the  more  earnestly  for  peace,  must  the  more  urgently  devote 
itself  to  establishing  justice  among  the  peoples,  because  it  stands 
before  all  the  governments  of  the  world,  as  before  a  mirror." 

Now  that  his  goal  is  an  Empire  of  Peace,  now  that  the  aurea 
aetas  beckons,  the  Emperor  feels  himself  more  than  ever  as 
Justice  incarnate,  and  uses  the  phrase  "  our  Justice  "  as  synony 
mous  with  "  our  illustrious  majesty."  He  is  about  to  arm 
"  his  Justice,"  and  the  Lombards  shall  see  his  face  which  he 
would  fain  have  shown  them  in  peace,  and  "  they  shall  not  be 
able  to  look  on  it  unmoved,  from  fear  before  Justitia"  Hitherto 
Justitia  has  been  the  organising  and  regulating  power  leading 
men  in  the  path  of  reason,  now  for  the  first  time  it  becomes 
the  punishing  and  avenging  force  that  works  for  world  peace 
and  perfect  world  order.  Another  ten  years  will  pass  and 


WOOING  ROMANS  4*5 

avenging  Justice,  filled  with  hate,  shall  rage  solely  for  its  own 
ends  through  the  length  of  Italy. 

Hopes  of  a  world  peace  and  the  conception  of  a  universal 
Roman  Empire  find  expression  at  this  time  in  yet  other 
contexts.  Frederick  writes  some  remarkable  letters  to  the 
populace  of  Rome.  These  are  all  full  of  the  belief  that  the 
fulness  of  time  is  at  hand  and  the  world  is  about  to  be  renewed. 
Renewal  would  mean  reconstruction  of  the  world  in  exactly 
the  state  in  which  it  stood  at  the  moment  of  the  Redemp 
tion  in  the  days  of  Augustus.  The  Messiah-Emperor  who  is 
expected  and  who  shall  set  up  an  Empire  of  Justice  must  show 
himself  the  revivifier  of  the  ancient  Roman  Empire,  the  re 
incarnation  of  Augustus,  Prince  of  Peace,  restoring  imperial 
Rome  to  her  old  position  in  the  world. 

As  early  as  Barbarossa's  day  the  Arch  Poet,  like  his  predeces 
sors,  had  sung  of  this  "  Renovatio  "  expected  from  Roman  Law 
and  from  his  Emperor  : 

Iterum  describitur  orbis  ab  Augusto, 

Redditur  res  publica  statui  vetusto, 

Pax  terras  ingreditur  habitu  vemisto, 

Et  iam  non  opprimitur  iustus  ab  iniusto. 

All  the  preconceptions  which  lent  a  tangible  reality  to  the 
expected  Messianic  King  :  the  tone  and  manner  of  the  ancient 
Caesars  and  of  the  Augusti  were  adopted  by  Frederick  when 
writing  his  magniloquent  letters  to  the  Romans  to  shake  into 
wakefulness  these  people  "  all  too  content  with  the  shadow  of  a 
great  name,"  "  to  arouse  this  later  posterity  to  scale  once  more 
the  peaks  of  their  ancient  greatness."  The  Emperor's  words 
fell  resonantly  on  the  Romans'  ears  :  between  domestic  cares 
and  enervating  self-indulgence  they  have  forgotten  their  mighty 
past,  "  Behold,  the  arrogance  of  Milan  has  set  up  a  throne  in 
Northern  Italy,  and  not  content  to  be  Rome's  equal,  she  has 
challenged  the  Roman  Empire.  Behold  these  folk  who  were 
bound  of  old  to  pay  you  tribute — so  men  say — fling  insults  at 
you  in  the  tribute's  stead.  How  sore  unlike  the  deeds  of  your 
forefathers  and  the  virtues  of  the  ancients  !  .  .  .  that  one  town 
alone  should  dare  to  bid  defiance  to  the  Empire  of  Rome.  In 
olden  days  the  Romans  were  not  content  to  subdue  their  neigh 
bours  only,  they  conquered  all  provinces,  they  possessed  far 


426  "ARMA  ET  LEGES  "  vi 

distant  Spain,  they  laid  fair  Carthage  in  ruins  !  "  The  con 
trast  between  the  old  Rome  and  the  new,  he  continued,  amazed 
all  who  had  heard  the  fame  of  Rome  or  had  read  the  monu 
ments  of  the  past  and  looked  now  upon  the  present.  And 
thinking  of  the  Roman  communes  the  Emperor  writes  :  "  Ye 
reply  perhaps  that  Kings  and  Caesars  accomplished  these 
great  deeds.  Behold,  ye  also  have  a  King  and  Caesar  who  has 
offered  his  person  for  the  greater  glory  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
who  has  opened  his  treasuries  and  has  not  spared  his  travail ! 
Ye  have  a  king  who  with  his  constant  calling  stirs  you  from 
your  slumbers.  .  .  ." 

In  these  ways  the  Emperor  sought  to  arouse  all  the  mental 
powers  of  the  time,  that  the  world  might  see  what  was  at  stake 
when  he  drew  the  sword  against  the  Lombards.  They  were 
opposing  the  clearly-manifested  aims  of  God  :  a  world  peace 
and  an  Empire  of  Justitia.  Frederick  was,  therefore,  justified 
in  proclaiming  that  the  Lombard  rebels  were  in  revolt,  not  only 
against  him,  the  Emperor,  but  directly  against  God,  against 
the  Catholic  faith,  against  Nature.  He  himself  spoke  very 
cautiously  and  only  of  his  imperial  peace  mission,  adding  but 
one  phrase  :  "  The  glory  of  the  Emperor's  sceptre  shines  out 
from  Rome  across  the  darkness  not  in  temporal  affairs  alone" 
His  friends  in  Italy,  however,  lauded  the  coming  "  Deliverer." 
Piero  della  Vigna  addressed  the  people  of  Piacenza,  announced 
the  Emperor's  impending  arrival  and,  not  wholly  by  accident, 
nor  yet  wholly  by  design,  he  took  as  his  text  the  prophecy  of 
Isaiah  which  recurs  in  the  Gospel  for  Christmas  Day  :  "  The 
people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen  a  great  light :  they 
that  dwell  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath 
the  light  shined." 


Such  were  the  signs  and  tokens  under  which  Frederick  II 
metamorphosed  himself  from  Law  Giver  into  Leader  of 
Armies  and  prepared  men's  minds  for  his  appearance  in  the 
new  part,  fulfilling  the  formula  of  the  Caesars  :  arma  et  leges. 
He  had  called  the  approaching  campaign  an  "  Execution  of 
Justice,"  and  this  conception  made  serious  strategy  impossible, 
for  the  armies  were  only  an  instrument  of  the  Judge  to  punish 


MEDIEVAL  STRATEGY  427 

law-breakers  and  rebels.  Frederick  had  no  large  continuous 
stretch  of  territory  to  conquer.  Like  all  medieval  rulers  he 
lacked  space,  and  he  lacked  foes  against  whom  to  carry  out  cam 
paigns  in  the  style  of  Alexander,  Hannibal  or  Julius  Caesar. 
The  Middle  Ages  saw  on  occasion  kings  and  princes  at  the  head 
of  their  armies,  but — except  perhaps  in  Byzantium — knew  no 
generals,  no  strategists  on  a  large  scale.  Any  brave  man  could 
head  an  army,  a  cardinal  or  justiciar  as  well  as  a  king,  and  none 
could  be  a  good  general  or  a  bad  general,  because  there  was  no 
art  of  war.  An  art  of  war  began  slowly  to  be  evolved  when  the 
days  of  the  condottieri  came  and  the  professional  armies.  The 
endless  fighting  of  the  preceding  ten  years  had  developed 
Frederick's  army  till  it  was  showing  indications  of  becoming  a 
professional  one  :  the  troops  serving  as  feudal  levies  became 
gradually  subsidiary  to  the  soldiers  recruited  and  paid  directly 
by  the  Emperor.  Frederick  showed  the  adaptability  of  all 
great  men  by  developing  into  something  of  a  condottiere  him 
self.  There  was  no  opportunity,  however,  for  great  strategic 
combinations,  whether  on  his  side  or  his  opponents'.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  every  battle  was  a  more  or  less  accidental  im 
promptu  affair,  needing  an  immediate  decision.  Frederick 
used  to  the  full  the  advantages  of  speed,  surprise,  cunning  and 
superior  strength.  He  could,  however,  rarely  induce  the  enemy 
to  risk  pitched  battles  in  which  they  were  always  defeated. 
The  siege  technique  of  the  day  was  so  imperfect  that  when  they 
ensconced  themselves  behind  the  stout  walls  of  their  fortresses 
they  could  only  be  starved  out,  or  very  occasionally  the  place 
could  be  carried  by  storm.  These  sieges  dragged  on  for  many 
months  and  were  as  far  as  possible  avoided  by  Frederick,  for 
the  cost  of  maintaining  the  besieging  forces  was  enormous. 
Compared  with  the  vast  conceptions  of  universal  Empire  and 
universal  Papacy  the  armies  of  the  time  seem  ludicrously 
small.  It  is  the  characteristic  of  the  period  descending  from 
the  universal  and  the  spiritual  to  the  material,  that  a  very  minute 
concrete  object  might  be  charged  with  a  great  idea,  and  a  most 
trifling  deed  with  overwhelming  spiritual  significance.  It  is 
probable  that  Frederick  II  never  assembled  more  than  twelve 
thousand,  at  the  utmost  fifteen  thousand  men,  "  under  the 
victorious  eagles  of  the  Imperium  Romanum."  Even  this 


428  BABENBERG  vi 

force  will  have  consisted  of  a  heterogeneous  assembly  of  the 
most  disparate  components  :  German,  Italian,  Sicilian  feudal 
knights  fighting  alongside  Saracens,  infantry  levies  from  the 
loyal  towns  beside  mercenary  knights,  and  archers  of  the  most 
miscellaneous  origin.  The  Emperor  was  probably  superior  to 
the  enemy  in  cavalry,  but  the  confederate  armies  as  a  whole 
were  probably  equal  to  his,  and  possibly  even  larger.  In  open 
battle  the  cavalry  invariably  won  the  day,  but  in  siege  operations 
the  heavily  armoured  knights  were  valueless. 

The  army  which  the  Emperor  took  with  him  for  the  campaign 
of  many  months  in  Lombardy  was  unwontedly  small,  even  for 
those  times.  He  had  had  to  detach  a  strong  German  army 
against  the  Duke  of  Austria.  The  "  Quarrelsome  "  Babenberg 
had  not  put  in  an  appearance  at  any  of  the  appointed  Diets ; 
he  had  imprisoned  imperial  ambassadors  ;  had  indulged  in 
provocative  acts  against  all  his  neighbour  princes,  and,  finally, 
had  refused  obedience  to  the  Emperor.  He  had  now  been 
placed  under  the  ban  of  the  Empire,  and  the  King  of  Bohemia 
with  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  were  detailed  to  enforce  the  decree. 
They  were  able  to  overcome  him  within  a  few  months  and  drive 
him  back  into  his  last  fortresses.  The  Emperor  had  told  off 
several  of  his  German  divisions  for  this  subsidiary  campaign  so 
that  at  least  he  need  not  weaken  his  Italian  troops. 

The  whole  campaign  of  1236  which  only  lasted  a  few  months 
was,  therefore,  only  a  preliminary  canter  to  clear  the  air  in 
Lombardy.  Frederick  was  anxious  to  have  certainty  about  the 
Pope's  attitude.  He,  therefore,  begged  that  since  the  war  was 
against  heretics,  and  since  there  was  peace  between  Empire  and 
Papacy,  the  Pope  should  take  a  hand,  by  spiritual  proceedings 
against  the  rebels.  It  was  not  too  much  to  ask  the  Curia  to 
support  this  punitive  campaign.  Gregory  IX  sent  no  reply. 
Taxed  with  his  silence  he  later  wrote  that  he  must  have  failed 
to  answer  "  out  of  a  kind  of  dreamy  forgetfulness,  as  it  were." 
Instead,  he  sent  the  Emperor  a  new  list  of  complaints  about 
the  Sicilian  government  and  scarcely  alluded  to  Lombardy. 
Finally,  when  for  a  moment  the  Emperor's  military  progress 
seemed  to  have  come  to  a  standstill,  the  Pope  suddenly  un 
masked,  abruptly  shattering  the  dream  of  unity  :  "  Thou 
—he  wrote—"  the  necks  of  kings  and  princes  bent  under 


PAPAL  ARROGANCE  429 

the  knee  of  the  priest,  and  Christian  Emperors  must  subject 
their  actions  not  to  the  Roman  Pontiff  alone  ;  they  have  not 
even  the  right  to  rank  him  above  another  priest."  This  is  the 
famous,  the  notorious  phrase  of  priestly  omnipotence,  which 
Gregory  was  the  first  to  formulate,  and  which  he  launched, 
somewhat  prematurely,  against  Frederick  II.  He  far  exceeded 
the  claims  made  by  his  predecessors,  for  he  subordinated  the 
Emperor  to  every  petty  cleric,  and  in  matters  other  than 
spiritual.  The  verdict  of  the  Apostolic  See  was  supreme 
throughout  the  world,  declared  Pope  Gregory,  which  was  the 
equivalent  of  saying  that  Frederick  must  submit  without  pro 
test  to  the  Pope's  decree  in  the  Lombardy  affair,  although  this 
quarrel  between  the  Emperor  and  the  rebels  had  in  the  last 
resort  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  Pope.  Pope  Gregory 
derived  the  right  of  the  Papal  See  to  decide  all  questions, 
especially  Italian  questions,  from  that  famous  forgery,  the  so- 
called  "  Donation  of  Constantine."  He  elaborated  :  "  Con- 
stantine,  Sole  and  Only  Ruler  over  all  regions  of  the  World,  in 
agreement  with  the  Senate  and  People  of  Rome,  who  possessed 
authority  not  only  over  the  city  but  over  the  whole  Roman 
Empire,  had  found  it  seemly  that  the  Vicegerent  of  the  Prince 
of  the  Apostles  who  held  sway  over  the  priesthood  and  over  the 
souls  of  men,  should  also  possess  supreme  power  over  the  affairs 
and  persons  of  the  entire  world."  And  Constantine  had  be 
lieved  that  he,  to  whom  the  conduct  of  heavenly  things  had  been 
on  earth  entrusted  by  the  Lord,  must  also  lead  all  earthly 
affairs  on  the  bridle  of  justice.  The  symbols  and  the  sceptre 
of  the  Empire  were,  therefore,  handed  over  by  Constantine  to 
the  Pope  for  all  time  ;  the  city  of  Rome  with  the  entire  -duchy, 
and  also  the  Empire,  for  ever  placed  under  his  jurisdiction. 
Constantine  had  placed  Italy  completely  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Apostolic  Chair,  and  sought  himself  a  new  residence  in  Greece. 
For  it  seemed  to  him  unseemly  Jo  possess  power  as  earthly 
Emperor  where  the  Head  of  the  Christian  faith  sat  on  the 
throne  on  which  the  heavenly  Emperor  had  placed  him.  With 
out  in  the  least  impairing  the  quality  of  its  judicial  supremacy 
the  Apostolic  See  had  transferred  the  Empire  to  the  Germans, 
to  Charlemagne,  and  had  granted  him  the  power  of  the  sword 
by  his  coronation  and  anointing. 


430  TWO    FORTRESSES    TAKEN  vi 

We  need  not  here  further  pursue  the  papal  doctrine.  For  the 
moment  it  served  Pope  Gregory  to  claim  that  his  award  in  all 
Italian  disputes  was  final  and  binding  even  against  the  Emperor. 
Frederick  found  it  superfluous  to  answer  this  letter.  If  he 
had  had  any  doubts  before,  he  now  knew  where  he  was.  What 
need  of  words  !  No  doctrine  of  the  judicial  supremacy  of  Pope 
or  Emperor,  no  theories  of  papal  overlordship  in  Italy  or  in  the 
Empire  could  argue  away  the  fact  that  the  Lombards  in  con 
spiring  with  King  Henry  had  been  guilty  of  high  treason.  The 
negotiations  which  Hermann  of  Salza  was  conducting  with 
the  Pope  might  drag  on  to  the  accompaniment  of  military 
campaigns.  In  this  affair  only  deeds  could  decide. 


In  August  1236  Frederick  had  reached  the  neighbourhood 
of  Verona.  Gebhard  of  Arnstein  had  been  sent  on  in  advance 
with  five  hundred  mercenary  knights  and  one  hundred  mer 
cenary  archers  to  invest  the  town,  and  Frederick  himself 
brought  a  further  thousand  knights  and  some  infantry.  Con 
siderable  additional  forces  were  to  join  him  in  Italy,  in  particular 
the  levies  from  the  loyal  towns.  The  important  thing  was  to 
enlarge  in  every  direction  the  exit  of  the  pass.  Eccelino  was 
to  work  eastwards  towards  the  Treviso  March  :  against  Padua, 
Vicenza  and  Treviso,  which  were  already  being  supported  by 
Venice.  The  Emperor  himself  turned  westward  into  Lom- 
bardy  proper.  Mantua  had  declared  for  the  League,  so  com 
munication  with  Cremona,  Frederick's  most  valuable  north 
Italian  base,  was  cut.  The  town  levies  from  Cremona,  Parma, 
Reggio  and  Modena  could  not  join  Frederick  because  a  hostile 
Confederate  army  was  doing  its  utmost  to  prevent  the  junction 
of  the  two  forces.  By  making  a  northern  detour,  and  invading 
the  hostile  territory  of  Brescia,  the  troops  from  the  imperial 
towns  succeeded  in  effecting  a  junction  with  the  Emperor, 
which  was  accounted  a  great  success  for  his  cause.  The  most 
important  task  was  now  to  open  the  road  from  Verona  to 
Cremona.  The  two  minor  fortresses  of  Mercaria  and  Mosio 
were  held  by  Lombard  garrisons.  These  were  taken.  An 
effort  was  then  made  to  tempt  the  Mantuans  into  the  open 
by  a  three-day  siege,  but  when  they  refused  to  come  out  the 


CAPTURE  OF  VICENZA  431 

march  to  Cremona  was  continued.     One  goal  had  now  been 
reached,  and  the  Verona  base  secured. 

The  Emperor  spent  nearly  the  whole  of  October  in  Cremona, 
waiting.  Negotiations  with  Pope  and  Lombards  were  in  pro 
gress,  and  the  Diet  was  to  be  held  in  Cremona  which  had  first 
been  summoned  for  Piacenza.  Piacenza  was  no  longer  eligible, 
for  a  papal  "  action  of  peace  and  mediation  "  had  succeeded  in 
detaching  the  town  from  Frederick  and  inducing  it  to  join  the 
League.  The  town  was  lost  to  the  Empire  for  the  next  ten 
years.  On  the  other  hand,  the  town  of  Bergamo  threw  over 
the  League  and  joined  Frederick.  Lombard  politics  were 
always  kaleidoscopic. 

The  Diet  was  destined  not  to  be  held  at  all.    At  the  end 
of  October  the  Emperor  suddenly  quitted  Cremona.    Eccelino 
on  the  Adige  in  the  Legnano  region  was  holding  a  hostile  army 
in  check,  composed  of  combined  troops  from  Vicenza,  Treviso^ 
Padua  and  Mantua.    He  saw  the  Verona  passes  threatened 
again,  and  called  Frederick  to  the  eastern  scene  of  war.    The 
Emperor  hastened  to  his  assistance  in  a  forced  march  that  has 
become  famous,  probably  intending  to  take  the  confederate 
troops  in  the  rear  by  approaching  from  the  north  via  San  Boni 
facio  and  Ajrcole.     Accompanied  only  by  his  heavy  cavalrj 
Frederick  quitted  Cremona  on  the  evening  of  the  3Oth  October 
and  in  a  march  of  one  day  and  two  nights  covered  the  whole 
distance  from  Cremona  to  San  Bonifacio,  east  of  Verona,  close 
on  seventy  miles,  at  full  speed/*  like  a  swallow  cutting  the  air.' 
On  the  morning  of  November  ist  he  reached  San  Bonifacio 
halted  "  as  long  as  it  takes  a  man  to  eat  a  piece  of  bread  in  haste  ' 
and  hastened  on  at  once,  not  southwards  to  Eccelino  but  stil 
east  to  attack  Vicenza.    The  position  had  suddenly  altered 
When  the  confederate  army  heard  of  the  Emperor's  unexpectec 
approach  it  dissolved  at  once,  for  the  towns  themselves  seemec 
threatened.    The  Vicenzans  led  the  van,  abandoning  tents  anc 
baggage  in  hasty  flight  for  home,  since  Vicenza  lay  more  ex 
posed  to  attack  than  any  of  the  other  towns.    They  came  to< 
late.    A  few  hours  took  Frederick  the  additional  eighteen  anc 
a  half  miles  to  Vicenza.    He  arrived  on  the  afternoon  of  tha 
same  first  of  November,  stormed  the  town  which  had  refusec 
to  surrender,  and  gave  it  over  to  plunder.    Eccelino  meantime 


432  SUCCESS  OF  CAMPAIGN  vi 

came  up,  the  town  was  handed  over  to  his  care  and  put  in 
immediate  charge  of  an  imperial  captain. 

The  story  runs  that  Frederick  II  gave  his  friend  Eccelino 
a  brief  demonstration  of  how  he  would  like  the  govern 
ment  of  the  town  to  be  conducted.  The  two  were  walking 
up  and  down  in  the  bishop's  garden  in  Vicenza  when  the 
Emperor  drew  his  poniard  and  said  :  "I  will  show  thee 
how  thou  mayest  without  fail  maintain  thy  rule,"  and  thereupon 
he  beheaded  with  his  dagger  all  the  longer  blades  of  grass. 
Eccelino  understood.  "  I  shall  not  fail  to  note  the  Emperor's 
instructions,"  was  his  reply.  Before  long  he  began  by  a  reign 
of  terror  to  build  up  Italy's  first  seigniory. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  taking  of  Vicenza  was  the 
surrender  of  Salinguerra,  with  his  capital  of  Ferrara  and  the 
surrender  of  the  district  of  Camino.  The  other  towns  of 
the  East  were  so  shaken  that  Eccelino  and  Gebhard  of  Arnstein 
were  able,  in  the  course  of  the  winter,  to  capture  Padua,  after 
which  Treviso  under  the  Margrave  of  Este  also  surrendered. 
The  whole  of  Northern  Italy,  east  of  a  line  running  from 
Verona  to  Ferrara,  had  thus  been  won  for  the  Emperor. 
Eccelino  under  the  Emperor's  protection  now  organised  the 
whole  territory  into  one  kingdom  or  "Tyranny":  which 
Venice  felt  to  be  a  grave  menace  to  her.  The  brief  campaign 
of  1236  had  not  brought  a  final  decision,  but  had  at  least 
achieved  notable  successes  :  above  all  the  exit  from  the  Alps 
and  the  approach  to  Cremona  were  secured. 

We  have  already  anticipated  the  chief  events  in  Austria. 
The  overthrow  of  the  Babenberg  had  only  been  temporary, 
for  Duke  Frederick  had  been  able  to  maintain  himself  at 
certain  fortified  places.  Nevertheless,  peace  had  been  for  the 
moment  restored.  The  Emperor  lingered  for  weeks  in  Vienna ; 
declared  the  Babenberg  deposed,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
those  private  Hohenstaufen  possessions  already  mentioned. 
He  granted  a  great  privilege  to  Vienna  which  was  henceforth 
to  be  a  direct  appanage  of  the  Empire.  He  held  a  Diet 
there  at  which  once  more  a  large  number  of  German  princes 
were  assembled.  Nothing  bears  more  eloquent  testimony  to 
Frederick's  increased  prestige  and  power  than  the  fact  that 
without  any  special  concessions  the  German  princes  at  once 


1236  SUCCESSION  ASSURED  433 

consented  to  choose  the  nine-year  old  Conrad,  King  of  Jerusa 
lem,  as  Frederick's  successor;  and,  more,  as  "King  of  the 
Romans  and  future  Emperor,"  thus  satisfying  the  ancient 
ambition  of  the  House  of  Hohenstaufen.  The  electoral  deci 
sion  of  the  princes  is  couched  in  haughty  language.  They 
fell  in  with  the  Hohenstaufen  tradition,  and  felt  themselves  in 
fact  the  successors  and  heirs  of  Roman  Senators.  "  In  the 
beginning  of  Rome's  history,  after  the  memorable  defeat  of  the 
Trojans  and  the  destruction  of  their  noble  city,  the  highest 
power  and  the  electoral  franchise  for  the  Empire  rested  with 
the  senators  of  the  new  race  of  the  new  town.  Yet  with  the 
gradual  ever-increasing  growth  of  the  Empire  and  its  ever 
growing  strength,  the  height  of  such  great  fortune  could 
not  remain  for  ever  with  one  single  city — though  she  were  the 
royallest  among  them  all.  After  the  Empire's  power  had  pil 
grimaged  through  the  most  distant  regions  in  a  certain  circular 
wandering  it  came  to  rest  at  last  for  ever  among  Germania's 
princes — in  a  manner  not  less  beneficial  than  inevitable — that 
from  amongst  them,  who  secure  the  safety  and  prosperity  of 
the  Empire,  the  ruler  of  the  Empire  should  be  chosen." 

The  royal  succession  was  thus  assured  in  Germany  and  in 
the  Roman  Empire.  The  Emperor,  however,  abstained  from 
crowning  King  Conrad  IV.  His  experience  with  King  Henry, 
in  whose  stead  Conrad  was  now  chosen,  "  as  David  for  Saul," 
had  demonstrated  that  too  great  independence  on  the  part  of 
the  German  King  was  dangerous.  King  Conrad,  or  the  Re 
gents  appointed  for  him,  were,  therefore,  to  rule  simply  as 
delegates  of  the  Emperor.  The  first  regent  was  Archbishop 
Sigfrid  of  Mainz,  and,  later,  Henry  Raspe  of  Thuringia.  In 
spring  Frederick  moved  from  Vienna  to  Speyer  to  assemble 
other  princes  there  for  Whitsuntide  and  permit  them  to  confirm 
the  King's  election.  The  Emperor's  time  was  mainly  occupied 
in  extensive  preparations  for  continuing  the  Lombard  war,  and 
in  August  he  was  again  encamped  on  the  Lechfeld  with  fresh 
troops.  A  brief  letter  informed  the  Romans  of  his  proceedings. 
No  matter  which  concerned  the  Romans  should  be  concealed 
from  them  (he  wrote),  since  every  undertaking  of  the  Emperor's 
was  specially  planned  on  their  behalf.  He  was  now  striking  his 
tents  on  the  fields  of  Augsburg  before  again  seeking  Latium's 


434  MUSTERING  OF  FORCES  vi 

borders  with  the  assembled  fighting  forces  of  Germany  under 
the  fame-crowned  banner  of  the  imperial  eagles. 

When  marching  at  the  head  of  his  armies  Frederick  felt  him 
self  more  than  ever  one  of  the  Caesars.  He  had  opened  the 
Lombard  campaign  by  seizing  one  of  the  Roman  eagles  in  his 
hand.  This  year,  even  more  than  last,  he  hoped  the  genius 
of  Rome  would  accompany  him  on  his  campaign. 

At  the  request  of  the  German  Grand  Master  negotiations 
with  the  Pope  were  again  opened  this  year.  Hermann  of  Salza 
had  a  difficult  task.  At  a  big  Chapter  in  Marburg,  where  over 
a  hundred  of  the  Teutonic  knights  were  assembled,  the  brothers 
of  the  Order  showed  themselves  quite  as  impatient  as  the 
German  princes  at  the  thought  that  their  Master  was  treating, 
and  for  ever  treating,  instead  of  striking.  The  Emperor  was 
not  optimistic  about  these  fresh  efforts,  though,  in  fact,  Hermann 
of  Salza  accomplished  on  this  occasion  more  than  ever  before. 
Frederick's  successes  in  the  March  of  Treviso  had  intimidated 
both  Lombards  and  Pope.  Gregory  even  withdrew  from  Lom- 
bardy  his  legate,  Cardinal  Jacob  of  Palestrina,  whom  the  Emperor 
cordially  disliked,  and  replaced  him  by  two  more  congenial 
cardinals.  The  Lombards  also  were  becoming  more  amenable, 
and  perhaps  a  treaty  might  have  been  arranged  if  the  Venetians 
had  not  torpedoed  the  peace  negotiations.  A  Lombardy  united 
under  the  Emperor,  an  Eccelino  at  their  back  in  the  March  of 
Treviso  :  they  must  have  felt  that  this  would  be  a  perpetual 
menace.  After  Piacenza  deserted  the  Emperor's  cause  a 
Venetian  had  been  put  in  as  podesta.  On  instructions  from 
the  Doge  he  made  the  Piacenzans  swear  that  they  would  never 
accept  an  imperial  podesta.  This  was  one  of  the  Emperor's 
most  important  conditions,  and  the  negotiations  fell  through. 

In  the  middle  of  September  1237  the  Emperor  arrived  in 
Verona  with  two  thousand  German  knights.  Gebhard  of  Arn- 
stein  joined  him  soon  after.  He  had  hastened  on  ahead  and 
called  up  the  Tuscan  levies  in  the  greatest  haste,  and  joined 
forces  with  the  Sicilian  army  consisting  of  seven  thousand 
Saracen  archers  and  the  Apulian  knights.  A  few  days  later 
the  levies  from  the  loyal  towns  came  in,  led  by  Cremona,  and 
the  auxiliaries  of  Eccelino.  The  chivalry  of  individual  towns 
like  Bergamo  and  Tortona  mustered  also,  and  other  volunteers 


FALL  OF  MANTUA  435 

poured  in,  so  that  the  Emperor  ultimately  had  at  his  disposal 
an  army  of  some  twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  men.  Success 
speedily  followed.  The  fortress  of  Redondesco,  west  of 
Mantua,  was  conquered  in  September,  followed  by  two  other 
castles  in  the  Mantuan  region,  so  that  Mantua  itself  surrendered 
on  the  first  of  October,  Preliminary  negotiations  with  the 
podesta,  Count  Richard  of  San  Bonifacio,  had  paved  the  way 
for  the  surrender  of  this  important  town. 


The  Emperor  now  turned  north  into  Brescian  territory. 
Montechiaro,  strongly  fortified  and  strongly  garrisoned,  was 
taken  by  stratagem  after  a  siege  of  fourteen  days.    The  forti 
fications  were  destroyed  and  the  fifteen  hundred  foot-soldiers 
and  twenty  knights  of  the  Lombard  League  captured  here 
were  taken  to  Cremona.    The  road  to  Brescia  was  now  open. 
But  a  Lombard  army  about  ten  thousand  strong  lay  close 
before  the  walls,  and  the  problem  was  to  attack  the  enemy 
forces  as  far  as  possible  in  the  open.    The  Lombards  skilfully 
evaded  a  battle,  which  was  a  simple  matter  as  long  as  they  could 
use  Brescia  as  their  base.    The  Emperor  tried  to  lure  them  off. 
He  marched  through  the  Brescia  territory  southwards,  laying 
waste,  captured  four  castles  and  compelled  the  Lombards  to 
follow,  for  they  feared  an  attack  on  one  of  the  other  defenceless 
towns  if  they  lost  touch  with  the  imperial  army.    The  story  of 
Vicenza  might  well  have  been  repeated.    By  the  middle  of 
November  the  two  armies  finally  lay  face  to  face  near  Ponte- 
vico,  separated  by  a  marshy  little  river  which  there  flows  into 
the  Oglio.     Operations  came  to  a  standstill.    The  Emperor 
could  not  allow  his  heavy  cavalry  to  attack  across  the  marshy 
land,  the  Lombards  accepted  no  challenge.    November  was 
almost  over.    Negotiations  had  been  unsuccessful — in  spite 
of  considerable  concessions  by  the  towns.    There  seemed  no 
hope  of  dealing  a  decisive  blow  at  the  Lombards  before  the 
year  was  out. 

Then  Frederick  II  had  recourse  to  stratagem.  The  Oglio, 
a  small  river  that  traverses  Lombardy  from  north  to  south  and 
flows  into  the  left  bank  of  the  Po,  lay  behind  his  position,  which 
probably  filled  the  angle  made  by  the  marshy  little  tributary 


436  CORTENUOVA  vi 

and  the  Oglio.  On  the  further  side  of  the  Oglio  lay  Cremona, 
three  or  four  hours'  march  away.  The  Emperor  made  a  feint 
of  setting  off  to  take  up  his  winter  quarters  in  the  town,  a  move 
which  the  advanced  season  made  entirely  plausible.  While  the 
watching  Lombards  remained,  covered  by  their  marshes,  the 
Emperor  crossed  the  Oglio  by  several  bridges,  broke  these 
behind  him,  as  the  enemy  could  observe,  and  sent  in  fact  a 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CORTENUOVA 

large  part  of  his  army,  including  the  town  infantries  and  the 
baggage,  southwards  to  Cremona,  He  himself,  however,  now 
separated  from  the  Lombards  by  the  Oglio,  marched  off  north 
wards  with  his  striking  force  :  the  entire  cavalry  and  his  light 
Saracen  archers.  He  followed  the  Oglio  upstream.  The 
Lombards,  certainly  the  Milanese,  were  bound  to  cross  the 
river  somewhere,  and  the  Emperor  intended  to  intercept  them. 
For  two  days  he  lay  in  vain  in  ambush  at  Soncino  ;  at  last  news 
came.  The  Lombards,  feeling  perfectly  secure,  had  moved  off 
further  north,  crossed  the  river  and  were  encamped  at  Pon- 
toglio.  Frederick  immediately  struck  camp,  left  Soncino  on 
the  morning  of  November  27th,  and  his  vanguard  of  German 
knights  fell  on  the  amazed  Lombards  that  same  afternoon. 
The  Lombards  had  only  just  time  to  rally  round  the  carroccio, 
the  standard-bearing  chariot  of  Milan,  which  had  been  set  up 
at  Cortenuova.  Meanwhile  Frederick's  main  force,  marching 
up  in  several  columns,  one  of  which  the  Emperor  himself  com- 


1237  "CARROCCIO"  OF  MILAN  437 

inanded,  soon  compelled  a  decision.  Darkness  set  in  early 
owing  to  the  season,  and  there  was  not  time  to  take  Cor- 
tenuova  by  daylight.  The  Lombards  abandoned  the  place 
in  the  night  and  fled,  leaving  the  Milanese  carroccio  behind. 
The  pursuit  began  at  dawn  ;  the  Lombards  lost  an  immense 
number  of  prisoners :  3,000  foot  soldiers  and  over  1,000  knights, 
amongst  whom  was  thepodesta  of  Milan,  Pietro  Tiepolo,  son  of 
the  Doge  of  Venice.  The  standard  itself,  which  the  Milanese 
had  sought  to  save,  got  lost  in  the  flight  and  was  found  by 
the  victors  and  made  a  great  trophy  in  the  conquered  camp. 
Cortenuova,  one  of  the  few  great  battles  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
was  a  complete  victory  for  the  imperial  arms  and  a  glorious 
climax  to  Frederick's  empire  in  Germany.  It  belongs  entirely 
to  his  German  period.  For  the  last  time  an  Emperor's  Italian 
campaign,  voted  and  supported  by  the  German  princes  took 
the  form  of  an  imperial  war.  Coming  from  the  North,  Frede 
rick,  like  his  forefathers,  had  once  again  crossed  the  Alps 
and  conquered  in  the  Lombard  plain.  The  victory  was  won 
mainly  by  the  German  knights,  but  was  immediately  trans 
lated  by  Frederick  into  Roman  phraseology  to  give  the  success 
its  spiritual  value  :  "  Germanic  victory  "  would  have  created 
a  false  impression,  "  German  victory  "  would  have  as  yet  had 
no  meaning.  The  victory  was  therefore  turned  to  the  glory 
of  Roman  arms,  it  was  won  in  the  name  of  imperial  Rome  and 
of  her  Caesars  as  Frederick  truthfully  wrote  to  the  people  of 
Rome.  Even  during  the  battle  the  manes  of  the  Roman  Impera- 
tors  had  accompanied  the  Hohenstaufen,  yea,  even  victorious 
Roma  herself,  when  he  gave  his  warriors  their  new  battle-cry, 
their  new  slogan  of  victory  : 

MILES  ROMA  !      MILES  IMPERATOR  ! 

And  in  order  to  lose  nothing  of  the  glamour  and  glory  of 
ancient  deeds  of  arms  the  Emperor  followed  up  the  victory, 
which  he  had  won  with  the  battle-cry  of  Rome,  by  a  triumph 
which  deliberately  and  intentionally  revived  prehistoric  and 
forgotten  ceremonies.  People  said  that  he  was  planning 
to  elevate  Cremona  to  the  position  of  a  second  Rome.  When 
Frederick  a  few  days  later  entered  Cremona  with  his  immense 
booty,  his  numerous  prisoners  and  his  victorious  army, 


438  TRIUMPH  vi 

he  did  so  after  the  fashion  of  the  Roman  Emperors  cele 
brating  their  triumphs  :  the  captured  enemy  commanders 
followed  in  fetters  ;  Pietro  Tiepolo,  son  of  the  Doge  of  Venice, 
sometime  podesta  of  Milan,  was  bound  upon  his  back  to 
the  lowered  mast  of  the  Milanese  carroccio.  This  noblest  of 
trophies  was  drawn  by  an  elephant  through  the  streets  of 
Cremona  to  the  joyous  cheering  of  the  people.  The  Emperor's 
yellow  banner  with  the  Roman  eagles  floated  aloft,  while  from 
a  wooden  tower  on  the  elephant's  back  trumpeters  made 
known  the  triumph  of  the  new  Divus  Caesar  Augustus.  The 
Emperor  himself  told  the  Romans  that  his  triumph  was  a 
reversion  to  the  original  Roman  form. 

The  intoxication  of  this  exotic,  pagan-Roman,  assuredly 
most  unchristian,  celebration  of  victory,  marked  a  turning 
point  in  Frederick's  life.  All  the  magnificent  Roman  titles 
which  he,  like  his  predecessors  bore,  were  justified.  The 
empty  formula,  meaninglessly  used,  "  Imperator  Invictus," 
suddenly  meant  once  more  what  it  had  meant  of  old.  With 
out  the  need  of  transcendental  interpretation  he  was  now  in 
the  naked  literal  sense  : 

FELIX  VICTOR  AC  TRIUMPHATOR. 

The  shades  of  Rome,  of  the  Romans  and  their  Caesars,  had 
tasted  blood  :  they  began  to  stir  again  and  to  be  visible  in  the 
flesh  once  more ;  a  genuine  breath  of  antiquity  revivified  by 
life  itself. 


VII.  CAESAR  AND  ROME 

The  magic  of  Rome Renovatio  imperil Identifica 
tion  with  Caesar Spolia  opima  from  Cortenuova 

Lust  for  personal  glorification Frederick's  wooing  of 

the  Romans Cardinals  and  Pope Progress  in  Lom- 

bardy Diets   of  Pavia  and   Turin,    1238 Siege   of 

Brescia  ;     Calamandrinus Coalition   against  Frederick 

Enzio Imperial    Court    at    Padua Frederick's 

appeal  to  the  Cardinals Frederick  excommunicated 

Death  of  Hermann  of  Salza Reorganisation  and  defence 

of  Sicily Destruction  of  Benevento  (1241) Re 
organisation  of  Italy War  of  manifestos  and  propa 
ganda Brother  Elias Brother  Jordan  and  the  Pope 

Christmas   in   Pisa Frederick   invades  the   Papal 

States Letter  to  Jesi At   the   gates   of  Rome 

Gregory  turns  the  multitude 


VII.  CAESAR  AND  ROME 

ROME,  golden,  eternal,  mighty,  glorious,  world-conquering 

Rome,  the  Mistress,  the  City  of  Cities,  the  fortunate,  the  royal, 

the  holy  city THE  CITY,  seat  of  empire  and  of  fame  .  . . ! 

No  adjective  was  too  august  to  be  used  in  antiquity  and  in  the 
Middle  Ages  to  do  honour  to  the  still-radiant  glory  of  the  one 
capital  of  the  world.  Through  the  centuries  the  magic  worked 
on,  at  first  the  magic  of  glory,  later  the  magic  of  glorious  ruin. 
The  name  of  Rome  and  the  possession  of  Rome,  much  striven 
after,  was  one  with  the  rule  over  the  Roman  world.  If  it  was 
desired  to  honour  the  mighty,  Rome  was  shown  offering  them 
homage  on  bended  knee.  Each  of  the  Emperors  in  turn  showed 
honour  to  Rome  by  making  a  pilgrimage  to  the  town  in  which 
the  crown  of  the  world  was  given  away. 

Since  the  decline  of  Rome  the  wish  to  renew  her  ancient 
glory  had  never  died  out.  The  Roman  Empire  of  the  Germans 
was  itself  the  idea  of  the  Renovatio,  and  the  inscription  of 
a  Carolingian  seal  read  :  Renovatio  Imperil. 

The  Emperors  were  the  first  and  the  most  powerful  of  those 
who  sought  to  achieve  the  renewal  of  Rome,  but  two  rivals  soon 
arose — first  the  Popes,  then  the  Romans.  The  Caesar-Popes 
of  the  Middle  Ages  felt  themselves  to  be  the  successors  of  the 
Roman  Divi,  just  as  much  as  did  the  Emperors,  for  the  Dona 
tion  of  Constantine  had  entitled  them  to  the  imperial  insignia  : 
pallium  and  purple,  sceptre  and  standard  and  tiara ;  had 
endowed  them  further  with  the  imperial  palace  of  the  Lateran, 
and  the  rule  over  Rome,  Italy,  even  the  whole  Empire.  The 
world-rule  of  the  imperial  Papacy  was  to  renew  Rome's  ancient 
greatness  and  power.  It  is  a  straight  line  from  Gregory  VII, 
the  founder  of  the  imperial  Papacy,  through  Innocent  III,  the 
verus  imperator  and  protector  of  the  Byzantine-Latin  Empire  ; 
through  Boniface  VIII,  who  called  himself  Caesar  and  Im 
perator,  down  to  that  Prince  and  General,  the  last  of  the 
imperial  Popes  who  chose  Julius  II  as  his  name.  The  Romans 

44i 


442  "S.  P.  Q.  R."  vn 

were  slower  to  re-discover  themselves,  but  a  new  era  began 
even  for  them  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  was 
closely  connected  with  the  doctrines  of  Roman  law  and  the 
Lombard  conception  of  freedom.  For  a  long  time  to  come 
they  dated  their  documents  from  the  year  1144,  in  which  the 
Senate  and  Equestrian  Order  were  renewed  and  the  Roman 
respublica  ruled  once  again  through  a  sacer  senatus  from  the 
Capitol,  reminding  the  first  Hohenstaufen,  Conrad  III,  that 
the  Caesars  of  old  ruled  the  world  only  in  virtue  of  the  Senate 
and  Roman  people.  Senatus  Populusque  Romanus  was  now 
about  to  rule  the  world  again. 

In  spite  of  these  two  rivals  the  dream  of  a  Rome  renewed 
remained  alive  in  the  German  Empire  until  the  fall  of  the 
Hohenstaufens,  now  weaker,  now  stronger,  now  ebbing,  now 
surging  up  as  in  the  days  of  the  third  Otto  and  of  Barbarossa. 
The  changefulness  of  the  Roman  idea  is  a  testimony  to  its  life : 
each  of  the  Emperors  who  took  it  up  gave  it  the  impress  of 
his  time.  Certain  elements  in  it  remained  constant :  from 
the  very  beginning  this  idea  of  rebirth  involved  rivalry  with 
Byzantium,  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  Roman  law 
had  inculcated  the  subjection  of  all  peoples  under  one  Roman 
Caesar.  Its  resumption  under  Barbarossa  set  a  goal  for  the 
Roman  dream  :  to  establish  once  again  the  Roman  world  of 
the  days  before  Constantine  in  its  whole  undivided  compre 
hensiveness.  The  Crusades  enlarged  the  world  indefinitely 
towards  the  East.  Finally,  Henry  VI,  as  heir  of  Robert  Guiscard, 
of  whom  they  wrote  "  it  might  have  been  his  to  renew  the 
ancient  Empire  of  the  Romans,"  had  planned  to  give  the  coup 
de grdce  to  languishing  Byzantium.  The  West-Roman  German 
Emperor  was  to  be  sole  monarch  of  the  world.  Such  was  his 
will.  Such  was  granted,  in  fact,  not  to  him  but  to  his  son. 


No  Angelus  and  no  Comnenus  challenged  the  rivalry  of 
Frederick  IL  Before  his  rule  began  Byzantium  had  been 
conquered  by  the  Crusaders.  Titular  Emperors,  vassals  of 
the  Pope,  reigned  on  a  Latin  Bosporus.  What  was  left  of  the 
Empire  of  Nicaea  was  ruled  by  an  impotent  Basileus  who  had 
been  given  to  wife  a  natural  daughter  of  the  Hohenstaufen 


CULT  OF  THE  CAESARS  443 

Emperor.  Frederick  II  was  unquestionably  the  last  emperor 
of  the  ancient  Roman  Empire,  the  one  and  only  head  of  the 
Christian  world.  If  he  took  up  the  thought  of  a  Renewal  of 
Rome — and  how  could  he  fail  to  take  it  up  ! — he  must  give  it 
a  new  meaning  against  internal  rivals,  for  outer  rivals  there 
were  none. 

The  triumph  of  Jerusalem  had  exalted  the  Hohenstaufen  to 
be  the  Son  of  God  :  the  bloodier  victory  of  Cortenuova  made 
him  also  a  Son  of  Earth.  The  former  was  followed  by  the 
formation  of  the  Sicilian  monarchy  :  the  celebration  of  the 
latter  by  Frederick's  Renovatio  Imperil.  A  secondary  conse 
quence  was  that  Frederick  II  as  triumphator  legibus  et  armis 
stepped  into  the  circle  of  the  Caesars,  attained  the  rank  of  a 
World  Monarch  though  not  that  of  a  conqueror  of  distant 
worlds.  In  the  signs  manifested  by  Providence  Frederick  had 
read  his  task  :  "  After  the  pacification  of  the  surrounding 
peoples  to  bring  the  centre  of  Italy  into  the  service  of  the 
Empire."  This  call  to  subdue  "  the  province  of  provinces  " 
accorded  marvellously  with  the  personal  and  private  wish  of 
the  Emperor  himself  :  "  From  the  very  beginning  of  our  days, 
since  the  illustrious  nature  of  the  Caesars  with  happy  violence 
overcame  our  royal  disposition,  ere  yet  a  higher  fortune  had 
fallen  to  our  lot,  our  heart  has  ever  burned  with  the  desire  to 
reinstate  in  the  position  of  their  ancient  dignity  the  Founder 
of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Foundress,  Rome  herself,  .  .  . 
and  this  unquenched  desire  was  fused  with  the  dignity  of 
Empire  which  ensued." 

Retrospectively  we  see  the  boy  and  king,  then  the  Emperor, 
enthroned  in  Palermo,  in  Aix,  in  Worms,  in  Mainz  and  in 
Jerusalem,  straining  from  childhood  towards  the  one  great 
goal :  by  his  own  deeds  to  beget  anew  the  ancient  greatness  of 
the  Caesars  and  of  Rome.  Impelled  by  this  passionate  desire 
Frederick  II  journeyed  through  his  realms  with  pride  :  "  David 
in  Syria  ;  Guiscard  in  Sicily  ;  Charles  in  Germany,"  as  Henry 
of  Avranches  phrased  it.  From  each  of  these  countries  the 
Hohenstaufen  took  something,  but  each  of  these  roles  he 
exalted  by  the  inspiration  and  impulse  of  a  Caesar,  and  each 
he  brought  to  ripeness  and  fulfilment.  Others  had  prepared 
the  ground,  others  had  sown  and  watered  ;  the  fulness  of 


444  ROMA  CAPUT  MUNDI  vii 

time  had  come,  and  Frederick  was  chosen  to  reap  the  harvest 
of  centuries.  The  form  of  one  great  Ruler  was  to  be  conjured 
up  anew  less  by  magic  than  by  force  :  the  flattering  poet  had 
sung  "  and  Caesar  art  thou  in  Rome  !  "  It  seemed  that  the 
victory  of  Cortenuova  might  perhaps  make  this  promise 
good  :  here  was  the  key  to  Italy,  the  land  of  the  Caesars,  not 
the  provinces  alone .  Sicilia — Germania — Syria — Frederick 
wrote  to  the  Romans  that  he  hoped  to  see  again  the  borders 
of  Latium  and  to  be  Caesar  in  the  home  of  the  Caesars  :  that 
would  be  for  himself  and  for  the  world  the  ultimate  fulfil 
ment. 

ROMA  CAPCJT  MUNDI  !  This  age-old  phrase  graced  like  a 
challenge  a  seal  of  Frederick  II's.  If  this  rune  was  as  tangibly 
and  literally  fulfilled  as  the  ancient  claim  of  the  Emperors 
to  be  the  successors  of  David  ;  if  Frederick  II  was  Maximus 
Imperator  of  Italy  and  with  the  Pontifex,  a  Caesar  again  in 
Rome  ;  if  Rome  was,  in  no  spiritual,  transcendental  sense,  but 
in  sober  actual  fact,  the  capital  of  Italy  and  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  then  the  Empire  of  the  Caesars,  so  oft  invoked  in 
manifesto,  had  become  tangible  once  more  and  the  Empire  had 
been  perfected  as  befitted  the  time.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the 
time  that  as  a  matter  of  course  : 

Roma  caput  mundi  frenas  regit  orbis  rotundi. 

An  Emperor  celebrating  a  triumph  in  Rome  itself  would,  in 
some  mystic  way,  become  possessed  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
West.  Rome  was  the  key  to  the  ultimate  Empire  of  Peace : 
He  who  should  renew  the  Augustan  Age  on  earth  must  reign 
in  Rome  and  judge  the  peoples  of  the  earth  according  to  Roman 
Law.  People  expected  the  world's  salvation  to  flow  from 
Roman  Law,  from  one  Justice  in  all  countries  :  legibus  antiquis 
totus  reparabitur  orbis.  Such  had  long  been  the  hope — the 
Arch-Poet  had  sung  the  same  for  his  master  Barbarossa.  More 
recently  another  poet  had  promised  Kaiser  Frederick  that  a 
collection  of  imperial  laws  would  make  him  orbis  terrarum 
salutifer.  The  idea  of  renewal  was  doubtless  at  all  times 
quickened  by  such  speculations  about  salvation  ;  but  now  they 
are  all  finally  engulfed  in  the  belief  in  the  imminence  of  the 
Last  Day,  which  so  completely  dominated  the  time.  Everything 


CONDENSATION  445 

was  straining  back  to  the  same  origins,  the  origins  of  Church 
and  Empire:  the  expected  Prince  of  Peace,  the  Justtiw-Imperator 
and  the  Renewer  of  Caesar  Augustus  were  ultimately,  not 
radically  different. 

"  His  heart  beat  with  no  other  purpose  than  to  be  Lord  and 
Master  of  the  Whole  World  .  .  .",  Brunetto  Latini  declared 
later,  and  other  contemporaries  exchanged  similar  whispers. 
The  world-dominion  of  which  Frederick  II  dreamed,  however, 
contained  no  threat  to  neighbouring  rulers.  "  At  the  height  of 
imperial  fortune ,  content  with  our  own  lot,  fulfilled  with  supreme 
happiness,  we  envy  none.  .  .  ."  The  Roman  world-dominion 
of  this  Hohenstaufen  was  not  to  be  won  on  the  battlefields 
of  Gaul  or  Spain,  of  Egypt  or  of  Poland,  but  in  Rome. 
Frederick  II  concentrated  all  his  plans  on  Rome.  The  modern 
mind  expects  organic  growth  to  proceed  centrifugally,  its  ever- 
widening  circles  stretching  further  and  further  into  actual  space. 
In  contrast  this  last  Emperor  in  his  ascent  to  the  dominion  of 
the  world  drew  his  centripetal  circles  ever  narrower  and  closer. 
His  task  was  to  penetrate  to  the  innermost  recesses  of  the 
Empire,  as  his  office  entitled  him  to  do,  and  condense  all  the 
widely-diffused  spiritual  influences  of  the  Empire  at  its  very 
heart.  In  proportion  as  his  power  increased  he  must,  therefore, 
avoid  the  danger  of  dissipating  his  strength  afar,  and  must  con 
centrate  it  all  at  the  central  point.  The  ultimate  result  was  an 
intolerable  strain  which,  lacking  an  outward  safety  valve,  grew 
in  the  centre  more  and  more  intense.  Frederick  II  provides 
the  only  historical  example  of  a  World  Ruler  aiming  not  at 
expansion  but  at  condensation. 

The  distant  spaces  of  empire  were  closed  to  Frederick  II  by 
Cortenuova.  Often  as  he  sought  to  escape  again  from  Italy 
he  never  left  the  peninsula.  Italy  consumed  him.  Cortenuova 
was  also  the  beginning  of  his  Caesarship,  of  his  metamorphosis 
from  the  Law-Giver  of  great  dominions  into  the  Leader  of  tiny 
armies,  a  reflection  of  his  personal  pilgrimage  from  the  spiritual 
spaces  of  a  world-empire  back  to  the  core  of  Italy,  "  the  pro 
vince  of  provinces/'  the  City  of  Cities.  During  the  very  battle 
itself  and  in  the  triumph  after  victory  Frederick  was  mindful 
of  the  customs  of  ancient  Rome  and  of  the  Caesars.  His  titles 
now  ring  truer,  more  sonorous  :  Victor,  Felix,  Triumphator. 


446  CONNOTATIONS  OF  CAESAR  vn 

They  are  no  longer  mere  symbols  of  an  idea  ;  they  are  the 
sober  statement  of  its  realisation.  The  imperial  Chancery  now 
multiplied  the  Caesarean  titles.  It  was  a  venerable  custom 
to  speak  of  the  Empire  of  the  Caesars.  Now  unceasingly  the 
swords  of  Caesar  are  victorious  ;  glorious  and  all-conquering 
are  Caesar's  standards,  and  the  Roman  Eagles,  and  Caesar's 
army.  This  flood  of  resonant  adjectives  exceeds  all  custom, 
as  does  also  the  "  unquenchable  will  "  by  very  deed  to  re 
awaken  to  new  life  the  Roman  Caesars.  It  is  idle  to  ask  whether 
Cortenuova  was  a  victory  comparable  to  those  of  ancient  days. 
People  wanted  to  see  Caesar.  And  the  living  history — deed 
and  gesture  and  spectacle — was  interpreted  in  the  ancient 
Roman  mood  and  brought  more  of  the  genuine  Caesarean 
atmosphere  into  the  time  than  scores  of  learned  treatises 
could  have  done. 

It  was  remarkable  the  connotations  that  "  Caesar  "  brought : 
fame,  glory,  triumph,  of  course  ;  but  also,  rooted  perhaps  in 
Roman  law  :  vengeance  as  function  of  the  Caesars  ;  their  hate, 
their  savagery,  their  lion's  wrath,  their  force  and  passion,  their 
unbending  will.  Delia  Vigna  in  his  victory  manifesto  pro 
claims  that  "  streams  of  blood  dyed  the  swords  of  Caesar,"  and 
tells  how  "  Caesar  charged  boldly  at  the  head  of  his  armies,".  .  . 
Again,  the  Emperor  will  show  the  world  "  how  Augustus  pro 
ceeds  against  the  foe  and  Caesar  works  his  vengeance  with  the 
steel."  "Augustus,  the  Avenger/'  a  brilliant  figure,  wrathful, 
terror-inspiring,  which  Frederick  showed  the  foe  and  which 
remained  vivid  and  little-changed  throughout  the  Renaissance. 


Earlier  Emperors  had  been  freely  enough  compared  to  the 
Caesars,  it  is  true.  Frederick  II,  however,  now  began  in  quite 
a  new  strain  to  measure  himself  against  their  individual  quali-  > 
ties.  "  You  may  turn  over  and  search  through  the  history  of 
the  Caesars,  starred  with  deeds  of  incomparable  greatness, 
described  in  ancient  chronicles  and  annals,  you  may  scan  the 
acts  of  individual  Emperors,  but  the  most  diligent  seeker  will 
not  find  a  gentle  generosity  comparable  to  ours  wherewith 
God  hath  inspired  us,"  thus  Frederick  wrote  to  all  the  world 
when  he  released  a  deeply-hated  Cardinal  from  imperial  im- 


CAESAR  RE-INCARNATE  447 

prisonment :  convinced  like  many  another  despot  of  his 
own  overflowing  benevolence.  In  the  celebrated  mourning 
letter  on  the  death  of  the  discrowned  King  Henry,  David  and 
Caesar,  the  Biblical  and  the  Roman  prototypes,  must  justify 
the  mourning  father's  tears  :  "  Neither  the  first  are  we,  nor 
shall  we  be  the  last  to  suffer  injury  from  sons  who  have  done 
ill,  and  none  the  less  to  weep  upon  their  grave.  David 
mourned  three  days  for  Absalom,  his  first-born ;  and  that 
illustrious  Julius,  the  first  Caesar,  stinted  neither  duty  nor 
the  tears  of  fatherly  affection  over  the  ashes  of  his  son-in-law 
Pompey,  who  had  sought  to  compass  the  ruin  and  to  take 
the  life  of  his  wife's  father."  This  is  a  new  way  to  envisage 
the  past :  the  great  figures  live  again  when  the  man  in  action 
is  called  up  behind  the  high-resounding  name. 

The  picture  for  which  Frederick  II  posed  and  which  the 
imperial  Chancery  painted  was  quickly  apprehended  near 
and  far.  The  times  were  ripe,  and  ready  to  see  the  Emperor 
under  the  symbols  of  the  Roman  Caesars,  though,  in  fact,  the 
statuesque  and  empty  Roman  of  their  dreams  was  as  far  removed 
from  Frederick's  living  Caesar-incarnation  as  classicism  from 
Napoleon.  But  the  shades  had  tasted  blood  again.  The 
Emperor  took  rank  in  the  Caesars*  heroic  company.  Poets, 
chroniclers  and  writers  began  to  compare  Frederick  with  Caesar 
and  with  Augustus  and  to  seek  resemblances  in  individual 
episodes.  A  poet  expressly  recalls  the  victor  in  civil  war,  and 
apostrophises  Frederick  thus  :  "  Greater  than  Julius,  thou, 
when  the  rebellious  people  challenge  thee  to  battle."  They 
quote  Lucan  to  compare  Frederick's  treatment  of  his  soldiers 
with  Caesar's.  An  historian  in  Florence  not  long  after  writes  : 
"  From  the  first  Imperator,  Julius  Caesar,  called  in  the  be 
ginning  Gaius  Julius,  to  the  mighty  Lord,  the  all- wise  Frederick 
II,  whom  Merlin  and  the  Sibyls  had  foretold.  .  .  ."  All  the 
adjectives  and  all  the  superlatives  which  all  the  carefully  re 
capitulated  ancient  Emperors  had  borne  were  heaped  upon 
the  Staufen. 

The  Emperor's  relation  to  Piero  della  Vigna  is  compared 
with  that  of  Augustus  to  Vergil,  of  Theodoric  to  Cassiodorus, 
and  on  a  verse  of  Vergil  is  based  the  eulogy  which  runs : 
"  Jointly  with  Julius,  Caesar  guides  the  Empire."  The  poet, 


448  "SPOLIA  OPIMA"  vn 

Orfinus  of  Lodi,  taking  the  name  of  Caesar  for  his  title,  rattles 
out  in  threadbare  phrase  endless  strophes  of  the  type  : 

Nullus  in  mundo  Caesare  grandior.  .  . 
Nullus  sub  sole  Caesare  fortior  .  .  . 

If  it  was  possible  for  Frederick  II  to  pose  as  Caesar  amidst 
the  fragments  of  the  ancient  world  and  in  the  new  intellectual 
world  that  was  awakening,  it  was  much  more  possible  in  rela 
tion  to  Rome  herself  and  to  the  Romans  who,  like  the  Emperor, 
were  jealous  for  the  revival  of  their  ancient  greatness. 
Frederick  II  wrote  once  that  the  Goddess  Fortuna  hailed 
Caesar  more  joyously  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome  than  in 
any  other  place.  The  victory  of  the  imperial,  the  Roman, 
arms  at  Cortenuova  brought  Rome  within  nearer  reach,  and 
Rome  promised  the  Triumphator  a  triumph  of  a  quality 
Cremona  could  not  give.  Frederick  II  could  strike  a  fuller 
note  in  celebrating  Caesarism  to  the  Romans,  the  music  of  his 
fame  and  theirs  could  ring  more  clear  and  true.  The  moment 
had  not  yet  quite  come  to  bring  Caesar  back  to  Rome. 
Frederick,  however,  could  anticipate  a  little,  could  convey  a 
harbinger  of  future  glory,  could  transfer  some  reflection  of  his 
triumph  to  Rome,  the  home  of  imperial  triumphs.  To  give 
richness  and  reality  to  the  gesture  of  his  ancient  Roman  triumph 
he  sent,  soon  after  the  victory,  to  the  Senate  and  People  of 
Rome,  the  Milanese  carroccio,  the  standard-bearing  chariot, 
with  banners,  and  standards  and  trumpets,  as  the  spolia  opima 
which  victorious  Caesar,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient 
Emperors,  laid  at  the  feet  of  Rome.  A  solemn  and  magni 
loquent  letter  accompanied  the  trophies  :  "  Nature  and  all- 
powerful  Reason  whose  commands  kings  must  obey,  make  it 
our  duty  in  the  days  of  our  victory  to  exalt  the  fame  of  the 
city  which  our  forefathers  enhanced  by  the  glory  of  triumphs, 
and  humbly,  in  not  unworthy  phrase,  we  acknowledge  our  duty 
in  this  matter.  Look  ye,  if  the  triumph  be  traced  back  to  the 
inevitable  nature  of  its  origin,  we  could  not  exalt  our  imperial 
glory  without  exalting  first  the  honour  of  the  city  whom  we  of 
old  recognised  as  the  fountain  head  of  our  power.  Our  wishes 
would  verily  be  far  removed  from  Reason  if  we,  illumined  by 
the  radiance  of  the  Caesars,  were  to  tolerate  the  Romans'  being 


STANDARD  OF  MILAN  449 

left  without  a  share  in  the  rejoicings  over  a  Roman  victory.  .  .  . 
If  we  were  to  rob  you  of  the  fruits  of  a  venture  which  was 
conducted  in  your  name,  when  we  conquered  the  rebels  of  the 
Roman  Empire  to  the  battle-cry  of  the  Roman  name  ...  if  we 
failed  to  bring  home  to  the  Royal  City  the  fame  and  glory  of 
our  exploits,  that  city  which  sent  us  forth  to  Germany  to  scale 
the  heights  of  Empire,  as  a  mother  sends  her  son.  We  ascribe 
to  your  renown  whatever,  under  favourable  auspices,  we  have 
subsequently  achieved,  we  turn  again  in  the  fame  of  our  most 
glorious  success  to  the  city  which  as  a  boy  we  quitted  with  the 
anxiety  born  of  an  unknown  future. 

"  Thus  we  recall  the  Caesars  of  old  to  whom  the  Senate 
and  people  of  Rome  awarded  triumph  and  laurel  for  deeds  of 
arms  performed  under  victorious  standards,  preparing  from 
of  old  the  paths  according  to  your  wishes  by  the  present 
illustrious  example  which  we  give  :  for  we  send  herewith  after 
the  victory  over  Milan,  assuredly  the  Head  of  the  Confederation 
of  Italy,  we  send  to  you  the  standard-bearing  chariot  of  that 
commune,  as  booty  of  the  vanquished  enemy  and  prize  of 
victory,  and  for  you  a  pledge  of  our  valorous  deeds  and  of  our 
glory,  in  the  intention  of  safely  accomplishing  all  that  remains, 
when  oncewe  see  peace  restored  in  Italy,  the  seat  of  our  Roman 
Empire. 

"  Receive  therefore  with  gratitude,  O  Quirites,  the  victory 
of  your  Imperator  !  The  fairest  hopes  may  smile  on  you,  for 
dearly  as  we  love  to  follow  the  old  ceremonies,  yet  more  eagerly 
do  we  aim  at  renewing  the  ancient  nobility  of  the  City.  .  .  ." 

Frederick  II  intended  by  triumphal  ceremonies  and  by  his 
example  to  re-awaken  in  modern  Rome  the  ancient  Roman 
spirit,  as  we  also  learn  from  the  verses  "  of  Caesar  Augustus 
the  Just  "  which  accompanied  the  triumphal  gift  : 

"  And  mayest  thou  thus,  O  City,  be  mindful  of  earlier  triumphs 
Destined  aforetime  for  thee  by  the  kings,  the  leaders  in  battle." 

The  City  of  Cities,  battening  still  on  its  ancient  renown,  re 
sponded  to  the  mood  of  the  new  Caesar.  The  Romans  led  in 
solemn  procession  the  captured  chariot,  which  to  the  shame  of 
Milan  had  been  dragged  for  a  spectacle  through  the  awe-struck 


450  VICTORY  MANIFESTO  vn 

towns  of  Italy,  drawn  by  a  team  of  mules  instead  of  its  own 
white  oxen.  According  to  the  Senate's  instructions  the  booty 
was  escorted  to  the  Capitol  amidst  the  rejoicings  of  the  people. 
There  the  chariot  was  mounted  on  five  marble  pillars.  Then 
a  relief  was  carved  in  white  marble  depicting  this  token  of 
victory,  with  an  inscription  which  sang  in  many  distichs  the 
fame  of  the  Emperor  and  his  love  of  Rome  which  had  prompted 
him  to  send  his  trophies  to  the  City. 


This  whole  episode  marks  a  new  feature  of  the  time,  not  only 
of  Frederick  himself:  the  ancient  Roman  triumph  already 
heralds  the  Renaissance,  and  no  less  the  lust  for  trionfi,  for 
laurels,  for  personal  fame,  for  the  immortalising  of  the  hero. 
Frederick  II  had  already  celebrated  a  triumph  in  Jerusalem, 
the  fountain  head  of  his  Christian  kingdom,  but  that  Eastern 
triumph  had  been  offered  to  God  (not  to  the  Church,  who  was 
angry).  It  had  been  a  mystical  Gloria  in  Christo>  "  accom 
plished  more  by  miracle  than  valour."  The  new  triumph  of 
arms  glorified  only  the  Roman  Imperator,  Caesar,  the  man, 
as  Victor. 

In  vain  did  Piero  della  Vigna,  in  the  proclamation  intended 
for  the  Pope  and  for  the  Christian  monarchs,  seek  to  lift  the 
victory  into  the  realm  of  the  miraculous  :  the  triumph  on  the 
Capitol — which  Christians  believed  to  be  the  seat  of  heathen 
demons — the  celebration  of  the  victory  itself,  which  lacked  all 
Christian  consecration,  subserved  no  longer  the  eternal  glory 
of  God  but  the  everlasting  fame  of  a  mortal,  who,  it  is  true, 
bore  himself  almost  as  a  demi-god.  But  the  glory  of  man 
grows  pale ;  henceforth  the  thirst  for  fame  grew  stronger  in 
Frederick  and  ever  stronger.  "  That  the  might  of  Augustus 
may  not  lack  occasion  for  fresh  triumph ! "  he  writes  once 
during  these  fighting  years.  For  his  subjects  the  fighting  was 
to  bring  the  end  of  their  burdens,  "  for  ourselves  the  highest 
victory  .  .  ."  ;  for  his  subjects  victory  was  to  bring  desired 
repose, "  for  ourselves  the  wreath  of  the  battle."  For  the  "  fame 
and  praise"  of  his  name  Frederick  at  this  time  contem 
plated  restoring  the  tunnel  of  the  Emperor  Claudius  by  which 
he  had  drained  the  Fucine  Lake.  "  For  eternal  and  ever- 


ALLIANCE  WITH  ROMANS  451 

lasting  memory  "  he  had  a  statue  of  himself  carved  in  stone,  a 
figure  in  the  round  standing  free,  to  ornament  the  gate  of  the 
bridge  at  Capua  ;  reliefs  all  round  celebrated  the  Emperor's 
victories  and  gave  the  whole  the  character  of  a  Porta  Trium- 
phalis.  To  attach  so  much  importance  to  the  perishable  body, 
so  shamelessly  to  do  it  homage,  was  unheard  of  in  the  Middle 
Ages. 

This  Caesar-like  gesture  was  no  doubt  the  Emperor's  per 
sonal  caprice  and  carried  its  own  meaning,  but  a  statesman's 
most  private  act  is  not  without  its  political  purpose.  Bar- 
barossa,  the  first  German  Emperor  after  an  interval  of  many 
years  to  intervene  effectively  in  Italian  affairs,  found  himself 
obliged  sonorously  to  reassert  his  dignity  as  Caesar  with  the 
Roman  law  behind  him,  for  the  German  feudal  kingship  with 
its  armies  which  had  sufficed  the  Ottos  and  the  Salians  no  longer 
bore  his  weight  in  Italy.  What  had  been  true  of  Italy  was  truer 
still  of  Rome.  A  Cardinal  writing  in  late  Hohenstaufen  times 
maintained  that  he  who  seeks  to  rule  the  Romans  must  show 
them  :  et  gestus  magnificos  et  verba  tonantia  et  facta  terribilia. 
The  Romans  had  felt  this  craving  for  a  century  or  more,  since 
they  re-awakened  to  self-consciousness  :  this  lust  for  great 
hearted  gestures  and  words  of  thunder  and  awe-inspiring  deeds 
was  heightened  by  Frederick*  The  Romans  were  for  him  the 
people  of  his  imperial  capital  at  whose  feet  he  hoped  to  lay 
once  more  the  empire  of  the  world.  Besides  :  he  needed  the 
Romans  in  his  duel  with  the  Pope. 


The  year  1236  brought  the  whole  Italian-Roman  question 
to  a  head.  And  in  that  year  begins  Frederick's  wooing  of  the 
Romans  with  rhythmical  high-sounding  phrase.  He  had  long 
since  secured  a  strong  party  for  himself  in  Rome,  so  that  he 
was  certain  of  finding  some  response.  Probably  during  his  first 
quarrel  with  the  Pope  about  the  Crusade,  when  Roffredo  of 
Benevento  had  to  read  his  explanatory  manifesto  from  the 
Capitol,  his  first  political  alliances  with  the  Romans  had  been 
established.  Frederick  had  gathered  about  him  the  most 
powerful  patrician  families  of  Rome,  headed  by  the  Frangipani, 
and  had  made  them  his  vassals  by  buying  up  their  immovables 


452  ROMANS  AS  VASSALS  vn 

in  Roman  territory  and  granting  them  back  again  as  fiefs  : 
landed  estates,  farms,  vineyards,  but,  above  all,  towers  and  solid 
buildings  in  the  town,  most  of  which  dated  from  old  Roman 
times.  The  Mausoleum  of  Augustus  belonged  to  the  Colonna, 
the  Colosseum  to  the  Frangipani ;  the  Arches  of  Titus  and  of 
Constantine,  the  Septizonium  of  Septimius  Severus  were  all 
structures  which  had  been  fortified  at  an  early  date  and  served 
the  town  aristocracy  as  castles.  The  Emperor  had  acquired 
possession  of  all  this,  and  the  Romans  were  well  pleased  with 
the  transaction  :  they  remained  in  enjoyment  of  their  property 
and  received  no  small  sum  in  ready  money,  and  their  freehold 
became  a  fief.  For  a  long  time  to  come  Roman  nobles  were 
selling  their  possessions  to  the  Emperor  and  becoming  his 
vassals. 

In  addition  to  this  Frederick  had  granted  fiefs  in  his  Sicilian 
kingdom  to  many  of  the  Roman  patricians,  a  Frangipane 
received  one  in  the  Principata,  John  of  Polo  was  granted  the 
County  of  Fondi,  and  later  Alba.  It  is  probable  that  Frederick 
also  took  a  wife  for  his  son  from  the  family  of  these  adherents 
of  his.  The  consort  of  Frederick  of  Antioch  was  said  to  have 
belonged  to  the  Polo  family.  Yet  other  Romans  drew  regular 
annuities  from  the  Emperor  and  enjoyed — rare  privilege — un- 
taxed  commerce  with  Sicily. 

The  Emperor's  party  in  the  town  of  Rome,  therefore,  was  by 
no  means  inconsiderable.  It  had  been  disconcerting  for  him 
to  have  to  take  the  field  on  the  Pope's  behalf*  against  the 
Romans  :  a  double  game  by  which  at  the  moment  he  pur 
chased  quiet  in  Germany.  The  citizens'  hate  for  their  spiritual 
head,  however,  drove  them  back  into  Frederick's  arms,  and 
within  a  year  of  his  campaign  against  the  Romans  the  imperial 
party  was  uppermost  in  Rome  once  more.  Whether  spon 
taneously  in  order  to  please  Frederick,  or  whether  at  Frederick's 
direct  instigation,  the  nobles  now  stirred  up  the  populace 
against  the  Pope  just  at  the  moment  when  the  Lombard  ques 
tion  was  acute  between  them.  In  1236  it  again  happened  that 
a  pro-Kaiser  senator  was  elected,  and  Frederick  now  addressed 
his  letters  to  this  imperially-minded  Rome.  Pope  Gregory's 
complaints,  therefore,  that  the  Emperor  was  recklessly  ex 
pending  money  in  order  to  foment  strife  were  not  without 


LOVE  OF  ROMANS  453 

plausibility.  Frederick's  reply  was  that,  on  the  contrary,  peace 
had  reigned  in  Rome  since,  and  not  before,  the  appointment 
of  an  imperial  senator. 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  Frederick  II  supported  and  turned 
to  his  own  advantage  in  Rome  the  very  same  revolutionary 
anti-government  impulses  which  in  Lombardy  he  fought  with 
fire  and  sword.  But  in  Rome  the  movement  was  hostile  to 
the  Pope.  The  Lombards'  ambitions,  moreover,  were  wholly 
individual  and  selfish,  whereas  the  Romans  were  aspiring  to 
their  ancient  and  traditional  world-dominion.  Earlier  Em 
perors  had  resented  the  suggestion  that  they  exercised  imperial 
rights  in  virtue  of  the  Senatus  Populusque  Romanus,  and  had 
felt  an  enmity  towards  the  Roman  people.  Conrad  III  had 
simply  left  unanswered  the  Romans'  invitation  to  make  Rome, 
the  caput  mundi,  his  capital,  and  to  restore  the  Roman  Empire 
to  the  position  it  had  held  in  the  days  of  Constantine  and 
Justinian,  who  had  ruled  the  world  from  Rome.  When  Bar- 
barossa  was  coming  for  his  coronation  the  Romans  made  him 
a  similar  proposal  and  asked  for  certain  assurances.  With  the 
magnificent  arrogance  of  a  Caesar,  not  lacking  a  touch  of  naivete^ 
Barbarossa  thundered  at  the  ambassadors  of  Rome  :  the 
Senate  and  the  Ordo  Equester  were  naught  to  him  :  *'  Do  you 
crave  to  see  the  glory  of  your  Rome  ?  the  dignity  of  your 
Senators  ?  the  valour  and  discipline  of  your  Knights  ?  Behold 
our  empire !  We  have  your  Consuls,  we  have  your  Senate,  we 
have  your  armies.  I  am  the  legitimate  successor  1  Let  who 
will  snatch  the  key  from  the  hand  of  Hercules  !  The  prince 
issues  orders  to  the  people,  not  the  people  to  the  prince  !  " 

Nothing  could  more  clearly  illustrate  the  resemblance  and 
the  difference  between  Frederick  and  his  grandfather.  They 
had  in  common  boundless  pride  and  arrogance,  but  their  atti 
tude  to  Rome  was  radically  different :  one  was  the  imperial 
warrior-knight,  the  other  the  imperial  statesman-diplomat. 
Frederick  II  did  not  for  a  moment  question  that  the  imperial 
dignity  was  divinely  his,  having  been  bestowed  on  him  by  the 
Senate  and  Roman  people.  He  loved,  on  the  contrary,  to 
recall  that  it  was  the  Romans  themselves  who  had  chosen  him, 
who  had  collauded  the  boy  of  seventeen,  who  "  in  all  the 
anxieties  of  ambiguous  fate  was  setting  out  to  Germany  to  scale 


454  CAESAR  TITLES  VH 

the  heights  of  imperial  fame,"  He  did  not  weary  of  repeating 
that  the  Romans  of  their  own  motion  had  entrusted  to  him  all 
the  offices  and  dignities  of  the  Princeps  according  to  the  lex 
regia.  The  deduction  which  he  drew  was  that  the  Romans 
who  had  spontaneously  invested  him  with  the  imperial  dignity 
were  henceforth  in  duty  bound  adequately  to  support  their 
King  and  Caesar,  their  Knight  and  Imperator,  the  pater  imperil, 
the  Princeps  whom  they  themselves  had  chosen.  'He  by 
no  means  deduced  a  right  of  the  Romans  to  act  against  him. 
The  reward  that  he  held  out  to  them  was  a  share  in  their 
Emperor's  fame  and  triumph,  a  sample  of  which  they  had 
received  in  the  spoils  of  victory  sent  by  their  Triumphator. 
"  The  same  Felix  Roma  who  had  bestowed  all  office  and  owner 
ship  on  the  Roman  Princeps  must  stand  by  him,  sharing 
burdens  and  toil,  nor  fail  to  share  the  honours  she  herself  had 
helped  to  heap  on  him." 

Frederick  II  thus  made  the  Romans  sharers  in  his  respon 
sibility  for  the  greatness  and  permanence  of  his  Empire,  and 
he1  had  yet  another  thought  in  mind.  He  promised  fulfilment 
of  their  ancient  dreams :  their  wishes  for  the  revival  of  the 
ancient  Roman  power.  His  Caesar  titles  meant  a  great  deal 
to  him,  so  did  the  revival  of  ancient  forms  and  ceremonies,  yet 
"  gladly  though  we  follow  the  rites  of  old  we  seek  yet  more 
eagerly  to  revive  the  ancient  nobility  of  the  City."  These 
words  cannot  be  interpreted  too  literally  or  too  exactly. 


The  old  idea  of  Renovatio  connoted  for  Frederick  less  the 
revival  of  titles  and  ceremonies  than  the  regeneration  of  the 
Romans  themselves,  the  Roman  citizen  and  the  Roman 
patrician  who  should  again  be  worthy  to  rule  an  Empire. 
Romans  had  to  be  made  anew.  Frederick  II  could  not,  single- 
handed,  effect  a  re-birth  of  Rome  and  of  the  Empire  ;  could 
not  alone  call  to  life  a  Roman  State  in  the  ancient  sense.  He 
required  the  co-operation  of  a  Roman  aristocracy  who  had  at 
least  as  great  an  affinity  with  the  Fabii,  Cornelii  and  the  Tullii 
as  he  himself  with  Augustus  and  with  Caesar.  In  this  also  he 
gave  the  Romans  a  lead  :  "  We  recall  the  ancient  Caesars  to 
men's  minds  by  the  ensample  of  our  own  Person  1 "  This  was 


BLOOD  OF  ROMULUS  455 

but  the  first  preliminary  of  what  he  sought:  "That  in  our 
auspicious  days  the  honour  of  the  blood  of  Romulus  may 
revive,  the  imperial  Roman  speech  be  again  heard  in  its  glory, 
the  ancient  Roman  dignity  renewed  and  an  inseparable  bond 
by  our  grace  be  tied  between  the  Roman  Empire  and  the 
Roman  people  themselves."  To  quicken  the  old  instincts  of 
rule  and  statesmanship  by  a  share  in  the  responsibility  for  the 
fate  of  the  Empire,  the  Emperor  now  gave  orders  that  Roman 
nobles  and  distinguished  Roman  citizens  should  be  sent  to 
him  in  order  that  offices  of  various  kinds  might  be  allotted  to 
them.  Some  were  to  receive  state  offices  at  Court  in  his  own 
immediate  entourage.  He  would  make  others  responsible  for 
the  conduct  and  administration  of  districts,  and  provinces,  yet 
others  would  find  a  place  in  varied  offices  suited  to  the  rank  and 
qualifications  of  the  individual.  He  summons  to  his  service  by 
name  Proconsuls  from  the  aristocratic  families  that  were  loyal  to 
him,  the  Orsini,  the  Poli,  the  Frangipani  and  the  Malabranca. 
It  was  now  clear  what  Frederick  had  had  in  mind  when  he 
invaded  Lombardy.  The  new  pan- Italian  State  which  he  was 
planning  was  going  to  be  ruled  by  Romans  of  the  blood  of 
Romulus,  the  Provinces  were  to  be  governed  by  Roman  pro 
consuls,  as  of  yore  the  mighty  Imperium  Romanum  had  been 
held  in  leash  by  a  small  number  of  Roman  officials.  "  We 
shall  no  longer  delay  the  execution  of  the  plan  we  have  evolved  : 
that  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  Rome  distinguished  Romans 
shall  preside  over  the  business  of  the  State  and  shall  be  re 
splendent  in  dignity/'  The  Roman  Empire,  Italy,  "  the  seat 
of  Empire,"  should  be  for  the  Romans,  for  the  blood  of 
Romulus  !  That  was  Frederick's  idea  of  Renovatto.  Once 
Milan  had  been  eliminated,  "  the  head  of  all  dissensions  in 
Italy,"  the  central  point  and  the  fountain  of  strength  in  the 
Italian  Roman  state  should  be  Rome  herself.  The  contem 
porary  Dominican,  Bartholomew,  interprets  Frederick's  in 
tentions  thus  :  Frederick  wished  quietly  to  leave  in  Rome  the 
symbols  of  his  mercy  and  his  might,  that  the  strength,  the 
"  virtue  "  might  flow  from  the  head  of  the  world  into  the  limbs. 
This  implied  a  complete  displacement  of  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  the  Empire  which  under  the  olden  German-Roman  Em 
perors  had  been  in  Germany.  It  was  more  vital  for  Frederick 


456  BIRTH  OF  A  SON  vn 

to  call  the  ancient  Roman  Caesar-Empire  to  new  life  from  its 
very  origins.  True  Roman  blood  should  course  again  through 
the  veins  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Frederick  had  chosen  the  Romans  for  great  tasks  :  but  they 
must  not  slumber  lest  they  miss  the  flow  of  the  tide  :  "  Awake  ! 
awake !  Sleep  not ! "  was  the  burden  of  those  exhortations 
full  of  zeal  and  power,  the  aim  of  all  this  recalling  of  the  famous 
deeds  of  ancient  days.  Fame,  hard  to  earn,  easy  to  keep,  was 
almost  lost  to  these  Romans,  so  far  estranged  from  their  noble 
origin.  The  Emperor  approaches  them  with  a  human  touch 
otherwise  reserved  for  his  Apulians  :  now  he  calls  them 
Fellow-Romans,  Conromani,  and  recalls  their  origin  from  the 
ashes  and  ruins  of  Troy,  now  he  harks  back  to  the  great  names 
of  old  time  and  calls  up  the  hosts  of  the  Quiri^s,  the  tribes  of 
Romulus,  the  Patres  Conscripti,  and  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
the  Populus  Romanus  :  now  he  exhorts  them  to  have  in  remem 
brance  the  triumph  and  the  glory  of  their  ancestors,  the  laurels 
of  the  conquerors,  the  ancient  fasti  of  the  Empire,  the  rods  of 
the  lictors. 

Rome  is  more  to  him  than  the  origin  of  his  imperial  title  ; 
the  Rome  of  the  Caesars,  like  the  Church  herself,  is  his  spiritual 
mother ;  he  himself  the  son  of  Rome.  A  son  was  born  to 
Frederick  in  these  weeks  following  the  victory  of  Cortenuova. 
All  the  world  was  informed  of  this  auspicious  event ;  the  young 
king  was  celebrated  "  already  conceived  under  a  lucky  star, 
whose  birth  has  been  heralded  by  such  triumphs,  which  are 
pledges  of  the  strength  of  the  longed-for  peace  and  justice  that 
shall  prevail  in  the  Empire  renewed  under  the  ancient  fasces, 
symbols  of  law  and  order." 

The  age-old  revival  dream  of  the  German  Emperors  thus 
flamed  up  once  more  in  Frederick,  and  as  he  sought  to  re- 
quicken  not  merely  Roman  forms  (like  his  predecessors)  but 
Roman  life,  the  ancient  state-life  of  the  Romans,  his  renovatio 
ended  by  heralding  the  Renaissance.  From  the  revival  of  the 
ancient  State,  Italy  was  led  to  the  re-birth  of  the  ancient  man. 
Rome  was  to  be  the  capital  of  a  united  Italy,  and  Italy  herself 
the  centre  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Frederick,  it  is  true,  realised 
his  dream  only  in  part,  but  the  vision  never  faded — Dante  took 
it  up  and  gave  it  a  soul. 


CARDINALS  AND  POPE  457 

The  poet  also  conceived  Italia  Una  as  the  centre  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  as  the  province  of  provinces,  not  only  as  the 
realm  of  the  Caesars  but  as  a  national  Italy.  Frederick  had 
sought  to  re-awaken  the  dead  Roman,  but  Dante  to  call  into 
life  the  Italian  people,  whom  Frederick  for  a  decade  had  been 
forcibly  welding  into  one  in  his  imperial  State.  This  was  the 
cause  of  Frederick's  great  breach  with  the  Curia,  who  also 
desired  the  rule  over  a  united  Italy  and  continued  on  into  the 
period  of  the  Borgia  and  Medici  Popes  to  cherish  the  dream. 


Frederick  II  was  not  content  with  securing  for  himself  the 
Rome  of  the  Caesars  :  he  sought  to  win  also  papal  Rome, 
and  he  thus  kept  Pope  Gregory  in  perpetual  unrest.  Since  the 
victory  of  Cortenuova  the  Pope's  position  seemed  in  any  case 
well-nigh  hopeless.  He  had  but  recently  returned  to  Rome, 
and  Frederick's  undisguised  intention  of  capturing  Rome,  his 
episcopal  seat,  followed  by  the  intrigues  amongst  the  Roman 
nobility,  had  hit  him  hard.  Moreover,  the  concluding  words 
of  the  triumphal  proclamation  which  Frederick  had  addressed 
to  the  Romans  contained  a  threat  to  the  Curia  that  could  not 
be  misunderstood.  The  Romans  should  beware,  he  wrote,  of 
those  who  saw  with  envy  the  imperial  victory  and  pondered 
the  destruction  of  the  spoils  ;  they  should  carefully  guard  the 
Emperor's  gift,  and  if  necessary  put  their  lex  plebiscita  in  force 
which  prescribed  in  such  cases  the  penalty  of  death  1  Finally, 
in  an  emotional  manifesto — a  copy  of  which  was  sent  to  the 
Pope — Frederick  interpreted  his  victory  over  Gregory's  pro- 
t^g^s  the  Lombards  as  a  triumph  of  the  Lord  over  Satan  ! 
Nor  was  this  all.  Frederick  II  was  a  dangerous  enemy,  skilful 
to  seek  out  the  weak  points  in  the  armour  of  his  foe.  He  formed 
a  rallying-point  for  all  enemies  of  the  Papacy,  and  was  able 
to  find  support  amongst  those  most  closely  associated  with 
Gregory  ;  in  the  very  college  of  Roman  cardinals. 

The  relation  existing  between  the  cardinals  and  the  Pope  has 
very  justly  been  compared  to  that  borne  by  the  German  princes 
to  the  Emperor  :  as  the  Emperor  was  elected  by  the  princes  so 
the  Pope  was  elected  by  the  cardinals,  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome 


458  A  DIVIDED   COLLEGE  vn 

was,  in  certain  matters,  as  much  tied  by  the  consilium  and 
consensus  of  the  cardinals  as  the  Emperor  in  certain  circum 
stances  by  the  advice  and  concurrence  of  the  princes.  Simi 
larly,  in  the  Roman  Curia  it  depended  wholly  on  the  personality 
of  the  Pope  for  the  time  being,  whether  he  would  rule  more 
autocratically  or  more  constitutionally,  and  the  cardinals  opposed 
excessive  claims  of  the  Caesar-Popes  as  strenuously  as  the 
princes  those  of  the  Emperor. 

Pope  Gregory  IX,  kinsman  and  disciple  of  the  great  Innocent, 
was  an  autocrat  in  every  fibre.  To  assure  himself  of  a  com 
plaisant  College  of  Cardinals  he  had  nominated  six  new 
cardinals  immediately  after  his  elevation,  men  whom  he  knew 
to  be  wholly  devoted  to  himself  and  prepared  to  support  his 
policy  as  a  whole.  Individual  cardinals,  however,  concerned 
for  the  welfare  of  the  world  and  recognising  a  peaceful  co 
operation  of  the  two  powers  as  necessary,  early  began  to  depre 
cate  Gregory's  excessive  hostility  to  Frederick.  The  Emperor 
was  always  kept  well-informed  about  the  course  of  affairs  at  the 
papal  court.  A  favourite  device  of  the  Pope's  was  to  encourage 
the  German  princes  against  the  Emperor  ;  imitating  this,  Fred 
erick  skilfully  drove  a  wedge  into  the  almost  invisible  rift.  He 
expressed  on  occasion  a  doubt  whether  the  Pope  had  acted 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  cardinals,  and  sought  to  play  them 
off  against  their  master  with  gradually-increasing  success. 
As  his  relations  with  Pope  Gregory  grew  worse  over  the  Lom 
bard  war  Frederick  began  more  and  more  to  make  use  of  the 
cardinals,  even  to  negotiate  with  them  directly,  over  the  Pope's 
head.  In  a  quarrel  about  the  allegiance  of  a  certain  Italian  town 
he  accused  the  Pope  of  having  refused  to  restore  this  place  to 
the  Empire,  against  the  advice  of  almost  all  the  cardinals.  He 
complained  direct  to  the  cardinals  against  the  activity  of  the 
papal  legate  in  Lombardy,  and  the  King  of  England  wrote  to 
individual  cardinals  urging  the  imperial  claims.  The  Em 
peror's  success  in  arms  was  the  ultimate  cause  of  the  final 
breach.  Circumstances  gave  the  verdict  too  plainly  against 
Pope  Gregory,  and  the  majority  of  the  cardinals  saw  with 
anxiety  and  concern  the  danger  into  which  their  master's 
intransigeance  threatened  to  plunge  the  Church.  The  peace 
party,  who  sought  an  accommodation  with  Frederick  if  at  all 


AN  INDOMITABLE  GREYBEARD  459 

possible,  gained  in  numbers  quite  apart  from  Frederick's 
wooing.  John  Colonna,  for  instance,  complained  to  a  cardinal 
who  was  residing  in  England  that  the  Church  had  committed 
herself  "  all  too  violently,  all  too  unreflectingly,"  to  the  waves 
.  .  .  that  no  heed  was  paid  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  cardinals 
and  others  .  .  .  that  the  advocates  of  peace  were  rebuffed,  the 
College  of  Cardinals  divided,  and  that  he,  the  writer,  had  been 
shamelessly  betrayed  and  left  unsupported  whenever  he  had 
tried  to  restore  order.  .  .  , 

The  mood  prevailing  in  the  Roman  Curia  was  dangerous  for 
the  Pope.  The  condemnation  of  his  policy  by  the  "  pillars  of 
the  Church  "  soon  received  a  public  confirmation  which  could 
not  easily  have  been  more  annihilating.  When  Frederick  II 
sent  to  the  Roman  people  the  Milan  carroccio,  the  spoil  of  a 
victory  which  spelt  the  Pope's  defeat,  many  cardinals  of  the 
Roman  Church  joined  the  Senate  and  people  of  Rome  in 
escorting  the  standard-bearing  chariot  in  festive  procession  to 
the  Capitol,  Gregory  having  strained  every  nerve  to  prevent  its 
entry.  They  attended  the  solemn  installation  of  the  imperial 
trophy,  and  thus  gave  in  some  measure  the  Church's  benedic 
tion  to  the  ancient  Roman  celebration  of  victory.  The  Pope, 
deserted  by  the  discontented  cardinals  and  by  the  Romans, 
who  were  intoxicated  by  the  gift  from  their  Triumphator,  was 
suddenly  alone  in  Rome,  "  grieved  unto  death."  This  Rome 
the  Emperor  was  about  to  make  the  capital  of  the  Empire  and 
of  Italy,  "  as  soon  as  we  have  first  reduced  to  peace  the  seat  of 
our  Empire,  Italy."  This  reduction  of  Italy  to  peace — or  to 
subjection — could  not,  after  the  Emperor's  recent  successes, 
be  far  off ;  to  hinder  it,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  papal 
policy,  was  scarce  now  possible.  Yet  the  old  man,  reaching  in 
these  last  years  an  almost  eerie  grandeur,  indomitably  daring, 
fate-defying,  did  not  despair.  Opportunity  might  come  :  the 
Emperor  might  trip.  He  waited,  ready  for  a  counter-thrust 
with  sword  and  ban,  to  break  though  the  fatal  encirclement. 


The  Emperor's  victory  over  the  Lombard  armies  had,  in  fact, 
dissolved  the  League.  Ten  days  after  his  triumph  in  Cremona 
Frederick  was  able  to  enter  Lodi ;  a  little  later,  in  January 


460  NO  TERMS  FOR  MILAN  vn 

1 23 8, he  received  the  submission  of  Vigevano  at  a  Diet  in  Pavia ; 
soon  after  that  the  submission  also  of  Novara  and  Vercelli. 
In  February  he  entered  Piedmont.  In  Turin  he  held  a  second 
Diet  at  which  the  nobles  of  these  regions  did  him  homage, 
Savoy,  Montferrat  and  others.  Hereupon  Savona,  Albenga 
and  other  towns  of  the  Riviera  were  occupied,  so  that  western 
Lombardy,  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Po,  were  obedient  to  the 
Emperor.  The  influence  of  the  victory  immediately  spread 
southwards.  The  legate  Gebhard  effected  an  agreement  with 
Florence  :  the  Florentines  dismissed  their  Milanese  podesta 
and  took  instead  a  Roman,  Angelo  Malabranca,  one  of  those 
proconsuls  whom  Frederick  had  designated  for  imperial  office. 
Imperial  Tuscany  was  now  in  Frederick's  hand.  "  As  when 
new  waters  stream  into  a  dried-up  river-bed  and  all  the  fish 
begin  to  live  again,  the  Emperor's  supporters  sprang  every 
where  to  life  .  .  ."so  spoke  a  chronicler  on  a  similar  occasion. 
The  success  of  Frederick's  arms  had  been  potent  throughout 
Italy  for  intimidation  or  good  cheer. 

The  war  was  not  yet  over.  No  peace  had  yet  been  made 
with  Milan.  The  Emperor's  behaviour  since  the  victory  had 
stiffened  instead  of  breaking  the  resisting  power  of  this  com 
mune.  Frederick  imagined  that  a  Triumphator  should  not 
stoop  to  treat  with  rebels  :  they  must  offer  unconditional  sub 
mission.  To  preserve  this  attitude,  which  was  bound  up  with 
his  abysmal  hate  of  Milan  he  flung  to  the  winds  all  political 
expediency.  The  Emperor  had  indeed  defeated  the  Milanese 
army,  and  there  had  been  severe  disturbances  in  the  city  itself 
after  the  battle  :  the  heretic  rabble  had  stormed  the  churches, 
defiled  the  altars,  hung  the  crucifixes  upside  down  .  .  .  but  the 
kernel  of  Milan's  strength,  her  impregnable  city,  was  unim 
paired.  For  the  sake  of  peace  at  last  Milan  would  have  offered 
conditional  surrender  :  Lodi  had  submitted  on  demand  to 
accepting  an  imperial  captain,  to  delivering  hostages,  and  had 
been  prepared  to  undertake  yet  other  obligations.  Frederick, 
however,  appears  to  have  rejected  all  suggestions  from  Milan, 
and  obstinately  demanded  complete  and  unconditional  sur-, 
render.  The  conquered  must  put  themselves  and  their  town 
unquestionably  at  his  mercy.  He  sent  the  Milanese  the  equi 
vocal  oracle  :  he  would  do  only  what  he  must. 


SIX  DEFIANT  TOWNS  461 

What  punishment  the  imperial  judge  destined  for  Milan  was 
not  to  be  guessed  at.  Other  towns  that  had  surrendered  at 
discretion  Frederick  had  spared,  displaying  his  imperial  in 
dulgence,  but  it  was  at  least  questionable  whether  the  specially- 
hated  Milan  could  count  on  clemency.  The  Milanese  would 
not  take  the  risk.  Mindful  how  Barbarossa  had  destroyed 
their  town,  and  reflecting  accurately  that  an  unconditional  peace 
could  be  concluded  any  day,  Milan  rejected  the  Emperor's 
demand.  They  instructed  their  messengers  to  say  that  "  their 
wits  sharpened  by  experience,  they  feared  the  Emperor's 
savagery."  Faith  in  their  own  strength  and  in  their  trusty 
walls  enabled  this  single  town  successfully  to  bid  defiance  to 
the  victorious  Emperor.  Five  other  towns,  scattered  fragments 
of  the  Lombard  Confederation,  followed  the  heroic  example 
of  Milan  :  Alessandria,  Brescia,  Piacenza  in  Lombardy,  and 
Bologna  and  Faenza  in  the  Romagna. 

The  war  went  on,  and  the  Emperor  was  now  faced  with  the 
necessity  of  overcoming  these  six  towns  or  taking  them  by 
storm,  a  difficult  feat,  though  not  impossible,  if  Frederick  had 
only  had  to  do  with  the  townsfolk.  No  sane  political  reason 
explains  what  urged  the  Emperor  to  such  severity  towards 
Milan  that  he  would  not  content  himself  with  a,  humiliation  of 
the  town,  especially  as  he  knew  that  by  far  his  most  dangerous 
enemy  was  in  Rome.  If  Milan  was  his,  on  any  terms  what 
soever,  the  whole  of  Italy  was  his,  and  the  Pope  remained  in 
very  deed  merely  Bishop  of  Rome.  But  hate  for  rebels  in 
general  and  for  Milan  in  particular  animated  him,  and  the 
inexorable  sternness  of  a  judge  who  had  come  to  exercise 
justice,  and  the  arrogance  of  a  victor  in  the  first  flush  of  triumph 
who  saw  himself  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  Providence,  These 
things  may  all  have  contributed  to  the  Emperor's  attitude. 
He  had,  moreover,  good  reason  to  hope  that  another  successful 
campaign  would  break  the  resistance  of  the  six  remaining 
cities.  If  the  imperial  arms  were  again  victorious  the  Pope  need 
no  longer  be  feared,  he  was  dangerous  only  in  conjunction  with 
the  Lombards* 

Frederick  at  once  set  about  unprecedented  preparations  for 
the  new  campaign.  The  whole  world  was  laid  under  contri 
bution  to  chastise  the  few  rebellious  towns.  Frederick  II  even 


462  "ABHORRED  FREEDOM"  vn 

begged  friendly  foreign  monarchs  for  assistance,  on  the  re 
markable  plea  that  the  Lombards  were  attacking  and  endanger 
ing  not  so  much  Frederick  himself  as  the  whole  principle  of 
monarchy.  It  was  usual  enough  for  an  intractable  noble  to 
revolt  against  his  overlord,  but  the  Emperor  was  right  in 
detecting  a  far  graver  menace  in  a  rebellion  of  his  subjects  the 
town-dwellers,  seeking  independence.  "  This  matter  touches 
you  and  all  the  kings  of  earth,"  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  France. 
"  Keep  open,  therefore,  your  sharp  eyes  and  ears  and  studi 
ously  take  heed  what  encouragement  to  revolt  would  be  given 
to  all  them  that  would  fain  throw  off  the  yoke  of  authority,  if 
the  Roman  Empire  were  to  suffer  loss  through  this  kind  of 
insurgence."  The  Lombards  were  for  Frederick  no  common 
place  insurgents.  He  scented  in  their  recalcitrance  a  principle 
hostile  to  monarchy  and  majesty,  pregnant  with  heresy  which 
it  should  be  "  the  desire  and  the  honour  of  all  rulers  in  common 
to  combat  and  to  extirpate."  Woe  worth  the  day  when  such 
aspiration,  such  craving  for  "  abhorred  freedom,"  confined  as 
yet  to  Italy,  should  flood  the  world  ! 

All  monarchs  must  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  recip 
rocal  obligation  to  help  each  other  against  such  overthrows  of 
the  State,  and,  therefore,  was  the  Emperor  asking  support  from 
the  kings,  not  because  he  was  himself  too  weak,  but  in  order 
that  "  sheer  terror  may  pursue  rebellious  subjects  far  and  wide 
when  they  see  that  royal  armies  re-enforce  imperial  troops  and 
feel  that  in  similar  case  imperial  help  will  be  due  unto  the 
kings."  "  Therefore,  if  the  imperial  arm,"  runs  the  message 
to  King  Bela  of  Hungary,  "  is  supported  by  the  power  of  the 
kings,  if  various  allied  princes  are  voluntarily  bound  together 
for  mutual  help  :  then  every  impulse  to  revolt  and  conspiracy 
will  cease  among  the  subjects.  So  seriously  had  this  increased 
in  the  provinces  of  Italy  that  though  they  failed  to  tear  up  our 
sovereignty  by  the  roots,  the  rebels  carried  their  vicious  example 
into  the  most  remote  and  distant  regions,  more  especially 
amongst  our  neighbours  !  " 

It  is  idle  to  contend  that  Frederick  missed  the  deeper 
meaning  of  the  Lombard  insurrection.  It  was  precisely  be 
cause  he  fully  plumbed  the  danger  that  he  at  all  times  sought 
by  the  natural  alliance  of  nobility  and  clergy  to  rear  a  bulwark 


APPEAL   TO    KINGS  463 

against  the  emergence  of  the  tiers  etat.  Hence  the  emphasis 
he  laid  on  his  community  of  interest  with  the  monarchical, 
aristocratic  Church.  He  did  not  succeed  in  realising  the  unity 
of  Empire  and  Papacy.  It  lived  on  in  letters  and  in  formulas 
only.  To  meet  the  menace  that  threatened  the  principle  of 
monarchy,  Frederick  was,  therefore,  now  obliged  to  turn  to  the 
secular  rulers  of  Europe  in  default  of  the  Church.  He  now 
sought  to  unite  all  the  monarchs  of  the  world  in  an  alliance 
under  the  primacy  of  the  Empire,  and  win  them  for  a  crusade 
against  the  unbelievers  and  infidels  of  the  State  and  oijustitia. 
The  enterprise  did  not  lack  a  religious  element,  for  the  rebels 
were  setting  themselves  against  the  reign  of  peace  which  God 
had  willed  :  were,  therefore,  in  a  sense  heretics.  Frederick, 
logically,  re-issued  his  edicts  against  heretics.  The  alliance  of 
monarchs  to  combat  the  principle  of  freedom  from  authority 
which  had  come  to  birth  earlier  amongst  the  enlightened 
Lombards — the  Alemanni  at  the  southern  base  of  the  Alps 
— constituted  the  first  SECULAR  OECUMENICAL  ACTION  FOR 
POLITICAL  ENDS  in  history  :  a  forerunner  of  the  coalitions  of 
hereditary  monarchs  against  the  Jacobins. 


Frederick's  warning  and  Frederick's  demand  met  with 
response.  Extraordinary  auxiliaries  would  be  forthwith  at 
his  disposal,  first  and  foremost  the  forces  of  the  Empire  itself 
which  he  had  called  up  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  Sicily 
and  Germany  were  arming,  and  Diets  in  Turin,  Cremona  and 
Verona  had  set  everything  in  motion  from  Burgundy  to  the 
March  of  Treviso.  King  Conrad  with  his  German  contingent 
reached  Verona  from  the  North  in  the  Spring  of  1238,  and  by 
the  summer  an  enormous  mass  of  troops  had  assembled,  the 
largest  and  the  most  heterogeneous  army  that  Frederick  ever 
commanded.  There  were  the  mercenaries,  the  feudal  knights 
and  the  Saracens  from  Sicily,  King  Conrad's  German  Knights, 
the  forces  of  Florence  and  Tuscany,  the  knights  of  Northern 
Italy,  warriors  from  imperial  Lombardy,  from  Rome,  the 
Marches,  the  Romagna,  besides  foot-soldiers  from  the  imperial 
towns,  and  an  army  of  Burgundian  knights  who,  under  the 
Count  of  Provence,  were  to  fight  for  the  first  time  in  the  service 


464  HETEROGENEOUS  HORDES  vn 

of  the  Empire.  In  addition  to  these  almost  all  the  monarchy 
of  the  world  had  sent  auxiliaries  :  troops  from  the  kings  of 
England  and  of  France,  from  King  Bela  of  Hungary,  and  from 
the  King  of  Castile.  The  eastern  monarchs  were  not  to  be 
outdone,  John  Vatatzes,  Emperor  of  Nicaea,  had  sent  his 
Greeks,  and  the  Sultan  his  Arabs  to  fight  in  the  Emperor's 
armies. 

This  mass  of  troops  was  followed  by  the  entire,  exotic  train 
of  the  imperial  court,  with  its  menagerie  of  strange  beasts. 
People  said  that  since  the  old  days  of  the  circus  the  like  had 
not  been  seen  in  Italy,  and  they  recalled  the  war-elephants  of 
Alexander  and  Antiochus  which  they  had  read  of.  This  was 
not  the  army  of  a  Roman  general  in  whose  wake  followed  the 
thunderous  tramp  of  well-drilled  legions,  but  the  levy  of  a 
Cosmocrator  who  commanded  men  and  animals  from  every 
corner  of  the  earth,  comparable  perhaps  to  the  hordes  which 
the  mighty  Persian  led  of  old  against  the  towns  of  Greece. 
Frederick  II  first  led  his  hosts  against  the  small,  high-lying 
town  of  Brescia.  A  siege  was  contemplated,  and  the  Emperor 
boasted  his  great  stores  of  siege  implements.  He  had,  more 
over,  commandeered  the  services  of  a  Spanish  engineer, 
Calamandrinus,  who  was  pre-eminently  inventive  in  the  con 
struction  of  battering-rams  and  the  like.  Eccelino  had  des 
patched  him  to  the  Emperor  :  in  fetters,  so  that  he  might  not 
escape.  Fate  willed,  however,  that  the  captive  should  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  Brescians.  They  made  him  welcome  with 
gifts  of  hearth  and  home  and  a  Brescian  bride,  and  he  was 
forthwith  employed  in  exercising  his  skill  in  the  service  of  the 
beleaguered  town  against  the  Emperor, 

The  campaign  had  begun  with  this  stroke  of  ill-luck  and  the 
Emperor  sought  in  vain  to  bring  about  a  change  of  fortune. 
In  spite  of  successful  skirmishes  near  Brescia,  in  spite  of  great 
gallantry  amongst  individual  contingents — the  English  particu 
larly  distinguished  themselves — the  siege  made  no  progress. 
Numerous  assaults  were  made,  none  were  successful.  The 
missiles  of  Calamandrinus,  which  found  their  mark  with  great 
accuracy,  destroyed  the  Emperor's  siege  equipment.  In  order 
to  protect  his  instruments  of  war  Frederick  tied  captured 
Brescians  to  his  attacking  towers.  The  townsmen  showed  no 


1238  SIEGE  OF  BRESCIA  465 

weak  consideration  for  their  fellow-citizens,  but  retaliated  in 
similar  wise  on  their  imperial  prisoners.  The  fighting  con 
tinued  savagely  for  weeks.  After  a  fortnight  of  it,  the  Emperor, 
who  had  counted  on  the  rapid  victory  of  his  immense  army, 
opened  negotiations,  but  the  townsfolk  refused  to  treat.  A 
plague  broke  out  amongst  the  cattle  in  the  imperial  camp,  bad 
weather  and  deluges  of  rain  made  the  enterprise  more  difficult, 
Frederick's  peace-envoy,  Bernardo  Orlando  di  Rossi  of  Parma, 
appears  to  have  betrayed  his  master  :  instead  of  persuading 
the  Brescians  to  surrender  he  encouraged  them  to  hold  out. 
After  two  months  of  useless  sacrifice,  and  a  final  unsuccessful 
attack,  the  Emperor  finally  broke  off  the  siege  in  October. 

The  failure  of  this  elaborate  undertaking  was  almost  equiva 
lent  to  a  defeat.  A  crisis  was  imminent.  Frederick  dismissed 
all  his  foreign  auxiliaries  and  retained  only  the  German  knights. 
Success  had  recently  emboldened  the  Emperor's  friends,  failure 
now  offered  encouragement  to  his  foes.  The  Lombards  per 
ceived  how  strong  their  towns  were  to  resist  such  forces,  and 
trusted  more  than  ever  in  their  strength.  All  Italy  had  breath 
lessly  awaited  the  outcome  of  the  struggle,  none  with  greater 
attention  than  Pope  Gregory  IX.  As  long  as  the  siege  of 
Brescia  was  in  progress  he  prudently  refrained  from  siding 
openly  with  the  Lombards.  He  had  even  seemed  to  lean 
towards  a  reconciliation  with  Frederick,  had  sent  the  Minister- 
General  of  the  Franciscan  Order,  Brother  Elias  of  Cortona,  a 
friend  of  Frederick's,  to  the  Emperor's  court  with  assurances 
that  the  Pope  was  anxious  to  be  unus  et  idem  with  Frederick. 
Scarcely,  however,  was  the  end  of  the  siege  known  than  the 
Pope  threw  off  his  preceding  restraint.  Frederick  II  had  skil 
fully  been  stirring  up  all  anti-papal  forces  and  gathering  them 
round  him.  Pope  Gregory  was  now  able  to  repay  him  hand 
somely  in  kind. 


The  imperial  fiasco  released  the  Pope  from  an  extremely  un 
pleasant  position,  and  in  spite  of  his  great  age  he  developed  an 
amazing  activity.  He  must  provide  what  Frederick's  foes  had 
hitherto  lacked  :  a  rallying-point  and  a  great  common  idea. 
With  fiery  zeal  Pope  Gregory  set  about  retrieving  the  delay. 


466  ANTI-IMPERIAL  ALLIANCE  vn 

The  fuse  had  long  since  been  surreptitiously  laid.  The  inti 
mate  sympathy  of  the  Pope  with  the  Lombard  heretics,  rebels 
and  enemies  of  the  Emperor,  was  an  open  secret.  He  now 
appointed  Frederick's  bitterest  enemy,  Gregory  of  Monte- 
longo,  as  Legate  of  Lombardy.  This  prelate  had  begun  his 
career  as  a  notary  of  the  Roman  Curia,  and  was  to  end  it  as 
Patriarch  of  Aquileia.  He  was  cunning  and  resourceful,  well- 
versed  in  every  type  of  political  intrigue  and  subterfuge,  and 
possessed  a  knowledge  of  war  unsurpassed  in  his  day.  His 
skilful  manipulations  succeeded  in  uniting  all  the  anti-Kaiser 
elements  in  Lombardy  and  reconciling  the  most  varied  interests. 

His  great  achievement  was  the  creation  of  a  consolidated 
opposition  to  the  unified  imperial  power  in  Italy.  All  aspira 
tions  of  the  towns  and  the  town  parties,  by  whatever  name  they 
might  be  called,  which  were  hostile  to  the  Emperor,  could  be 
sure  of  his  assistance,  and  their  short-sighted  and  hitherto  self- 
centred  squabblings  of  every  kind  suddenly  gained  dignity  and 
import  by  being  associated  on  equal  terms  with  a  great  world 
idea,  the  Papacy.  The  miscellaneous  imperial  enemies  of 
all  camps  and  ranks  and  strata  were  no  longer  rebels  and 
revolutionaries,  but  champions  and  defenders  of  the  oppressed 
Church.  The  name  of  "  Guelf  "  became  a  general  term  for 
all  enemies  of  the  empire  under  the  leadership  of  the  Church  : 
patrician  and  plebeian,  heretic  and  orthodox,  layman  and  priest 
rallied  together,  so  that  the  party  division  of  Ghibelline  and 
Guelf  by  no  means  tallied  with  the  natural,  social,  religious,  or 
national  cleavages.  Very  much  the  reverse :  as  people  rightly 
felt,  the  whole  world  was  involved  :  no  order,  no  town,  no 
rank,  no  family,  no  individual  even,  but  was  rent  asunder  by 
the  warring  principles  of  Empire  versus  Papacy,  as  the  one  or 
the  other  in  turn  prevailed. 

The  anti-imperial  coalition  under  the  Church's  leadership 
was  not  merely  defensive.  Frederick  II  was,  of  course,  the 
challenger,  because  his  very  existence  was  war  and  battle, 
though  he  sought  peace ;  but  the  aggressor  who  repudiated 
every  compromise,  who  aimed  at  war  to  the  knife  was,  as  has 
been  generally  recognised,  the  hasty,  hot-headed  Pope  Gregory. 
Before  he  declared  himself  as  an  open  enemy  he  had  effected 
in  the  Lateran  an  offensive  alliance  between  Venice  and  Genoa 


NEW  NEGOTIATIONS  467 

against  the  Emperor.  The  two  maritime  towns  who  had  so 
often  been  at  war  undertook  to  render  reciprocal  assistance,  and 
swore  to  make  no  peace  with  the  Emperor  without  the  Pope's 
consent.  The  papal  party,  under  their  Milanese  podesta,  had 
the  upper  hand  in  Genoa  at  the  time,  and,  apart  from  the  threat 
to  the  Trevisan  March,  the  Venetians  were  feeling  peculiarly 
embittered  by  Frederick  IPs  treatment  of  their  Doge's  son, 
who  had  been  captured  at  Cortenuova,  dragged  in  Frederick's 
triumph,  and  was  still,  to  the  disgrace  of  Venice,  prisoner  in 
an  Apulian  dungeon. 

Pope  Gregory  exploited  the  resentment  against  the  Emperor 
to  the  full.  When  he  had  left  the  capital  in  July  1238  to  go 
to  Anagni,  at  the  very  moment  that  the  Emperor's  powerful 
army  was  marching  on  Brescia,  Rome  was  almost  wholly  pro- 
Emperor.  On  his  return  in  October  the  papal  party  was 
dominant  once  more.  Pope  Gregory  hastily  made  up  his  mind 
to  breathe  more  securely  by  destroying  a  number  of  castles 
belonging  to  the  Emperor's  adherents,  palaces  dating  from 
ancient  Roman  days  that  were  now  flying  the  colours  of  Anti 
christ.  Their  marbles  and  mosaics  were  destroyed.  Later, 
Frederick  II  commanded  a  Sicilian  official  to  restore  as  far  as 
possible  the  ruined  buildings  at  his  expense. 

Although  the  Pope  was  undisguisedly  bent  on  war  and  work 
ing  up  for  a  breach  he  nevertheless  resumed  negotiations  with 
the  Emperor,  not  with  any  intention  of  an  agreement  but  to  gain 
time.  After  the  Brescia  failure  nothing  could  be  less  oppor 
tune  for  Frederick  than  a  resumption  of  open  hostilities  with 
the  Curia.  He  did  all  that  in  him  lay  to  avoid  a  fresh  rupture 
until  a  new  victory  should  have  altered  the  situation  to  his 
advantage.  He,  therefore,  displayed  the  greatest  self-restraint. 
He  called  a  halt  to  the  organisation  of  the  Italian  State  already 
begun  in  Western  Lombardy,  and  submitted  to  an  enquiry 
before  a  number  of  prelates.  The  Pope  lodged  a  complaint 
against  the  Emperor  under  fourteen  heads.  Though  the  sus 
pension  of  hostilities  was  to  depend  on  their  being  disposed  of 
not  one  of  them  dealt  with  the  questions  at  issue.  From  the 
beginning  of  his  arbitration  Pope  Gregory  had  deliberately 
forgotten  that  the  Lombards'  support  of  King  Henry  had  been 
the  fons  et  origo  of  the  new  strife  between  Court  and  Curia. 


468  PAPAL  DUPLICITY  vn 

He  had  preferred  to  ignore  the  Emperor's  justifiable  com 
plaints,  and  pick  holes  in  the  administration  of  Sicily.  The 
issue  was  at  first  perfectly  clear,  but  Pope  Gregory  had  con 
trived,  as  of  yore  in  the  Crusade  question,  to  conceal  and 
distort  it,  and  had  even  been  able  to  lend  a  religious  colour 
to  the  purely  political  question  :  who  should  be  master  in 
Italy. 

There  is  little  need  to  labour  the  question  of  the  essential 
inevitability  of  the  struggle.  The  personal  courage  of  Pope 
Gregory,  which  led  him,  in  spite  of  his  age,  to  force  his  foe  to 
battle  by  every  means  in  his  power,  compels  admiration. 
These  means  aimed  at  so  distorting  facts  that  the  Emperor 
might  appear  to  have  injured  the  Lombards.  Ultimately  these 
methods  did  more  harm  to  the  Pope  than  to  the  Emperor. 
The  fourteen  points,  whose  enunciation  was  intended  to  mask 
the  designs  of  the  Curia,  were  completely  unimportant.  They 
dealt  with  the  alleged  oppression  of  churches,  monasteries  and 
clergy  in  Sicily,  with  the  treatment  of  the  Templars  and  Knights 
of  St.  John,  with  a  Muslim  prince  whose  conversion  to  Chris 
tianity  Frederick  was  supposed  to  have  hindered,  and  similar 
petty  accusations  which  the  Emperor  was  in  many  cases  able 
to  disprove.  It  was  certainly  true  that  his  friends  had  stirred 
up  disaffection  in  Rome  against  the  Pope,  though  the  Emperor 
skilfully  excused  himself:  the  Pope  also  had  underlings  in 
Rome  who  served  his  ends.  Gregory  only  touched  on  the 
Lombard  question,  the  core  of  the  whole  situation,  casually  and 
as  a  side-issue  :  he  reproached  the  Emperor  with  allowing 
the  cause  of  the  Holy  Land  to  suffer  by  his  Lombard  war — 
the  same  old  complaint  which  two  years  before  had  stirred  the 
German  princes  to  indignation. 

An  understanding  might  have  still  been  possible  on  all  these 
points,  especially  as  the  Emperor  promised  speedy  correction 
for  Sicilian  irregularities,  but  Gregory's  whole  attitude  made 
it  obvious  that  he  did  not  want  an  understanding.  Discussions 
grew  more  and  more  acrimonious.  On  the  Emperor's  side 
Hermann  of  Salza,  the  trusty  peacemaker  of  years,  began  to 
fail.  The  German  Grand  Master  had  come  with  King  Conrad's 
troops  to  Italy,  already  seriously  ill,  he  was  now  trying  to  recruit 
his  strength  in  enforced  inactivity  in  Salerno.  He  could  no 


ENZIO,  FALCONELLO  469 

longer  be  counted  on.  Meantime  the  air  in  Italy  grew  thun 
derous.  Frederick's  own  behaviour  did  little  to  relieve  the 
prevailing  tension  :  as  the  signs  of  coming  conflict  grew  plainer 
he  gave  fresh  cause  of  offence.  That  October  saw  in  Cremona 
the  festivities  that  accompanied  the  knighting  of  his  beloved 
son  Enzio. 


Of  all  the  sons  Enzio  must  have  been  the  most  like  his 
father.  Frederick  himself  called  him  "  in  face  and  figure  our 
very  image."  Enzio  was  the  son  of  a  German  lady  of  noble 
rank  whom  Frederick  had  loved  in  his  early  days  as  German 
king,  and  the  proud,  handsome  boy,  with  his  lithe  body,  his 
medium  height,  his  long  golden  curls  falling  to  his  shoulders, 
may  have  well  recalled  the  picture  of  the  Puer  Apuliae  men 
might  otherwise  have  forgotten.  Well  built,  alert  and  light  of 
foot  (people  even  called  him  falconello),  incomparably  daring 
and  fearless,  the  first  in  every  fight,  a  hero  rejoicing  in  danger 
and  bearing  many  a  wound — such  is  the  picture  that  contem 
poraries  paint. 

The  easy  freedom  and  elasticity  of  his  mind  matched  his 
agile  body,  and  the  courtly  training  of  the  day  had  given  it  full 
development.  He  was  far  from  being  so  learned  as  his  father, 
but  he  was  thoroughly  cultured,  intellectually  most  receptive, 
and  a  poet  to  boot.  Joy  in  life  and  joy  in  living  ring  from  his 
lyrics  even  when  the  singer  was  in  prison  mourning  his  fate. 
If  the  father  appeared  as  a  Caesar  reincarnate,  something  of 
Achilles  was  reborn  in  Enzio.  A  simple  straightforward 
soldier,  singer  and  king,  the  mind  conjures  him  up  seated 
outside  the  royal  tent  during  a  pause  in  the  battle  playing  the 
harp  amongst  his  lighthearted  companions. 

Enzio's  unique  charm,  which  has  so  often  been  recorded, 
probably  lay  in  this  natural  grace  and  simple  heartiness  :  his 
enemies  even  fell  victims  to  it,  and  it  is  rare  that  spite  or  malice 
even  graze  this  handsome  lad,  though  no  slander  is  hateful 
enough  for  the  opponents  to  heap  on  the  rest  of  the  Hohen- 
staufens.  Legends  and  tales  were  woven  round  this  imperial 
son,  even  in  his  lifetime.  They  have  an  epic  simplicity,  happy, 
simple,  less  "  profound  "  than  the  anecdotes,  always  a  shade 


470  KING  OF  SARDINIA  vn 

uncanny  and  sinister,  that  gather  round  the  father.    A  German 
dream  was  Enzio — such  as  life  too  rarely  yields. 

Hard  upon  Enzio 's  knighthood  at  about  twenty  followed  his 
marriage  with  Adelasia,  the  heiress  of  two  Sardinian  provinces, 
by  right  of  which  he  was  entitled  "  King  of  Torre  and  Gallura," 
or  King  of  Sardinia.  This  marriage  had  been  arranged  at 
Frederick's  wish,  but  was  destined  to  accentuate  the  quarrel 
with  the  Roman  Curia.  For  Sardinia  was  reckoned  'a  fief  of 
the  Church  which  long  ago  Pisa  and  Genoa,  with  papal  en 
couragement,  had  plucked  from  the  hands  of  the  Saracen. 
Barbarossa,  on  the  other  hand,  during  his  struggle  with  the 
Papacy,  had  granted  Sardinia  in  fee  to  the  sea  towns,  so  that 
the  Empire  now  laid  claim  to  the  island,  and  it  became  like  the 
Matildine  inheritance,  a  perpetual  bone  of  contention  between 
popes  and  emperors.  By  marrying  Enzio  to  the  heiress  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  island  Frederick  expected  to  acquire  new 
rights,  and  he  was  not  to  be  turned  aside  by  Pope  Gregory's 
express  veto.  He  had  vowed,  he  said,  to  win  back  for  the 
Empire  all  the  possessions  it  had  lost,  and  the  main  factor  in 
the  Pope's  wrath  at  Enzio 's  marriage  was,  he  hinted,  the  fact 
that  Pope  Gregory  had  coveted  the  handsome  boy  for  one  of 
his  nieces. 


Whatever  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  case  the  Emperor's 
procedure  embittered  the  Pope  afresh,  and  peace  was  not 
easily  maintained.  Frederick  II  repeatedly  sought  to  re-estab 
lish  good  relations  with  the  Pope.  Gregory,  however,  only 
dallied  with  the  Emperor's  envoys,  most  distinguished  men 
like  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo,  Count  Thomas  of  Aquino, 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa.  He  had  been  long  since  planning  a 
breach.  The  embassy  was  fruitless.  Frederick  saw  clearly 
what  was  coming.  He  had  taken  up  his  winter  quarters  in 
Padua,  intending  a  lengthy  stay,  and  there  the  beginning  of 
1239  found  him.  He  was  living  with  his  court  in  the  monastery 
of  Santa  Justina.  It  was  a  great  honour  for  the  monks,  of 
course,  but  no  small  burden,  for  they  were  expected  (as  were 
later  the  monks  of  San  Zeno  in  Verona)  to  entertain  an  elephant, 
five  leopards  and  twenty-four  camels,  as  well  as  an  emperor. 


APPEAL  TO   CARDINALS  471 

The  Emperor  had  summoned  Eccelino  to  Padua.  His 
government  of  the  Trevisan  March  had  been  threatened  by 
the  intrigues  of  his  brother  Alberigo  of  Romano,  Azzo  of  Este 
and  other  nobles,  who  were  jealous  of  Eccelino 's  growing 
power.  The  situation  must  have  been  eased  a  little  by 
Frederick's  arrival  in  person,  and  by  his  giving  his  daughter 
Selvaggia  in  marriage  to  Eccelino.  Similar  unrest  in  Parma 
had  shortly  before  been  quelled  and  peace  quickly  restored  by 
Frederick's  appearance  on  the  spot,  the  strengthening  of  the 
imperial  palace,  and  Frederick's  taking  over  the  office  ofpodesta 
himself. 

Frederick  tried  to  improve  matters  with  the  Pope  by  re 
issuing  his  edicts  against  heretics,  but  he  must  have  known  the 
case  was  hopeless.  A  couple  of  weeks  later  he  tried  a  new 
expedient  to  avert  the  threatening  ban.  He  addressed  himself 
no  longer  to  the  Pope  but  to  the  cardinals,  availing  himself  of 
their  divided  counsels.  In  order  to  subordinate  the  Pope's 
position  to  the  College  of  Cardinals  Frederick  evolved  a  re 
markable  new  theory,  in  reality  an  old  well-nigh  forgotten 
theory  revived  :  an  expedient  which  later  generations  took  up 
again.  The  Emperor  recalled  that  the  cardinals,  the  lights  and 
true  representatives  of  the  Church,  were  also  successors  of  the 
apostles.  Peter  had  been  only  spokesman  and  executant  among 
the  apostles,  not  their  despotic  master,  and  similarly  the  Pope, 
as  successor  of  Peter,  was  in  all  questions  of  Church  policy  and 
jurisdiction  only  the  president  and  executive  officer  of  the 
cardinals,  his  equals.  Frederick  thus  sought  to  appeal  to  an 
oligarchy  of  the  cardinals,  amongst  whom  he  had  many  friends, 
instead  of  to  the  rigid  papal  autocracy.  It  was,  he  wrote,  the 
cardinals'  business  to  avert  the  imminent  offence.  The  ulti 
mate  responsibility  was  theirs  if  the  Pope,  whom  they  had 
elected  to  proclaim  the  gospel,  chose  to  wield  the  spiritual  sword 
in  the  interests  of  Lombard  rebels  and  heretics  against  the 
Advocate  of  Rome.  For  their  own  prestige,  which  the  Emperor 
highly  valued,  he  must  beg  the  college  to  dissuade  the  Pope 
from  his  rash  enterprise  ;  the  whole  world  possessed  irrefutable 
proof  that  it  was  based  on  injustice  and  domineering  caprice. 
The  cardinals  who  shared  responsibility  for  whatever  occurred 
would  feel  his  imperial  vengeance  :  he  would  have  to  take  steps 


472  EXCOMMUNICATION  vn 

against  them,  for  neither  this  Pope  himself  nor  his  kin  were 
worthy  that  the  illustrious  Empire  should  waste  attention  on 
him  or  them.  Frederick  II  was  already  dubbing  the  Pope 
"  unworthy."  He  himself,  he  added  menacingly,  was  willing 
to  bear  injustice  from  the  Holy  Father,  but  actual  violence  he 
would  requite  with  the  measures  "  which  Caesars  are  wont  to 
use." 

This  ambitious  document  was  the  Emperor's  last  attempt  to 
preserve  peace  by  threat.  He  knew  exactly  what  was  now  at 
stake.  Deposition  and  excommunication  awaited  him  as  soon 
as  the  breach  with  Pope  Gregory  should  come.  He  had  no 
further  power  to  influence  the  Pope's  decisions.  Things  must 
take  their  course.  He  could  do  nothing  but  outwardly  preserve 
an  unruffled  calm.  No  one  could  have  divined  from  his  manner 
of  life  the  weight  of  the  burden  that  lay  on  the  whole  court. 
Those  were  many  care-free  days — to  all  appearance — which  he 
spent  in  Padua.  Banquets  and  hunting  parties  succeeded  each 
other,  and  when  on  Palm.  Sunday  the  Paduans,  in  accordance 
with  ancient  custom,  were  making  merry  on  the  town  common 
with  every  sort  of  sport  the  Emperor  appeared  among  them. 
From  his  raised  seat  as  from  a  throne  he  watched  the  proceed 
ings  with  cheerful  good-fellowship,  while  Piero  della  Vigna 
made  one  of  his  magnificent  speeches,  in  which  he  dwelt 
specially  on  the  Emperor's  affection  and  goodwill  towards  the 
people  of  Padua.  None  could  have  guessed  that  at  that  Tery 
moment  the  Pope's  ban  had  fallen.  Frederick's  letter  to  the 
cardinals,  from  which  he  had  expected  great  things,  arrived 
too  late.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  Pope  had  got  wind  of  it, 
and  fearful  perhaps  of  the  cardinals'  intervention,  had  antici 
pated  Maundy  Thursday,  which  was  the  usual  opportunity  for 
proclaiming  excommunications.  Determined  to  postpone  the 
fight  no  longer  he  acted  swiftly,  perhaps  over-hastily. 

On  that  same  Sunday,  while  Frederick  in  Padua  was  watching 
the  amusements  of  the  people,  Gregory  IX  excommunicated 
the  Emperor  for  the  second  time.  From  henceforth  at  every 
High  Mass,  in  every  church  throughout  the  world,  every  priest, 
to  the  accompaniment  of  bell  and  of  burning  tapers,  should 
proclaim  Frederick's  extrusion  from  the  community  of  the 
faithful.  Simultaneously  all  subjects  of  Frederick  were  re- 


1239         DEATH  OF  HERMANN  OF  SALZA          473 

leased  from  their  oaths  of  fealty.  Not  one  syllable  of  Gregory's 
pronouncement  hinted  that  the  Lombards  had  been  the  cause 
of  strife  :  the  whole  cause  of  the  ban  was  sought  in  the  Sicilian 
differences. 


The  die  was  cast.  By  a  fateful  coincidence  the  great  German 
Grand  Master,  Hermann  of  Salza,  died  on  that  Palm  Sunday 
in  Salerno.  His  life  had  been  devoted  to  preserving  the  unity 
of  Empire  and  Papacy.  It  had  lost  all  meaning.  The  ideal 
picture  of  a  Pope  and  Emperor  perfectly  balanced  and  perfectly 
united  in  a  perfectly-organised  world,  that  had  floated  before 
the  mind  of  Europe  for  centuries,  was  shattered  for  ever.  The 
ruthless,  savage  combat  d  entrance  between  the  two  powers 
began,  though  the  monstrous  strife  that  overstrained  the 
strength  of  both  antagonists,  and  in  a  few  years  devoured  the 
hoarded  wealth  of  centuries,  was  destined  to  remain  indecisive. 
The  Interregnum  and  Avignon  are  the  graves  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  of  Christian  world  dominance. 

When  the  news  of  the  excommunication  reached  the  Emperor 
in  Padua  a  week  later  there  was  a  moment  of  consternation. 
Frederick  summoned  the  Paduans  to  the  town-hall.  Piero  della 
Vigna  had  to  address  them  a  second  time  in  the  name  of  the 
Emperor,  and  scarcely  had  he  ceased  speaking  than,  to  the 
amazement  of  the  people,  the  monarch  himself  lifted  up  his 
voice  from  his  elevated  seat  to  defend  himself  against  the  pre 
cipitate  action  of  the  Pope.  The  tension  was  relieved.  The 
Emperor  quitted  Padua.  The  paralysing  uncertainty  that  had 
condemned  him  to  inactivity  during  the  leaden-footed  months 
of  suspense  was  ended,  and  was  replaced  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  by  an  almost  feverish  activity.  He  could  no\\r  develop 
without  let  or  hindrance.  In  those  last  months  of  oppressive 
strain,  when  everything  had  to  be  done  with  the  utmost  silence 
and  caution,  Piero  della  Vigna  had  warned  the  Grand  Justiciar 
of  Sicily  to  beware  of  irritating  the  sensitiveness  of  the  Roman 
Curia  by  any  measure  not  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  Emperor, 
lest  he  should  thereby  pour  oil  on  the  fire  and  set  the  whole  of 
Italy  ablaze.  No  such  consideration  now  prevailed.  The  long- 
dammed  wrath  burst  forth.  The  Emperor  addressed  the  world 


474  FREE  TO  FIGHT  vii 

in  thunderous  manifestos  and  pamphlets  full  of  passion,  pro 
voking  thereby  from  the  Curia  reproaches  and  retorts  not  less 
vehement.  These  were  the  flourishes  of  the  trumpets  before 
the  battle.  Actions  soon  succeeded  each  other  headlong. 
Frederick  at  last  was  free  to  develop  all  his  rich  resources  in 
their  full  magnificence. 

To  turn  to  the  fighting.  .  .  .  The  campaign  against  the 
Lombard  rebels  had  become  a  side  issue.  In  spite  of  it  an 
unprecedented  work  of  reorganisation  was  accomplished  within 
a  few  months.  Hither  and  thither,  to  and  fro,  in  every  direc 
tion  Frederick  crossed  and  re-crossed  Northern  Italy.  The 
announcement  of  the  ban  had  cheered  the  rebels,  the  Curia 
intrigued  through  its  legates  everywhere,  and  conflagrations 
were  breaking  out  in  various  places.  Frederick  hastened  from 
Padua  to  Treviso,  then  back  to  Padua,  and  off  again  to  Vicenza 
to  make  sure  of  the  nobles  of  the  Trevisan  March  who,  under 
Margrave  Azzo  of  Este,  Eccelino's  enemy,  were  inclined  to  quit 
the  Emperor's  cause.  The  Emperor  could  do  little  to  prevent 
it.  The  Margrave,  who  had  recently  sworn  good  faith,  betrayed 
him.  In  the  middle  of  May  Treviso  was  surprised,  and  the 
imperial  podesta,  Jacob  of  Morra,  driven  out.  In  the  middle 
of  June  Azzo  of  Este  went  over  to  the  enemy,  and  other  nobles 
with  him.  A  solemn  session  was  held  in  Verona,  and  Piero 
della  Vigna,  seated  on  horseback,  was  commanded  to  proclaim 
the  imperial  ban  against  them. 

At  the  end  of  June  the  hitherto  completely  loyal  town  of 
Ravenna  suddenly  seceded.  The  Emperor  himself  hastened 
to  Cremona,  where  Cardinal  Sinibald  Fiesco,  later  Pope  Innocent 
IV,  had  stirred  up  the  people,  and  Paulus  Traversarius^otfota 
of  Ravenna,  had  driven  out  the  Emperor's  adherents,  though 
his  only  daughter  was  said  to  be  a  hostage  in  the  Emperor's 
hands.  The  protection  of  Ravenna  had  been  entrusted  to 
Bologna  and  to  Venice.  Frederick  rapidly  marched  out  from 
Cremona  into  the  Romagna  for  a  campaign  against  the  Bolog- 
nese.  The  territories  without  the  town  were  laid  waste,  and 
two  fortresses,  Piumazzo  and  Crevalcore,  were  conquered 
within  a  fortnight.  By  the  end  of  August  the  Emperor  was 
again  in  Parma,  where  signs  of  unrest  had  shown  themselves 
the  year  before,  and,  finally,  from  mid-September  till  the 


ATTACK  ON  SICILY  475 

beginning  of  November,  he  was  prosecuting  the  war  under 
circumstances  of  the  gravest  difficulty  against  Milan  and  against 
Piacenza,  the  Curia's  latest  ally.  Frederick  had  no  intention 
of  trying  actually  to  take  these  towns  any  more  than  Bologna, 
He  had  no  time  for  long-drawn  sieges.  He  had  weightier  tasks 
in  hand. 

He  did  his  best  to  compel  the  town  troops  to  accept  battle 
in  the  open.  If  they  evaded  it  he  wasted  their  town  lands, 
which  caused  them  sensible  loss.  He  did  not  succeed,  how 
ever,  as  with  his  considerable  superiority  in  force  he  had 
doubtless  hoped,  in  repeating  Cortenuova.  Each  time  he  ad 
vanced  against  Milan,  after  conquering  and  burning  down 
several  fortresses  on  various  sides,  the  Milanese  simply  gave 
way  or  retreated  to  their  town  under  cover  of  trenches  and 
hastily  drained  water-courses.  Frederick  was  in  this  way  suc 
cessful  in  inducing  Como  and  some  neighbouring  towns  to 
forsake  the  Milanese  and  come  over  to  his  side.  This  was  an 
important  gain,  for  Como  was  "  the  key  to  the  passage  from 
Germany  to  Italy/'  as  the  Emperor  wrote  to  King  Conrad. 
The  Julier  and  Septimer  Passes,  and  possibly  the  St.  Gothard 
also,  were  now  open  to  him  as  well  as  the  Brenner.  Just  before 
the  onset  of  winter,  Frederick  had  hastily  undertaken  a  new 
venture,  the  capture  of  a  new  bridge-head  which  Piacenza  had 
recently  built  on  the  Po.  Continuous  rain  fell  for  days,  the 
Po  flooded  its  banks,  the  bridge-head  was  inaccessible,  and  the 
effort  had  to  be  abandoned. 


The  fighting  had  only  just  begun,  the  Emperor  was  still  in 
the  Bologna  terrain,  when  the  Curia  compelled  him  to  turn  his 
thoughts  to  other  things.  The  alliance  which  Pope  Gregory 
had  engineered  between  Venice  and  Genoa  was  widened  by 
the  inclusion  of  Piacenza  and  Milan,  and,  finally,  of  the  Roman 
Curia  itself.  The  agreement  was  that  none  of  the  contracting 
parties,  not  even  the  Pope,  should  make  peace  with  the  Em 
peror  without  the  concurrence  of  the  others,  and,  further,  that 
Venice  and  Genoa  should  land  troops — their  own  and  the 
Pope's— in  Sicily.  A  great  attack  on  Sicily,  the  basis  of  the 
imperial  power,  was  planned.  They  reckoned  that  six  months 


476  PAPAL  PROGRAMME  vn 

would  suffice  for  the  campaign,  and  the  distribution  of  the  spoils 
had  been  agreed  upon.  The  Pope  would  keep  the  whole  king 
dom  quod  est  beati  Petri  patrimonium.  Venice  would  be  re 
warded  by  the  harbours  of  Barletta  and  Salpi,  and  Genoa  by 
the  restoration  of  her  bitterly-mourned  Syracuse,  and  both 
should  receive  compensation  in  other  ways  also  for  their 
expenses.  This  was  the  programme  of  the  group  of  compact 
allies  whom  Frederick  had  now  to  face. 

The  Emperor  saw  his  Sicilian  kingdom  gravely  imperilled. 
Even  if  he  was  at  first  unacquainted  with  these  secret  arrange 
ments,  which  is  most  unlikely,  he  must  from  his  previous 
experience  have  been  fully  prepared  for  the  invasion  of  Sicily 
by  a  papal  army  as  soon  as  one  had  been  mustered.  He  could 
not  break  off  the  war  in  Northern  Italy,  but  he  must  seek  at 
the  same  time  so  to  secure  his  territories  on  every  side  that 
they  would  be  strong  enough  not  only  to  ward  off  attack  but 
to  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  their  way.  Sicily  must  surpass 
her  previous  achievements  in  raising  money  and  war-material. 
Complete  reorganisation  was  necessary  to  put  the  kingdom  on 
a  war  footing,  for  the  country  was  at  the  moment  being  governed 
by  a  Council  of  the  Household  Officers  (consisting  of  the  Grand 
Justiciar  Henry  of  Morra,  Count  Thomas  of  Aquino,  the  Arch 
bishop  Berard  of  Palermo  and  two  other  prelates)  to  whom 
Frederick  had  entrusted  the  regency  during  his  absence.  This 
independent  council  would  no  longer  be  serviceable.  The 
outbreak  of  war  with  the  Church  involved  Sicily's  meeting  the 
ever-varying  demands  of  the  Emperor  fighting  in  the  North, 
in  addition  to  her  own  normal  requirements.  The  Council 
could  not  divine  what  Frederick's  needs  might  be.  The 
Emperor  must,  therefore,  resume  the  direct  government  of 
Sicily  himself. 

One  difficulty  of  his  doing  so  was  that  since  he  had  left  his 
hereditary  dominions  for  Germany  nearly  five  years  before  he 
had  not  set  foot  in  them  again  ;  another,  that  he  could  not  for 
the  present  dream  of  returning ;  and,  finally,  that  the  communi 
cations  with  Sicily  by  land  were  still  severed  by  the  Papal 
State.  The  reorganisation  and  mobilisation  of  Sicily  had, 
therefore,  to  be  conducted  under  circumstances  of  the  utmost 
difficulty  in  accordance  with  instructions  sent  by  the  Emperor 


REORGANISATION   OF   SICILY  477 

from  North  Italy.  Nothing  but  the  well-planned,  well-oiled 
machinery  of  the  Sicilian  State  made  this  possible. 

It  was  soon  manifest  what  the  will  of  one  individual  could 
accomplish  in  a  minimum  of  time  when  backed  by  a  brilliantly 
drilled,  unspoiled  bureaucracy,  working  at  high  presssure. 
The  Household  Officers  were  superseded,  the  central  authori 
ties  of  Sicily  :  Administration,  Justice,  Chancery,  were  linked 
up  directly  with  the  Court,  as  it  hastened  to  and  fro  in  North 
Italy  from  one  battle  to  another.  Earlier  pledges  to  the  Curia 
to  keep  the  administration  of  Sicily  separate  from  that  of  the 
Empire  were  no  longer  binding.  There  was  now  one  uniform 
imperial  administration,  one  Supreme  Court,  one  common 
imperial  Chancery,  one  imperial  Treasury ;  no  longer  a  Sicilian, 
but  an  Imperial  Fleet,  under  an  Imperial  Admiral.  The 
highest  official  of  Sicily,  the  Grand  Justiciar,  Henry  of  Morra, 
could  no  longer  represent  the  Emperor  in  Sicily,  because  his 
permanent  presence  with  the  Court  was  necessary.  In  order 
that  the  justiciars  might  not,  meanwhile,  lack  supervision,  the 
Sicilian  justiciarates  were  divided  into  two  groups,  each  of 
which  was  under  a  Captain  or  Grand  Justiciar  :  peninsular 
Sicily,  under  the  tried  and  trusty  Andrew  of  Cicala,  who  fre 
quently  submitted  independent  suggestions  to  the  Emperor  ; 
island  Sicily,  under  Roger  de  Amicis,  already  well  known  as 
one  of  the  poets.  To  avoid  "  confusion  of  numbers  "  and 
"  permanence  of  appointments  "  the  number  and  the  tenure 
of  the  officials  was  normalised  for  each  province  on  the  simplest 
possible  basis  :  one  Justiciar,  one  High  Treasurer  ;  with  each 
Justiciar,  one  Judge  and  one  Notary ;  all  with  tenure  for  one 
year  only.  The  kingdom  had,  therefore,  a  tighter  grip  than  ever 
on  its  officials  ;  the  constitutional  structure  was  more  symme 
trical,  more  rigid,  more  transparent  than  ever.  It  is  to  this 
period  that  Frederick's  phrase  belongs :  "  Sicily  shall  be  the 
envy  of  princes,  the  pattern  of  monarchies  " — invidia  principum 
et  norma  regnorum. 

The  entire  Sicilian  administration  was  now  centred  in  the 
Emperor's  court  in  Northern.  Italy.  The  burden  was  lifted 
from  Frederick's  shoulders  by  the  Chancery,  which  was  admir 
ably  organised  under  its  two  heads:  Piero  della  Vigna  and 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa.  The  mass  of  work  to  be  dealt  with  was 


478  SPEED  vii 

stupendous.    All  orders  had  necessarily  to  be  in  writing.    All 
imperial  instructions  had  to  be  issued  through  the  Chancery, 
which,  therefore,  had  to  follow  the  Emperor  hither  and  thither 
in  all  his  campaigning,  whether  his  headquarters  were  in  town 
or  camp.    Not  for  a  day  was  the  flow  of  orders  interrupted. 
The  name  and  date  on  the  documents  show  that  on  marching 
days  the  Chancery  worked  all  morning  till  the  moment  of 
starting,  and  resumed  work  immediately  on  arrival.    The 
notaries  had  countless  other  business  to  attend  to,  since  the 
Sicilian   and   Imperial    Chanceries   were    not   amalgamated. 
When  we  reflect  that  dozens  of  written  orders  of  every  descrip 
tion  were  issued  daily  (some  days  up  to  thirty  or  forty  or  even 
more)  all  drafted  in  careful  style,  all  in  two  or  three  copies  ;  that 
there  were  in  addition  constant  circulars  to  the  Justiciars,  we 
get  some  idea  of  the  labour  which  fell  on  the  six  or  eight  writers 
and  six  or  eight  transmitters.    In  these  days  of  crisis  all  work 
must  have  been  done  at  the  highest  possible  pressure  and  at  a 
speed  that  contrasts  with  the  leisureliness  of  earlier  Chanceries. 
The  Emperor  showed  not  the  smallest  compunction  about 
overworking  his  secretaries :   at  least  one-third  of  the  orders 
issued  were  concerned  solely  with  his  personal  hobbies  :  horses, 
hounds,  falcons,  and  the  chase.    Frederick,  however,  truly  said 
that  he  worked  night  and  day,  and  that  "  his  majesty,  ever  ware 
and  waking,  slumbered  not  neither  slept."    The  characteristic 
of  the  new  life  was  speed  :  its  watchword  :  non  sit  quiescendum, 
continue  sit  agendum,  and  the  whirring  pace  of  the  court  corre 
sponded.    The  courtiers  streamed  in  and  out  unceasingly, 
mostly  Sicilian  messengers.    The  land  route  through  the  papal 
patrimonium  was  for  the  most  part  unsafe — the  greatest  caution 
was  enjoined  on  all  who  used  it — and  a  sort  of  express  service 
was  arranged  by  sea  from  Pisa  to  Naples.    Pisan  galleys,  im 
perial  galleys,  and  swift  sailing  yachts  were  utilised.    Troops, 
corn,  cash,  and  courtiers  with  important  despatches  were  sent 
to  and  fro  by  sea,  and  depots  established  at  Naples  and  Pisa. 
The  swift  conveyance  of  despatches  was  highly  prized,  and 
officials  reaped  rich  rewards  for  speed.    To  deal  the  more 
rapidly  with  the  whole,  the  subordinate  personnel  and  the 
writing  staff  were  increased. 


SICILY  SEALED  479 

The  prime  necessity  was  to  secure  Sicily  against  attack.  All 
the  important  fortresses,  which  in  peace  time  were  garrisoned 
by  one  chatelain  and  a  few  men,  were  well  manned,  partly  by 
mercenaries,  partly  by  fief  holders.  Monte  Cassino,  for  in 
stance,  near  the  papal  frontier,  was  allotted  one  hundred  men, 
other  castles  were  speedily  equipped  with  cross-bowmen  and 
missile-throwing  engines.  Every  means  was  taken  to  get  pos 
session  of  important  fortresses.  Prudence  must  be  exercised 
and  scandal  avoided,  but  Castle  Cerro  must  here  be  taken  over, 
and  there  certain  border  strongholds  in  the  Abruzzi  which 
belonged  to  a  Sicilian  knight  or  abbot.  The  participation 
of  Genoa  and  Venice  in  the  war  gave  increased  importance 
to  coast  defence.  The  watching  towers,  which  were  always 
manned  against  pirates  during  the  shipping  season,  were  more 
strongly  garrisoned,  and  the  construction  of  coast  castles  at 
Bari,  Trani,  and  Otranto  was  expedited. 

As  a  preliminary  to  all  other  measures  the  entire  kingdom 
must  be  bolted  and  barred  and  transformed  into  a  single  mighty 
fortress.  The  frontiers  throughout  Sicily  were  rigidly  closed. 
Every  communication  with  the  enemy  was  dangerous  and  must 
be  prevented.  People  wishing  to  enter  the  kingdom  needed  a 
passport.  The  Emperor  would  permit  no  stranger  to  travel, 
buy  or  sell  in  his  territories  unless  he  bore  on  his  right  hand 
the  mark  and  the  number  of  his  name,  till  enemies  made  merry 
about  the  passport  regulations.  Ships  might  only  enter  certain 
specified  harbours  ;  even  to  enable  merchants  more  con 
veniently  to  load  or  unload,  no  exception  was  permitted.  The 
ships  arriving  in  harbour  were  strictly  searched  by  imperial 
officials,  the  crew  and  passengers  minutely  cross-examined — 
the  birthplace  of  each,  whence  he  came,  whither  he  was  going 
and  why.  None  might  leave  the  ship  before  the  examination, 
none  might  leave  the  kingdom  without  the  Emperor's  per 
mission.  Above  all,  papers  and  letters  were  forbidden.  To 
bring  a  letter  into  Sicily  required  the  imperial  permission  in 
each  separate  case.  If  such  permission  had  not  been  obtained 
the  bearer  was  hanged. 

All  communication  with  Rome  was  strictly  forbidden.  A 
man  from  Caserta  was  carrying  a  perfectly  harmless  letter  from 
the  Pope  about  a  benefice  for  his  son.  He  was  imprisoned  and 


480  SICILIAN   CHURCH  vn 

his  property  confiscated  "  on  account  of  his  audacity."  A  non- 
Sicilian  bishop  who  had  some  important  documents  to  hand 
over  was  instructed  to  deliver  them  to  the  Justiciar  at  the  frontier, 
but  not  to  set  foot  in  the  kingdom.  The  Emperor  sought  above 
all  to  prevent  the  intellectual  poisoning  of  his  hereditary  do 
mains.  Hence,  students  from  the  rebel  towns  were  forbidden 
to  study  in  Naples. 

Concurrently  with  the  sealing  up  of  Sicily  against  the  outer 
world  the  country  itself  had  to  be  cleansed  of  suspicious 
elements.  Within  a  few  weeeks  of  the  Emperor's  excommuni 
cation  the  necessary  orders  were  issued  relative  to  suspect 
Sicilian  clergy.  The  mendicant  friars,  the  Pope's  favourite 
spies  and  agents  for  stirring  up  insurrection,  were  expelled. 
At  first  only  those  who  were  natives  of  the  rebellious  towns  were 
banished,  later  all  without  discrimination.  The  lands  of  the 
non-Sicilian  clerics  were  confiscated.  No  priest  might  go  to 
Rome  without  the  Emperor's  orders.  The  loyal  Sicilian  clerics 
who  happened  to  be  in  Rome  on  any  business  must  return  to 
Sicily  without  a  moment's  delay,  on  pain  of  losing  their  pos 
sessions  and  forfeiting  the  right  of  subsequent  return. 

In  addition  to  all  this  the  justiciars  were  instructed  to 
assemble  all  the  bishops  and  clerics  of  their  province  and  to  tell 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor  :  the  Emperor  wished  the 
services  of  the  Church  to  be  continued,  in  spite  of  the  papal 
ban  ;  no  priest  would  be  compelled  to  celebrate  High  Mass,  but 
if  any  pretermitted  the  services  the  worldly  possessions  of  his 
Church  would  be  forfeit.  Further,  the  omission  to  conduct 
service  was  considered  suspicious,  a  sign  that  the  priest  was 
more  ready  to  obey  Pope  than  Emperor,  and  this  often  sufficed 
to  lead  to  banishment  or  the  gallows.  There  was  a  humble 
cleric  who  had  begged  the  Emperor  to  grant  a  rescript  making 
his  bastard  sons  legitimate.  When  the  document  came  he 
whimpered  that  now  perhaps  the  Emperor's  excommunication 
would  invalidate  it.  Frederick  banished  him  "  for  his  shame 
less  impudence  "  and  confiscated  his  property. 

Pope  Gregory  had  complained  about  the  oppression  of  the 
Sicilian  clergy,  and  professed  to  have  excommunicated  the  Em 
peror  on  this  account.  Frederick  now  gave  him  some  oppression 
to  complain  about.  Since  he  had  had  his  first  quarrel  with  the 


SUSPECTS  481 

great  Innocent  as  a  boy  of  fourteen,  the  Emperor's  desire  had 
been  to  build  up  in  Sicily  an  episcopate  independent  of  Rome. 
He  could  now  proceed  to  do  so  without  remorse.  Amongst 
some  one  hundred  and  forty-five  sees  in  the  Sicilian  kingdom 
there  were  at  the  moment  thirty-five  vacancies.  These  were 
either  left  vacant  or  filled  by  trusty  supporters  of  Frederick, 
here  a  notary,  there  a  nephew  of  the  chamberlain  Richard,  in 
another  see  another  loyalist.  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo, 
who  as  the  most  faithful  adherent  of  Frederick,  had  also  been 
excommunicated,  became  the  head  of  the  Sicilian  Church. 
Rome  had  here  lost  all  weight,  and  the  longer  the  ban  lasted 
the  more  unimportant  she  became.  A  priest  who  applied  for 
a  bishopric  without  the  Emperor's  leave  was  called  on  to  answer 
for  it  to  the  Court.  The  sternest  watch  was  kept  to  see  that 
all  imperial  orders  were  carried  out. 

By  such  measures  the  Sicilian  Church  was  rapidly  purged. 
All  who  remained  were  loyal  to  the  Emperor,  and  the  future 
proved  them  completely  trustworthy.  A  large  number  of 
bishops  had  first  to  be  got  rid  of  on  the  most  various  grounds  : 
unquestionably  all  who  had  sided  with  the  Pope  in  Frederick's 
first  breach  over  the  Crusade.  In  this  matter  the  Emperor 
dealt  out  banishment  and  confiscation  of  property  to  clergy  and 
laity  alike.  The  justiciars  were  ceaselessly  commissioned  to 
investigate  all  cases  against  suspects  of  this  sort,  and  the  little 
notebook  which  all  suspects  were  obliged  to  carry  about  with 
them  must  have  considerably  lightened  the  task  of  the  officials. 
The  feudal  nobility  who  had  participated  in  the  rebellion  of 
1229  were  mercilessly  banished  with  their  families.  As 
Frederick  punished  all  relatives  of  heretics  to  the  second 
generation  "  that  they  might  know  God  to  be  a  jealous  God, 
visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,"  so  he  turned 
out  the  relatives  of  the  rebels  whether  clerics  or  laymen.  The 
measures  adopted  towards  the  feudal  nobility  were,  however, 
varied.  Some  of  them  were  despatched  to  join  the  imperial 
armies  in  Lombardy  and  some  shipped  off  to  the  army 
in  Palestine.  Pope  Gregory  had  already  complained  that 
Frederick  was  misusing  his  sacred  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  as  a 
penal  settlement  for  political  criminals  and  suspects,  and  the 
process  naturally  did  not  now  cease.  A  knight  who  had  quitted 


482  SECRET  SERVICE  vn 

the  Syrian  army  without  permission  was  imprisoned.  Another 
who  had  left  the  Court  without  leave  shared  his  fate,  while  a 
third  for  similar  reasons  was  sent  in  chains  to  Malta.  In  such 
cases  the  Emperor  also  banished  the  families  of  the  exiles,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  held  the  families  of  his  own  supporters 
as  hostages  for  their  good  faith.  The  instructions  to  send 
fighting  men  or  subordinate  officials  to  Italy  "  who  are  of  loyal 
stock  and  who  have  brothers  and  sons  in  Sicily  "  becomes  a 
recurrent  formula.  These  were  then  his  hostages  on  whom 
he  could  if  necessary  wreak  vengeance.  He  had  a  sufficient 
number  of  hostages  from  every  town,  and  it  is  to  be  understood 
that  he  never  hesitated  a  moment  to  avenge  himself  on  them. 
When  the  Venetians  gave  him  trouble  he  immediately  hanged 
the  Doge's  son,  Pietro  Tiepolo.  He  is  said  to  have  burnt 
the  daughter  of  Paulus  Traversarius,  the  renegade  podesta  of 
Ravenna.  When  an  opportunity  offered  to  take  Pope  Gregory's 
brother  prisoner  Frederick  immediately  responded  and  wrote 
that  the  proposal  pleased  him  and  would  please  him  still  better 
if  successfully  carried  out :  the  official  in  question  could  not 
render  him  a  more  welcome  service.  He  is  alleged — but  the 
accusation  is  probably  unfounded — to  have  hanged  all  Pope 
Gregory's  blood  relations.  He  admitted  himself  that  he  hated 
the  whole  "  breed." 

This  system  undoubtedly  breathed  immense  suspicion  and 
mistrust.  But  Frederick  II  would  have  been  lost  without  these 
qualities,  which  he  shares  with  every  great  man  whose  position 
has  been  equally  precarious.  It  was  the  Tyranny  in  action, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  Sicily  or  Italy  without  tyrants. 
Under  this  system  denunciation  flourished  more  and  more 
luxuriantly,  which  had  both  drawbacks  and  advantages.  The 
accusers  were  frequently  prompted  by  purely  personal  spite 
(a  blood  feud,  for  instance,  once  entered  into  the  matter),  but 
each  case  had  to  be  exactly  investigated.  In  this  process  all 
sorts  of  facts  came  to  light,  even  corruption  and  deceit  on  the 
part  of  the  officials  who,  especially  in  the  later  phases,  fre 
quently  allowed  themselves  to  be  bought  off  by  the  accused. 
These  denunciations  were  part  and  parcel  of  the  secret  service 
which  the  Emperor  urgently  required,  "  I  have  messengers 
and  envoys  everywhere,  and  hear  all  that  is  going  on/'  Frederick 


BENEVENTO  DESTROYED  483 

once  stated  to  the  General  of  the  Dominicans.  It  was  perfectly 
true  that  he  enjoyed  that  omniscience  which  goes  with  great 
ness.  From  his  camp  before  the  walls  of  Milan  he  was  able  to 
inform  the  justiciar  of  the  Abruzzi  that  a  number  of  people 
quoted  by  name  had  secretly  exchanged  gifts  with  the  rebels. 
Would  the  official  kindly  look  into  the  matter  and  hang  the 
guilty  "as  a  punishment  for  themselves  and  as  a  terror  to 
others."  At  about  the  same  time  he  pointed  out  to  the  justiciar 
of  the  Terra  Laboris  that  a  Capuan  from  his  province  was 
resident  in  Rome  :  his  property  should  be  sequestrated.  He 
learnt  that  certain  Templars  in  disguise  were  bringing  moneys 
to  assist  the  rebels  :  he  begged  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Order 
to  put  a  stop  to  this. 

His  purification  of  the  kingdom  would  have  been  incomplete 
if  he  had  not  eliminated  the  papal  enclave  at  Benevento.  As 
the  focus  of  the  Curia's  hostile  propaganda,  whence  resistance 
to  the  Emperor  was  organised,  Benevento  must  have  been  in 
very  deed  "  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of  offence." 
Numerous  Sicilians  who  were  adherents  of  the  Pope  had  taken 
refuge  there  till  Frederick  finally  commanded  that  no  one 
should  be  allowed  to  return  from  Benevento  into  Sicily,  the 
town  should  be  besieged,  all  exit  prevented,  and  all  supplies  cut 
off.  "  May  she  perish  of  hunger  and  rot  in  the  pestilent  free 
dom  she  herself  has  chosen.  ..."  In  1241  Benevento  was 
completely  destroyed. 


By  such  measures  the  security  of  Sicily,  internal  and  external, 
was  assured  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  The  kingdom  was 
not  only  to  enjoy  peace  but  to  employ  its  peace  to  find  money 
and  war-material  for  the  Emperor.  Again  and  again  he  wrote 
that  his  coffers  were  empty  and  he  needed  money.  He  had 
already  raised  loans  in  every  direction  at  incredible  rates  of 
interest :  in  Siena,  in  Parma,  from  a  certain  Henry  Bauni, 
merchant  of  Vienna,  and  especially  from  the  Romans.  He  may 
have  had  a  political  motive  in  applying  to  them.  It  was  useful 
to  make  the  widest  circles  possible  interested  in  the  success  of 
the  imperial  arms.  If  the  Emperor  failed,  the  Roman  creditors 
would  stand  a  good  chance  of  losing  their  money.  The  mer- 


484  FINANCIAL  EXPEDIENTS  vn 

chants  thus  harnessed  to  the  Emperor's  fortunes  could  help  in 
many  ways  to  forward  his  Roman  plans.  There  were  many 
small  groups  of  three  or  four  merchants  who  combined  to 
advance  a  couple  of  hundred  ounces,  an  ounce  of  gold  being 
approximately  two  and  a  half  guineas.  The  total  number  of 
ounces  borrowed  from  Rome  ran  into  tens  of  thousands,  so 
that  a  proportionate  number  of  merchants  were  involved  :  from 
one  statement  of  accounts  alone  we  learn  close  on  eighty  names 
of  creditors. 

The  Emperor's  need  of  money,  if  only  to  pay  his  mercenaries, 
had  grown  immense.  This  is  where  Sicily  had  to  help.  First 
a  new  tax  was  instituted  from  which  neither  clergy  nor  officials 
were,  as  heretofore,  exempt.  New  coins  were  struck,  which 
did  not,  however,  necessarily  imply  any  debasement  of  the 
currency.  The  old  coins  had  to  be  exchanged  for  new,  and  the 
commission  charged  for  the  exchange  brought  in  appreciable 
sums,  since  money-changing  was  a  state  monopoly.  The 
Emperor  gave  orders  that  the  precise  proportion  of  alloy  in  the 
new  coins  was  to  be  kept  secret  so  that  foreign  merchants  might 
not  assess  them  solely  on  their  intrinsic  metal  value. 

The  Emperor  further  called  in  without  exception  all  arrears 
of  taxes  due.  According  to  old  law  the  incomes  of  all  vacant 
bishops'  sees  flowed  direct  into  the  coffers  of  the  State  except 
so  far  as  they  were  expended  on  the  upkeep  of  the  churches. 
On  financial  grounds  the  Emperor  was  not  unduly  keen  on  new 
appointments,  though  political  considerations  sometimes  out 
weighed  economic  ones.  The  whole  financial  administration 
was  now  more  strictly  organised.  A  Court  of  Exchequer  was 
set  up  in  Melfi,  and  all  officials  had  to  submit  their  accounts 
back  to  the  year  1220.  The  entire  official  expenditure  of  the 
past  twenty  years  was  carefully  re-examined,  and  the  officials 
were  personally  liable  to  make  good  any  deficit  out  of  their 
private  means.  All  balances  in  hand  were  simultaneously 
checked.  In  addition,  the  Emperor  commissioned  an  expert 
to  seek  for  buried  treasure. 

The  Emperor's  trade  in  corn  was  a  further  source  of  revenue. 
His  transactions  were  extensive.  That  shipment  to  Tunis  which 
brought  in  almost  £75,000  had  been  arranged  from  Lodi.  The 
Emperor  raised  large  sums  in  Vienna  in  exchange  for  mere 


R<5LE  OF  SICILY  48S 

orders  on  Sicilian  corn.  The  galleys  which  conveyed  Lombard 
prisoners  from  Pisa  to  Apulia  were  instructed  to  use  their  empty 
space  to  bring  back  corn  on  their  return.  Part  of  this  supplied 
the  army's  needs  and  part  was  sold  to  the  Pisans,  though  the 
Emperor  did  not  want  to  profiteer  at  the  expense  of  that  loyal 
town.  He  had  no  scruple  on  the  other  hand  about  making 
money  out  of  the  Venetians.  For,  although  he  was  at  war  with 
them,  the  Emperor  did  not  want  to  lose  a  paying  customer,  and 
he  permitted  the  export  of  provisions  to  Venice, "  but  prudently, 
so  that  it  may  not  appear  a  general  permission . ' '  The  Venetians 
had  equally  little  scruple  in  buying  from  "  the  enemy."  The 
Genoese  were  at  first  also  allowed  to  use  Sicilian  harbours. 
Under  strict  supervision,  this  involved  little  danger  to  the 
Emperor,  but  later  all  trade  with  both  towns  was  forbidden. 
The  State  also  made  money  out  of  pilgrims  :  one-third  of  the 
fare  to  Syria  had  to  be  paid  into  the  Treasury.  All  sale  of 
horses  out  of  the  country  was  strictly  forbidden.  Mention  has 
already  been  made  of  the  great  workshops  which  manufactured 
armour  and  equipment ;  they  were  kept  working  at  full 
pressure. 

All  the  resources  of  Sicily  were  now  strained  to  supply  the 
Emperor  with  what  he  needed  for  the  Italian  war.  Thanks  to 
the  efficient  and  well-disciplined  officials  the  entire  reorgani 
sation  of  the  kingdom  was  possible,  without  any  serious  hitch, 
in  spite  of  the  absence  of  the  ruler.  But  the  Emperor  could 
not  leave  the  pick  of  his  younger  officials  in  Sicily  :  he  wanted 
large  numbers  for  Italy.  Sicily  began  to  suffer  the  fate  that 
always  overtakes  the  homeland  of  a  conqueror :  she  was  un 
duly  drained  of  strength  which  served  the  monarch's  world 
dominion  but  not  the  State  herself.  Frederick  II  had -had,  as 
a  young  Emperor,  to  reconquer  his  ruined  kingdom  ;  during 
his  lawgiving  period  he  had  shown  himself  in  wonderful  har 
mony  with  his  new-created  State ;  now,  as  Caesar,  he  had  far 
outgrown  the  State  in  which  he  had  his  roots,  and  he  now  drew 
means  and  might  from  her  to  overcome  and  harmonise  the 
larger  world  without.  With  other  rulers  of  the  same  calibre 
that  would  have  meant  at  his  age  an  overflowing  into  distant 
regions  :  Frederick  IFs  case  was  different.  His  world-empire 
was  Italy,  and  he  poured  means  and  men  not  into  distant  lands 


486  RECONSTRUCTION  OF  ITALY  vii 

but  into  the  core  of  the  ancient  imperium  which  more  and  more 
sucked  the  life-blood  of  the  universe. 


At  the  same  uncanny  speed  and  in  the  same  masterful  fashion 
the  Grand  Seignory  of  Italy  was  now  established  whose  capital 
was  to  be  Rome,  Soon  after  his  excommunication  Frederick 
announced  "  our  heart  yearns  to  see  Italy  re-established  under 
the  imperial  banner."  No  further  consideration  need  be  ex 
tended  to  the  Pope.  As  priest  Gregory  had  excommunicated 
the  Emperor  ;  as  Italian  prince  and  Ruler  of  the  States  of  the 
Church  he  had  declared  war  by  allying  himself  with  Venice, 
Genoa  and  the  rest ;  Frederick  could,  without  scruple,  extend 
the  boundaries  of  his  Italian  domain  even  further  than  he  had 
originally  intended.  There  was  no  need  for  tenderness  to 
wards  the  States  of  the  Church,  least  of  all  the  two  imperial 
provinces,  the  March  of  Ancona  and  Spoleto  which  Frederick 
had  been  compelled  as  a  boy  to  renounce,  and  which  most  in 
conveniently  barred  his  passage  from  Italy  to  Sicily.  Frederick 
declared  these  two  "  natural  provinces  of  the  Empire  "  con 
fiscate,  and  in  accordance  with  Roman  law  justified  this  resump 
tion  of  the  two  districts  of  which  a  gift  had  been  made  to  the 
Pope,  by  the  simple  phrase  "  ingratitude  of  the  recipient/' 
By  the  time  that  Frederick  made  this  announcement  the  organ 
isation  of  the  new  realm  was  already  well  under  way. 

The  creative  construction  was  speedy,  thorough  and  drastic  ; 
within  a  few  months,  lo !  the  State  stood  there  complete.  It 
usually  required  decades  if  not  centuries  during  the  Middle 
Ages  for  much  slighter  reconstructions  gradually  to  work  them 
selves  out.  Frederick  II  suddenly  evolved  a  new,  rational 
constitution  for  Italy  and  carried  it  through  at  one  swoop.  It 
is  true  that  certain  preliminaries  had  been  disposed  of  some 
years  before.  At  the  Diet  of  Turin,  immediately  after  the 
victory  of  Cortenuova  which  opened  Italy  to  him,  Frederick 
had  instituted  the  first  Vicariate  General  or  Captaincy  General 
(the  new  provinces  were  called  by  either  name  and  their 
governors  were  either  Vicars  General  or  Captains  General). 
This  was  the  province  known  as  "  Upper  Pavia,"  which 
embraced  West  Lombardy  and  Piedmont.  The  main  work 


VICARIATES  GENERAL  487 

was  done  now,  however,  as  a  counter  measure  to  the  Pope's 
attack. 

The  excommunication  silenced  the  last  of  Frederick's 
scruples,  and  he  immediately  completed,  with  the  utmost  speed, 
what  he  had  already  begun.  His  hasty  journeys  to  and  fro 
through  Italy  were  not  only  campaigns  against  the  rebels  : 
wherever  he  appeared  a  new  province  sprang,  fully  organised, 
to  life.  The  news  of  the  excommunication  reached  him  in 
Padua  at  the  beginning  of  April  1239.  O*1  Ma7  Ist  he  in~ 
augurated  the  Vicariate  General  of  the  Trevisan  March,  in  June, 
probably  during  his  stay  in  Cremona,  that  of  "  Lower 
Pavia  "  with  Cremona  roughly  as  its  centre.  The  kingdom 
of  Burgundy  was  at  the  same  time  constituted  a  Vicariate 
General  and  incorporated  into  the  Italian  system,  though  less 
strictly  dragooned  than  the  other  provinces.  Still  in  tfcat  same 
June,  at  the  time  of  the  Bologna  campaign,  Frederick  added 
the  Romagna  to  the  others,  first  as  an  immediate  Vicariate  and 
later  as  a  Vicariate  General.  The  campaign  against  Piacenza 
and  Milan  caused  a  short  interruption  till  a  successful  winter 
campaign  opened  central  Italy.  Under  circumstances  similar 
to  the  Romagna's  Frederick  in  December  1239  incorporated 
the  Ligurian  coast  province  under  the  name  of  the  "  Luni- 
giana  "  ;  this  was  later  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  the  Versiglia 
and  Garfagnana,  and  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  Vicariate  General. 
In  January  1240  the  Vicariate  General  of  Tuscany  followed, 
and  in  the  same  month  two  further  creations,  that  of  the  Ancona 
March  and  of  the  Duchy  of  Spoleto.  In  February  the  con 
quered  portions  of  the  States  of  the  Church,  papal  Tuscany,  in 
particular,  with  Viterbo  as  its  centre,  were  formed  into  a 
Vicariate  General,  "  from  Amelia  through  the  Maritima  to 
Corneto."  A  year  later  Frederick  created  the  province  of  Narni 
also  from  Church  territory.  If  we  add  to  these  the  two  new 
provinces  of  Sicily  which  adjoined  on  the  South  we  find  the 
whole  of  Italy,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  remaining  fragments 
of  the  Patrimonium  and  the  few  rebel  towns,  clearly  and  con 
sistently  organised  in  one  solid  block,  and  working  under  one 
unified  imperial  administration  ruled  by  the  iron  will  of  the 
Italian  Super-Tyrant. 

The  whole  organism  of  this  State,  which  the  excommunicate 


A  SUPER  TYRANT  vii 

Emperor  had  fashioned  under  war  conditions,  was  fluid  and 
elastic  for  all  its  massiveness  and  solidity,  and  according  to  the 
fortunes  of  war  or  other  needs  could  be  regrouped  as  necessary. 
The  large  Captaincies  General  like  Tuscany,  Upper  Pavia 
and  others  were  subdivided  as  required  into  Captaincies,  some 
what  as  the  justiciars'  provinces  were.    The  new  State  was 
fashioned  with  some  exactness  on  the  Sicilian  model,  only  the 
new  creation  was  incomparably  more  powerful.    Beside  the 
mighty  machinery  of  this  imperial  State  Sicily  appeared  like 
some  finely  chiselled  toy.    A  few  indications  will  reveal  the 
character  of  the  world-monarchy  that  was  enshrined  in  Italy. 
Every  great  man  meets  sooner  or  later  with  world  opposition, 
a  united  resistance  from  the  peoples  who  feel  themselves 
threatened.    Frederick  II  met  this  coalition  of  hostile  powers 
not  on  the  periphery  of  his  domains,  on  the  unthreatened 
frontiers  of  the  Roman  Empire,  but  in  its  innermost  recesses 
in  the  Caesar-Papacy  and  the  Lombard  towns.    He  had  to 
operate  with  all  the  human  and  material  resources  of  his  out 
lying  lands  and  peoples,  even  seeking  support  from  foreign 
kings  in  East  and  West,  in  order  to  consolidate  the  universal 
state  in  the  very  centre  of  his  Empire.    The  narrow  compass 
of  Italy  saw  the  concentration  and  accumulation  of  these  forces. 
This  is  the  beginning  of  that  concentration  of  a  maximum  of 
might  in  a  minimum  of  space  which  characterises  the  Renais 
sance.    In  the  centre  of  it  all  towered  Rome,  the  capital  of  the 
world,  the  goal  desired.    Centering  on  Rome  there  arises  that 
unique  Super-seignory  of  Italy  which  shows  in  incredible 
concentration  all  the  characteristics  of  a  world-empire  like 
Napoleon's.    Dignity  and  importance  were  lent  to  this  crea 
tion  of  a  State  by  the  passion  and  intensity  with  which  the 
hostile  powers  organised  their  opposition,  in  whose  despite 
Frederick  II  succeeded  in  establishing  his  despotism  in  its 
naked  simplicity  and  grandeur. 


The  spirit  of  the  new  State  was  akin  to  that  of  the  Sicilian 
Tyranny  ;  the  commissions  of  the  officials  expressed  the  same 
state  philosophy  and  doctrines  of  salvation  ;  but  apart  from 
such  byelaws  as  the  organisation  of  the  bureaucracy  rendered 


BUREAUCRACY  IN   ITALY  489 

necessary  there  was  no  need  for  fresh  legislation.  Frederick  IPs 
Grand  Seignory  revived  the  Imperium  Romanum,  Italy  was  to 
live  again  under  the  standards  of  the  Caesars  ;  it  was  axiomatic 
that  Roman  law  should  rule  in  the  new  Roman  provinces. 

The  Italian  towns  had  long  ago  adopted  and  administered 
Roman  law.  The  new  event  was  that  a  great  State,  fulfilled 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  law,  had  come  again  to  birth  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  Empire  ;  that  the  provinces  of  Italy  were 
again  parts  of  a  monumental  whole  which  a  new  Caesar,  with 
his  officials,  held  firmly  in  his  grip  ;  that  a  new  Augustus  again 
administered  justice  according  to  ancient  formulas,  from  whose 
rule  the  salvation  of  the  world  should  spring.  The  Renovatio 
Imperil  Romanorum  had  been  accomplished  on  Italian  soil. 
Frederick  II  had  quietly  abandoned  his  first  intention  of  filling 
all  the  provincial  governorships  with  Romans  "  of  the  blood  of 
Romulus."  Handicapped  by  the  papal  ban  he  needed  the 
most  trustworthy  agents  he  could  command,  and  only  Sicily 
supplied  them. 

The  new  government  had  been  speedily  and  drastically  in 
troduced,  its  strict  and  exact  operation  was  no  less  drastic. 
There  was  no  existing  constitution  to  which  it  could  be  linked, 
as  there  had  been  in  Sicily,  so  existing  institutions  had  for  the 
most  part  simply  to  be  swept  away.  Imperial  authority  in 
Italy  had  hitherto  been  exercised  solely  through  the  imperial 
legates,  invariably  German  bishops  and  German  nobles. 
There  had  originally  been  one  single  legate  only  for  the  whole 
of  Italy,  but  as  early  as  1222  Frederick  II  had  divided  this 
unmanageably  large  district  into  two  legations,  one  for  Northern 
and  one  for  Central  Italy.  These  German  imperial  legates  with 
wide  powers  and  long  terms  of  office  enjoyed  considerable 
independence,  but  their  influence  was  nevertheless  limited  by 
having  no  substructure  of  subordinate  officials.  They  floated 
vaguely  as  it  were  in  space.  There  was  no  place  for  them  in 
the  new  efficient  intensive  administration  of  the  Emperor,  and 
they  were  abolished.  Their  wide  districts  were  broken  up  into 
the  various  Vicariates  General,  which  permitted  firm  and  im 
mediate  action.  Instead  of  the  independent  legate,  represen 
tative  of  the  Emperor,  dependent  officials  were  installed  to  be 
the  Emperor's  executive  officers,  probably  enjoying  the  civil 


490  LEGATE   GENERAL  vn 

and  military  powers  of  a  justiciar.  Finally,  instead  of  the 
lengthy  tenure  of  office  which  had  been  the  prerogative  of  the 
legation,  the  short  term  usual  in  Sicily  was  introduced  even  for 
Vicars  General,  and  exchange  of  officers  was  frequent,  if  not 
invariable,  to  avoid  any  fraternisation  with  the  ruled.  When 
these  imperial  officials  were  posted  as  podestas  in  an  important 
town  the  town  was  most  strictly  forbidden  to  elect  a  successor  at 
the  expiry  of  their  year  of  office,  as  had  been  the  Italian  custom. 

The  old  title  of  Legate  was  preserved  in  one  case  only  : 
King  Enzio  was  styled  Legate  General  for  the  whole  of  Italy. 
He  was  tied  to  no  province,  but  free  to  act  where  circumstances 
made  action  desirable.  He  was  the  Emperor's  viceroy. 
Frederick  was  thus  able  simply  to  double  throughout  Italy  the 
influence  of  his  presence  and  personality  by  his  son,  his  **  living 
image."  Enzio  was  placed  over  the  Vicars  General,  who  had 
to  accept  his  orders  as  his  father's,  though  they  derived  their 
authority  like  Enzio  himself  direct  from  the  Emperor  and  not 
through  the  Legate  General. 

With  few  exceptions  the  appointment  of  officials  even  of  the 
lowest  grades  was  reserved  for  the  Emperor  alone.  This  was 
in  Italy  as  in  Sicily  the  basis  of  Frederick's  absolute  monarchy. 
Through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Italy  the  will  of  the  Emperor 
must  be  supreme  down  to  the  lowest  strata  in  the  State.  There 
was  no  room  in  the  imperial  State  for  independently  elected 
authorities,  whether  feudal  or  municipal.  Henceforward,  with 
due  allowance  for  varying  local  conditions,  one  uniform  im 
perial  administration  was  to  prevail.  Marches  and  Palatinates 
were  as  far  as  possible  incorporated  in  the  Empire,  especially 
if  their  holders  were  disaffected.  Many  of  the  great  nobles, 
especially  in  the  North,  were  given  office  in  the  service  of  the 
State.  The  rights  of  feudal  lords  and  the  rights  of  towns, 
however,  were  recognised  only  with  reservations,  and  only  in 
so  far  as  they  did  not  run  counter  to  the  general  organisation 
of  the  State.  The  custom  which  the  Communes  had  had  of 
choosing  from  a  friendly  town  an  independent  podesta  for 
themselves  had  now  to  be  given  up.  The  annual  governor  of 
the  more  important  towns  was  now  appointed  by  the  Emperor 
from  amongst  the  Vicars  General,  or  else  the  Emperor  took  the 
post  in  his  own  name  and  appointed  a  representative.  Here 


THE  APULIAN  YOKE  491 

and  there  the  right  of  electing  a  podesta  was  conceded,  but 
hedged  by  such  restrictions  that  in  fact  the  actual  choice  was 
the  Emperor's.  No  loophole  was  left  by  which  a  podesta  could 
be  elected  who  was  not  persona  grata  to  the  Emperor. 

Frederick  II  had  thus  in  a  short  time  extended  his  imperial 
bureaucracy  over  the  whole  of  Italy.  In  addition  to  the  Vicars 
General  and  imperial  podestas  an  army  of  sub-vicars,  fortress- 
captains,  finance  officials,  judicial  and  chancery  officers,  and 
various  subordinates  held  the  country  in  subjection.  The 
official  discipline  was  as  usual  extremely  severe.  To  facilitate 
supervision  the  Vicars  General  were  obliged  to  submit  lists  of 
all  posts  vacant  in  their  provinces,  and  also  salary-lists.  For 
the  officials  were  paid  direct  from  Frederick's  treasury  or  else 
from  the  revenues  of  the  towns  entrusted  to  them,  but  subject 
to  fixed  standards.  Officials  were  instructed  to  be  satisfied 
with  their  salary,  to  keep  their  hands  clean  and  to  avoid  simony, 
which  was  sternly  penalised.  An  official  hierarchy  was  estab 
lished  throughout  Italy  in  opposition  to,  or  more  accurately  in 
supersession  of,  the  clerical  hierarchy.  The  position  of  Church 
and  episcopate  was  unambiguous  :  the  Caesar  accursed  of  the 
Church  had  created  the  State,  and  no  writ  but  his  could  run 
therein. 


The  most  radical  change  was  in  the  personnel  itself  of  the 
new  government.  Hitherto  the  imperial  services  in  Italy  had 
employed  one  or  two  German  legates,  and  the  government  of 
the  towns  had  been  directed  by  podestas  from  the  aristocracy 
of  Northern  Italy.  Suddenly  a  horde  of  Apulians  flooded  the 
country.  Every  stratum  of  the  service  was  mainly,  if  not 
wholly,  staffed  by  Apulians  experienced  in  the  work,  whose 
loyalty  was  guaranteed  by  the  property  and  families  they  had 
left  behind  in  Sicily.  The  students  of  Bologna  taunted  the 
cities  whose  internal  dissensions  had  brought  them  to  such  a 
pass  that  "  they  must  render  tribute  to  Caesar  and  weep  under 
the  Apulian  yoke/'  It  was  a  foreign  rule — but  the  rule  of 
South  Italians,  not  of  Germans — which  spread  through  the 
land.  With  the  exception  of  the  two  quondam  pages,  the 
Hohenburg  brothers,  who  were  appointed  to  governorships,  no 


492  FREDERICK'S  OFFICIALS  vn 

German  had  any  share  in  the  administration*  The  two 
Hohenburgs,  like  the  Apulian  nobles,  had  been  schooled  in  the 
Emperor's  immediate  entourage,  and  Frederick  now  made  the 
general  pronouncement  that  he  was  entrusting  these  important 
offices  for  choice  to  those  who  had  grown  up  at  his  own  Court 
"  because  they  are  moved  to  accept  the  provinces  entrusted  to 
them  by  their  zeal  for  our  imperial  honour. "  Everything  now 
hung  on  the  utter  trustworthiness,  the  personal  loyalty  and  the 
blind  obedience  of  the  officials,  since  the  Church  by  releasing 
all  subjects  from  their  allegiance  to  the  Emperor  invited  them 
to  disloyalty,  and,  indeed,  rewarded  it  by  benefits  in  this  world 
and  the  next. 

Thus  all  the  familiar  names  suddenly  reappear  in  the  Italian 
administration,  the  young  Sicilians,  for  the  most  part  highly- 
gifted  :  the  Filangieri  and  Eboli,  Acquaviva  and  Aquino, 
Morra  and  Caraccioli.  Besides  these  the  Emperor's  sons ; 
Enzio  and  Frederick  of  Antioch,  the  little  known  Richard  of 
Theate  and  later  King  Henry,  son  of  Isabella  of  England; 
further,  his  sons-in-law,  the  husbands  of  his  natural  daughters  : 
Eccelino  of  Romano,  Lord  of  the  March  of  Treviso,  and  Jacob 
of  Caretto,  Margrave  of  Savona,  Richard  Caserta,  and  Thomas 
of  Aquino  the  Younger.  Finally,  Manfred's  relations  by  mar 
riage,  the  Margrave  Galvano  and  Manfred  Lancia  and  Count 
Thomas  of  Savoy.  Italians  of  loyal  families  or  from  loyal 
towns  were  also  sometimes  employed,  chiefly  as  podestas  but 
sometimes  in  other  offices  ;  very  rarely  as  Vicars  General. 
Apart  from  Italian  relatives  of  the  Emperor  the  only  ones  so 
honoured  were  Percival  Doria,  already  mentioned  amongst  the 
poets,  and  the  wild  Margrave  Hubert  Pallavicini  who,  with 
Eccelino,  later  became  the  first  of  the  great  Italian  Signers  in 
the  Renaissance  sense. 

A  contemporary  styled  the  imperial  Vicars  General 
"  princes,"  principes,  and  this  described  the  demeanour  of 
these  petty  despots  who  called  themselves  "  By  the  Grace  of 
God  and  of  the  Emperor,  Vicar  General  of  Upper  Pavia,"  or 
merely  "  By  the  Grace  of  God  Vicar  General  of  Tuscany." 
Their  dependence  on  the  Emperor  was  absolute,  but  in  every 
other  way  their  position  was  one  of  unlimited  princely  power, 
especially  in  the  later  days  when  the  Vicars  General  were  almost 


IMPERIAL  PRINCES  493 

exclusively  imperial  Princes,  sons-in-law  and  near  relatives  of 
Frederick  II.  These  became,  especially  Eccelino  and  Palla- 
vicini,  who  grew  daily  more  and  more  independent,  the  very 
"  mirror  "  of  their  imperial  master  down  to  the  minutest 
external  traits.  They  aped  his  love  of  luxury,  of  astrologers 
and  menageries  and  Saracen  satellites,  even  his  intellectual 
activities  and  his  flippant  jests  about  Church  dogma.  The 
podestas  of  the  great  towns  such  as  Florence,  Pisa,  Verona  and 
Cremona,  trod  closely  on  their  heels.  In  other  circumstances 
these  imperial  representatives  would  probably  have  ruled  as 
kings  over  vassal  monarchies  like  the  Napoleon  relatives.  It 
was  characteristic  of  this  intensive  rather  than  extensive  state 
that  wide  kingdoms  were  compressed  into  small  vicariates,  or, 
rather,  that  these  minute  vicariates  ruled  by  the  sons  of  an 
Emperor  should  swell  to  the  importance  of  duchies  and  of 
kingdoms.  In  this  connection  a  remarkable  scheme  of  the 
Emperor's  must  be  treated  of  later. 

Meanwhile  the  historical  importance  of  this  last  and  greatest 
Germanic  state  foundation  is  to  a  certain  extent  already  mani 
fest,  a  state  founded  on  Italian  soil,  founded,  moreover,  by  the 
last  Emperor  of  the  Romans,  with  whom  the  old  Imperium 
ceased  to  be.  For  these  imperial  Vicars  General  and  these 
imperial  podes ta$,  these  representatives  and  vicegerents  are  the 
direct  ancestors  of  the  Signers  and  Tyrants  of  the  Renaissance. 
The  office  of  podesta  with  its  unlimited  despotic  power, 
especially  when  it  became  a  life  appointment,  gradually  came 
to  equal  the  position  of  a  prince.  The  great  Signers  of  Italy, 
imitating  the  early  Vicars  General  Eccelino  and  Hubert 
Pallavicini,  for  centuries  styled  themselves  "  Vicars  "  of  the 
Emperor,  until,  about  1400,  the  German  Emperors  created 
Dukedoms  of  the  Vicariates  of  the  Visconti,  the  Este,  the 
Gonzaga,  etc.  Let  us  grasp  the  full  significance  of  Frederick's 
Italian-Roman  State :  a  mighty  pan-Italian  Seignory,  which 
for  a  short  time  united  in  one  State  Germanic,  Roman  and 
Oriental  elements,  Frederick  himself,  Emperor  of  the  World, 
being  the  Grand  Signor,  or  Grand  Tyrant  thereof,  the  first  and 
last  of  these  princes  to  wear  the  diadem  of  Rome,  whose  Caesar- 
hood  was  not  only  allied  with  German  kingship  like  Barba- 
rossa's  but  with  Oriental-Sicilian  despotism. 


494      FREDERICK  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE       vn 

Having  grasped  this  we  perceive  that  all  the  tyrants  of  the 
Renaissance,  the  Scala  and  Montefeltre,  the  Visconti,  Borgia 
and  Medici  are  down  to  the  tiniest  features  the  sons  and 
successors  of  Frederick  II,  the  diadochi  of  this  "  Second 
Alexander."  A  mendicant  monk  tells  of  a  wonderful  nut-tree 
which  sprang  from  the  altar  of  a  ruined  church  in  Apulia,  and 
which,  when  they  felled  it,  showed  the  countenance  of  the 
Saviour  in  the  cross  section,  which  recurred  in  every  section 
of  every  branch  even  when  the  tree  was  hewn  into  a  thousand 
fragments.  When  the  imperial  autocrat  was  dead,  and  the 
Grand  Seignory  of  Italy  was  shivered  to  fragments,  a  similar 
phenomenon  occurred.  Each  of  the  princely  courts  bore  the 
image  of  Frederick's  court ;  and  all  the  princely  sons  which 
"  Ausonia's  sacred  soil  "  bore  in  succeeding  centuries,  reflected, 
as  noble  or  ignoble  bastards,  the  countenance  of  their  great 
unknown  ancestor  :  Frederick  II,  this  German  Emperor  by 
whom  the  "  Maid  Italia,  Lady  of  Brothels  "  (Dante),  had  once 
been  seized  and  overborne  and  got  with  child. 


The  despotism  which  Frederick  II  and  his  officials  exercised 
in  Italy,  though  often  arbitrary  in  its  severity,  was,  by  no  means 
in  principle  exotic  in  Italy.  The  constitution  of  the  towns  had 
clearly  shown  a  leaning  towards  dictatorship.  Up  till  the  turn 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  towns  had  been  ruled 
by  two  consuls.  These  were  either  subordinated  to,  or  super 
seded  by,  a  radically  foreign  importation,  the  podesta,  whose 
functions  resembled  more  and  more  those  of  a  dictator.  The 
Lombards'  conception  of  "  freedom  "  will  have  been  an  indi 
vidualistic  striving  for  independence  which  tilted  against  any 
authority  imposed  from  outside,  but  did  not  resent  the  stern 
ness  of  its  own  chosen  authorities.  Hence  it  came  that  the 
individualism  was  able  to  mate  so  kindly  with  despotism. 
Frederick  fought  against  the  separatist  impulse  :  he  and  his 
officials  pointed  the  path  to  despotism.  In  many  respects  the 
Emperor  brought  the  towns  exactly  what  they  themselves 
wanted,  and  the  individualist  spirit  was  thus  for  a  while  over 
come.  The  towns  who  supported  Milan  were  drawn  together 
by  the  bond  that  united  them  against  their  great  foe ;  the  others 


MESSIAH-EMPEROR  495 

were  unified  by  the  Imperium  and  the  hope  of  the  general  peace 
which  might  be  expected  from  the  Emperor's  powerful  rule. 
Frederick  II  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  when  he  wrote  at  this 
time  :  "  The  Italian  towns  would  be  unmindful  of  their  own 
advantage  if  they  preferred  the  luxury  of  an  uncertain  freedom 
to  the  repose  of  Pax  et  Justitia."  For  many  men  were  heartily 
sick  of  this  "  uncertain  freedom  "  which  continually  involved 
them  in  internal  and  external  wars,  and  they  longed  for 
such  order  as  the  Emperor  promised.  The  speculative  and 
mystical  hopes  of  the  time,  the  faith  in  the  saving  mission  of 
the  Imperium  Romanum  and  of  its  Emperor  went  out  to 
Frederick  from  another  side.  He  had  exploited  this  faith 
years  before.  When  he  was  embarking  on  the  "  Execution  of 
Justice  "  in  Lombardy,  Piero  della  Vigna  heralded  his  coming 
with  the  Scripture  words :  <c  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness 
have  seen  a  great  light.  .  .  ."  This  was,  however,  only  the 
prelude.  When  the  Pope,  with  his  excommunication  and  his 
encyclicals,  threatened  to  shake  men's  belief  in  the  Emperor's 
mission  Frederick  began  seriously  to  work  up  these  little-used 
forces  and  was  able  with  their  help  partially  to  paralyse  the  full 
potency  of  the  ban.  He  succeeded  in  fanning  to  a  blaze  the 
enthusiasm  for  the  long-promised  Messiah-Emperor,  but  only 
because  the  highest  spiritual  authority,  Pope  Gregory  IX  him 
self,  had  been  at  pains  to  surround  the  Emperor  with  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Apocalypse. 


If  the  time  had  not  already  been  steeped  in  the  belief  that 
the  Day  of  Judgment  was  at  hand  this  last  frenzied  battle 
between  the  two  leaders  of  the  Christian  world,  fought  out  at 
first  in  pamphlets  and  manifestos  of  unprecedented  savagery, 
might  well  have  begotten  the  idea  that  an  era  was  expiring  in 
delirium.  For  ten  years  the  Christian  peoples  were  bewildered 
by  the  thunder-laden  accusations  launched  by  both  parties, 
each  proclaiming  to  the  listening  monarchs  and  their  peoples 
that  he  was  the  highest  authority  alike  in  secular  and  spiritual 
spheres  :  that  the  Destroyer  himself  was  seated  on — as  the  case 
might  be — the  papal  or  the  imperial  throne. 


496  SATIRES  ON  CHURCH  vn 

Not  many  days  after  Pope  Gregory  IX  had  with  his  excom 
munication  "  committed  the  Emperor's  body  to  Satan,  that  his 
soul  might  at  the  Last  Day  be  saved  alive/'  Frederick  II  opened 
the  spiritual  battle  by  a  great  manifesto  to  all  the  kings  and 
princes  of  the  earth  :  "  Lift  up  your  eyes,  prick  up  your  ears, 
O  ye  children  of  men  !    Mourn  for  the  woe  of  the  world,  the 
discord  of  peoples,  the  exile  of  justice,  since  the  abomination 
of  Babylon  goeth  forth  from  the  elders  of  the  people  who  had 
the  appearance  of  guiding  them,  but  into  wormwood  they 
turned  the  fruits  of  justice,  and  righteousness  into  gall.    Take 
your  seats,  O  ye  princes,  and  hearken  unto  our  cause,  O  ye 
peoples!"    Thus  Frederick's  document  began,  in  which  he 
expounded  in  detail  his  conduct  towards  the  Pope  during  the 
whole  course  of  his  reign.    At  the  same  time  he  exposed  Pope 
Gregory's  behaviour  to  detailed  criticism.    Since  the  day  when 
he  mounted  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  this  Pope  had,  from  unknown 
motives,  relentlessly  persecuted  the  Emperor  and  shown  him 
self  an  implacable  foe.    Frederick  here  laid  the  foundation  of 
all  his  attacks  on  Gregory  IX.    He  was  challenging  neither 
Papacy  nor  Church,  but  denouncing  solely  the  present  Pope, 
whom  he  could  not  acknowledge  as  his  judge,  since  Gregory, 
by  leaguing  himself  with  the  Empire's  enemies,  had  become  a 
deadly  foe.    Finally,  Frederick  proclaimed  to  the  world  certain 
details  of  Gregory's  procedure  as  Pope  and  revealed  certain 
abuses  of  the  Curia. 

In  so  doing  Frederick  catered  for  a  prevailing  mood.  The 
materialism  of  the  spiritual  power  had  long  been  abhorrent  to 
the  best  minds,  and  to  ordinary  men  the  Curia's  insatiable 
thirst  for  money  was  burdensome.  Public  opinion  was  ready 
enough  to  find  in  the  Emperor's  words  confirmation  of  all  that 
songs  and  satires,  parodies  and  pamphlets  had  long  since  openly 
betrayed.  This  vigorous  century  had  seen  a  multitude  of 
squibs  and  skits  on  Pope,  Cardinals  and  Curia,  parodying 
hymns  and  litanies  and  masses,  and  pillorying  above  all  the 
greed  of  the  Church  and  of  her  head.  Witty  bogus  gospels 
were  broadcast  in  which  the  rdle  of  St.  Mark  is  taken  by  the 
silver  mark,  in  others  the  cardinal  becomes  the  carpinal  (the 
"  snatcher  "),  and  money  reigns  as  king  of  kings.  The  secret 
of  the  papal  entente  with  usurers  who  were  counted  heretics 


ATTACK  ON  GREGORY  497 

was  common  knowledge.  Speaking  at  the  Council  *of  Lyons 
Frederick's  ambassador  warded  off  an  attack  on  his  master  as 
a  heretic  by  retorting  that  it  was  not  the  Emperor  who  tolerated 
usurers  in  his  dominions.  The  western  powers  were  deeply 
embittered  by  the  papal  demands  for  money.  England,  in 
particular,  resented  the  payment  of  tribute,  and  ceaselessly 
protested  against  the  plague  of  papal  money-hunters, 

This  critical  attitude  towards  the  Roman  Church  and  its 
abuses  had  first  found  voice  in  the  threatening  words  of  Abbot 
Joachim  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  criticism  had 
been  quickened  by  contrast  with  the  frugal  life  of  St.  Francis. 
Frederick  II  now  seized  on  it  and  exploited  it,  not  in  an  attack 
against  Church  or  Curia  or  Papacy,  but  solely  against  the 
person  of  Pope  Gregory  IX,  from  whom  he  strove  to  detach 
cardinals  and  Curia.  He  accused  Gregory  of  issuing  dispen 
sations  without  the  concurrence  of  the  cardinals  but  in  exchange 
for  money.  Like  a  huckster  who  acts  as  his  own  clerk  and  sets 
his  own  seal,  and  mayhap  is  also  his  own  paymaster,  Gregory 
sits  in  his  closet,  binding  and  loosing.  Frederick  added  some 
specific  examples  of  the  unworthiness  of  the  present  Bishop  of 
Rome.  The  same  line  was  taken  by  a  pamphlet  that  emanated 
from  Frederick's  circle  which  attacked  Pope  Gregory  sharply 
and  with  effect.  "  Thou  who  as  Shepherd  of  the  Sheep 
preachest  poverty  according  to  the  commands  of  Christ, 
why  dost  thou  so  diligently  flee  the  poverty  that  thou  com- 
mendest  .  .  .  ?  "  Frederick  IFs  most  serious  accusation 
against  Pope  Gregory  was  his  alliance  with  the  Lombard 
heretics,  more  especially  the  Milanese.  The  Pope  himself  had 
accused  them  of  heresy,  and  responsible  spirituaj  authorities 
had  judged  that  the  town  was  mainly  inhabited  by  heretics. 
By  making  common  cause  with  Milan  Pope  Gregory  had 
forfeited  all  claim  to  be  worthy  of  the  priesthood. 

The  Emperor  felt  moved  by  anxiety  lest  "  the  flocks  of  the 
Lord  by  such  a  shepherd  be  led  astray."  He,  therefore,  urges 
the  cardinals  to  summon  a  General  Council  composed  of  the 
clergy  of  the  whole  Christian  world,  not  excepting  the  secular 
princes.  Let  this  Synod  then  judge  both  Pope  and  Emperor. 
This  proposal  seemed  monstrous,  for  since  the  days  of  Gregory 
VII  the  Church  Councils  had  ceased  to  be  above  the  Pope  and 


498  WAR  OF  THE  PEN  vn 

had  become  his  instruments.  Frederick  II  reiterates  that  he 
is  fighting  only  against  the  person  of  this  Gregory.  "  The 
Church  in  general  and  the  Christian  people  must  not  marvel 
that  we  fear  not  the  verdict  of  such  a  judge :  not  that  we  lack 
reverence  for  the  papal  office  nor  for  the  apostolic  dignity,  to 
which  all  orthodox  believers  do  homage  and  we  in  particular 
above  them  all,  ...  but  we  accuse  the  degeneracy  of  this  one 
person  who  hath  manifested  himself  to  be  unworthy  of  a  throne 
so  illustrious."  Frederick  II  thus  scrupulously  distinguished 
between  the  papal  office  and  its  present  incumbent :  a  refine 
ment  which  his  contemporaries  noted  and  felt  to  be  extremely 
skilful.  For  the  Emperor  thus  avoided  a  quarrel  with  the 
Church  and  her  institutions  and  prosecuted  his  campaign  solely 
against  a  personal  enemy.  And  Gregory  had  displayed  enmity 
enough  by  the  alliance  with  Venice,  Genoa  and  Milan.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  discrimination  of  office  and  incumbent 
brought  Frederick  into  conflict  with  the  dogmas  of  the  Church, 
which  taught  that  the  sacramental  virtue  was  independent  of 
the  personal  worthiness  or  unworthiness  of  the  priest.  This 
gave  Pope  Gregory  his  opportunity. 

The  imperial  manifesto  had  been  forceful.  In  comparison, 
however,  with  Pope  Gregory's  answer  the  Emperor's  most 
savage  outbursts  appeared  tame.  Gregory  piled  up  all  the 
most  terror-fraught  images  of  the  Apocalypse  against  "  this 
scorpion  spewing  passion  from  the  sting  of  his  tail/'  against 
this  dragon,  this  hammer  of  the  world.  The  opening  words 
of  his  frenzied  encyclical  were  calculated  to  awaken  horror  at 
this  apocalyptic  monster,  already  Satan's  prey  :  "  Out  of  the 
sea  rises  up  the  Beast,  full  of  the  names  of  blasphemy  who, 
raging  with  the  claws  of  the  bear  and  the  mouth  of  the  lion  and 
the  limbs  and  likeness  of  the  leopard,  opens  its  mouth  to 
blaspheme  the  Holy  Name  and  ceases  not  to  hurl  its  spears 
against  the  tabernacle  of  God  and  against  the  saints  who  dwell 
in  heaven.  With  fangs  and  claws  of  iron  it  seeks  to  destroy 
everything  and  to  trample  the  world  to  fragments  beneath  its 
feet.  It  has  already  prepared  its  rams  to  batter  down  the  walls 
of  the  catholic  faith.  .  .  .  Cease  ye  therefore  to  marvel  that  it 
aims  at  us  the  darts  of  calumny,  since  the  Lord  himself  it  doth 
not  spare.  Cease  ye  to  marvel  that  it  draws  the  dagger  of 


SAVAGE  ENCYCLICAL  499 

contumely  against  us,  since  it  lifts  itself  to  wipe  from  the  earth 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  Rather,  that  ye  may  with  open  truth 
withstand  his  lying  and  may  refute  his  deceits  with  the  proofs 
of  purity  :  behold  the  head  and  tail  and  body  of  the  Beast,  of 
this  Frederick,  this  so-called  Emperor.  .  .  ." 

The  Pope  called  uncanny  forces  to  his  aid  in  this  warfare 
against  the  Emperor.  Distorting  every  fact  with  magnificent 
effrontery  he  accused  him  of  crime  after  crime,  careless  of 
everything  save  the  effect  he  hoped  to  produce  on  the  minds 
of  Christian  people.  Frederick  had  intentionally  doomed  to 
death  the  crusaders  in  the  pilgrim  camp  of  Brindisi,  had 
poisoned  the  Margrave  of  Thuringia,  had  made  peace  with  the 
Sultan  in  the  Holy  Land  to  the  detriment  of  the  Christians, 
had  in  his  own  absence  directed  the  war  against  the  peace- 
loving  Pope,  while  for  greed  he  allowed  his  own  kingdom  to  be 
wasted  by  fire  and  sword.  Pope  Gregory  met  with  humility 
the  reproaches  directed  against  his  person  and  his  conduct: 
"  Freely  we  confess  our  lack  of  merit  and  that  we  are  all  un 
worthy  to  be  the  Vicar  of  Christ.  We  acknowledge  our  im 
potence  in  face  of  such  a  burden  which  the  nature  of  man,  save 
with  divine  assistance,  is  unable  to  sustain."  Nevertheless,  so 
far  as  human  fragility  permits,  he  has  conducted  his  office  in 
singleness  of  heart  and  according  to  the  command  of  God. 

Far  otherwise  Frederick  II,  continues  Pope  Gregory,  doomed 
to  perdition  he,  with  his  craftiness  and  wiles,  who  has  sought 
to  add  the  functions  of  the  priest  to  those  of  the  prince,  who 
rejoices  to  be  called  the  Forerunner  of  Antichrist  and  blas 
phemously  denies  the  Church's  power  to  bind  and  to  loose. 
Frederick  in  his  own  writings  had  brought  the  darkness  into 
light,  and  with  his  own  hand  has  torn  the  veil  from  his  own 
hideousness.  "  For  while  he  obstinately  declares  that  he  can 
not  be  bound  by  the  fetters  of  our  ban  who  are  the  vicegerent 
of  Christ,  therewith  he  declares  that  the  Church  does  not 
possess  the  power  transmitted  by  the  Holy  Peter  and  his  fol 
lowers  to  bind  and  to  loose  .  .  .  thus  he  sets  the  seal  on  his  own 
heresy  and  thereby  shows  how  evilly  he  thinks  of  the  other 
clauses  of  the  true  faith.  .  .  ."  Having  thus,  out  of  his  own 
mouth,  convicted  the  Emperor  of  heresy,  Pope  Gregory  hurls 
against  him  the  most  terrible  of  all  accusations :  "  This  King 


Soo  DENUNCIATIONS  vn 

of  the  Pestilence  has  proclaimed  that — to  use  his  own  words — 
all  the  world  has  been  deceived  by  three  deceivers,  Jesus  Christ, 
Moses  and  Muhammad,  of  whom  two  died  in  honour,  but 
Christ  upon  the  Cross,  And  further,  he  has  proclaimed  aloud 
(or  rather  he  has  lyingly  declared)  that  all  be  fools  who  believe 
that  God  could  be  born  of  a  Virgin,  God  who  is  the  creator  of 
Nature  and  of  all  beside.  This  heresy  Frederick  has  aggra 
vated  by  the  mad  assertion  that  no  one  can  be  born  save  where 
the  intercourse  of  man  and  wife  have  preceded  the  conception, 
and  Frederick  maintains  that  no  man  should  believe  aught  but 
what  may  be  proved  by  the  power  and  reason  of , nature." 

Pope  Gregory  had  saved  up  his  deadliest  weapon  for  the  last, 
for  behind  this  monstrous  blasphemy  could  be  discerned,  how 
ever  distorted  and  disguised,  the  radiant  features  of  the  man 
who  sought  to  see  in  Nature  "  the  things  that  are,  as  they  are." 
On  this  point  there  was  no  doubt.  There  is  no  hope  of  proving 
whether  or  no  Frederick  had  made  the  infamous  statement 
about  the  three  deceivers.  He  was  certainly  capable  of  saying 
that — and  worse.  .  .  .  The  phrase  would  not,  in  any  case,  be 
his  own  invention.  A  generation  earlier  a  Paris  doctor  of 
theology,  Simon  of  Tournai,  had  propounded  the  thesis  in 
order  to  prove  his  dialectic  skill  in  its  disproof.  The  Popes 
never  again  laid  this  blasphemy  to  Frederick's  charge,  and  even 
Pope  Gregory  never  renewed  the  charge  when  once  the  poison 
had  done  its  work  and  the  accusation  had  been  taken  up  by  all 
the  world.  Little  did  Gregory  reck  whether  it  was  false  or 
true.  The  assumption  that  Frederick's  friendship  with  the 
Muslims  would  have  restrained  him  from  any  blasphemy 
against  Muhammad  will  not  hold  water,  though  his  contem 
poraries  distrusted  the  papal  statements  on  this  ground.  How 
could  Frederick,  they  asked,  have  framed  Muhammad  as  a 
deceiver  along  with  Moses  and  with  Christ  when  the  same  Pope 
Gregory  had  based  his  first  excommunication  of  the  same 
Emperor  on  the  accusation  that  he  was  a  servant  of  Muhammad, 
and  addicted  to  Saracen,  no  longer  to  Christian,  customs  ? 
Pope  Gregory  could  not,  of  course,  prove  his  statement.  But 
Frederick  was  equally  unable  to  refute  it,  and  he  must,  therefore, 
seek  by  some  other  means  to  neutralise  the  effect  of  the  papal 
document  that  painted  him  as  Satan  and  as  Antichrist.  He 


LETTER  FROM  GERMANY  501 

repudiated  the  speech  about  the  three  deceivers.  Such  a  phrase 
had  never  crossed  his  lips.  A  mere  denial,  however,  proved 
nothing,  and  even  a  solemn  profession  of  the  true  faith  carried 
little  weight.  The  most  effective  course  was  to  cast  doubt  on 
the  Pope's  veracity  and  to  turn  against  him  the  most  deadly 
accusation  of  all  :  that  of  heresy. 


The  Emperor  had  little  difficulty  in  presenting  Pope  Gregory 
as  the  real  heretic  and  the  friend  of  heretics.  The  Pope's 
alliance  with  the  Lombards  was  known  to  all  the  world 
and  lent  weight  to  the  charge.  The  spiritual  princes  of 
Germany,  who  still  to  a  man  stood  firm  behind  the  Emperor, 
wrote  soon  after  this  to  Pope  Gregory.  They  had  examined 
all  the  reasons  for  the  excommunication,  and  with  all  respect 
they  begged  to  counsel  the  Pope  not  further  to  embitter  so  true 
a  son  of  the  Church  as  this  Emperor.  For  such  vexation  would 
add  new  dangers  to  those  already  seriously  threatening  the 
catholic  faith.  Moreover,  the  Pope's  attitude  lent  colour  to 
the  general  belief  that  the  Pope's  severity  towards  the  Emperor 
was  prompted  by  a  desire  to  protect  the  Milanese,  these  enemies 
of  the  Empire,  and  their  following.  Little  as  they  themselves 
could  credit  that  the  "  Vicar  of  the  Truth  "  could  be  abetting  the 
manifest  baseness  of  recalcitrant  rebels,  yet  appearances  were 
against  him,  for  the  papal  legate  in  Lombardy  was  doing  his 
utmost  to  entice  the  towns  from  the  allegiance  they  owed  the 
Emperor.  They  openly  stated,  therefore,  that  they,  who  as 
limbs  of  the  Empire  must  not  fail  her,  would  be  reluctantly 
compelled  to  mourn  for  the  Church.  For  the  Emperor  truth 
fully  contended  that  he  had  offered  himself  and  all  he  possessed 
to  the  Church,  and  they,  therefore,  begged  the  Pope  to  make 
peace  without  delay.  They  were  ready  themselves  to  act  as 
intermediaries. 

Frederick  II  was  still,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world,  primarily 
the  liberator  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  who  had,  in  fact,  sacrificed 
himself  and  his  wealth  for  the  good  of  the  Church.  As  a 
persecutor  of  heretics,  too,  he  had  shown  himself  an  orthodox 
prince.  It  was,  therefore,  not  easy  to  shake  his  position  or  men's 
faith  in  him.  "  We  know  " — they  wrote  in  England — "  that 


5o2  POPE'S  JEALOUSY  vn 

he  faithfully  set  out  to  war  for  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  ex 
posed  himself  to  the  perils  of  the  sea  and  of  the  fight.  We 
have  not  up  to  now  observed  an  equal  piety  in  the  Pope." 
Frederick  II  must  still  be  accounted  innocent  and  unconvicted 
in  England.  Moreover,  they  said,  an  enemy's  word  is  in  no 
wise  to  be  trusted,  and  all  know  that  Pope  Gregory  is  the  deadly 
enemy  of  the  Emperor.  That  the  Pope  dared  to  protect  im 
perial  rebels  and  heretics  from  the  punishment  justly  due,  and 
even  excommunicated  the  victorious  and  fortunate*  Emperor 
solely  for  their  sakes,  is  sufficiently  remarkable. 

Frederick  II  expressly  returned  to  this  point,  that  he  himself 
had  only  been  the  fortunate  instrument  of  the  divine  will  : 
"  In  truth,  however,  the  Emperor's  good  fortune  has  always 
awakened  the  hostile  envy  of  the  Pope,  When  Simonides  was 
asked  how  it  was  that  none  were  jealous  of  him  he  answered, 
'  because  I  have  never  successfully  accomplished  anything.' 
But  because  by  God's  grace  all  has  prospered  with  us  and  we 
are  pursuing  the  Lombards  our  rebels  to  the  death,  this  apos 
tolic  Priest  who  wishes  them  to  live,  heaves  a  sigh  and  seeks 
himself  to  obstruct  our  good  fortune."  By  thus  representing 
the  Pope  as  envious  of  others'  good  fortune  and  a  disturber  of 
the  world's  peace  Frederick  appeared  as  the  champion  of  the 
oppressed  Church. 

To  illustrate  the  confusion  which  the  Pope  was  causing 
Frederick  had  recourse  to  the  doctrine  of  the  two  luminaries, 
the  familiar  parable  of  the  Sun  and  the  Moon,  which  were 
typified  on  earth  by  Papacy  and  Empire.  Both  were  directly 
appointed  by  God  so  that  man  who  is  always  drawn  hither  and 
thither  might  be  bridled  by  a  double  rein — both,  however, 
were  independently  created  so  that  neither  should  disturb  the 
other  in  his  orbit.  As  the  Sun  and  Moon  exist  in  heaven  side 
by  side,  so  on  earth  the  Papacy  and  the  Empire.  Frederick 
made  no  attempt  to  assert  imperial  superiority  over  the  priest ; 
he  contentedly  equates  the  Empire  to  the  Moon  : 

"  But,  O  marvel  of  unheard-of  arrogance  !  The  Sun  would 
fain  steal  from  the  Moon  her  colour  and  rob  her  of  her  light ! 
The  priest  would  bait  Augustus,  and  with  his  apostolic  great 
ness  would  obscure  the  radiance  of  our  majesty  whom  God 
has  set  upon  the  pinnacles  of  Empire !  "  Thus  the  Pope  has 


POPE'S  HERESY  503 

brought  confusion  into  the  world  :  instead  of  loving  the  peace 
which  the  Emperor  seeks,  Peter  becomes  a  rock  of  offence  and 
Paul  turns  again  into  Saul  and  corrupts  the  world.  "  And 
there  he  sits  in  the  seat  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  false  doctrines, 
anointed  by  his  comrades  with  the  oil  of  evil  unrighteousness, 
the  Roman  priest  of  our  day.  Insolently  he  tries  to  stultify  the 
order  of  things  decreed  by  heaven,  and  perchance  believes  that 
the  laws  of  nature  will  be  governed  by  his  heated  will.  He 
seeks  to  darken  the  radiance  of  our  majesty  by  perverting  truth 
to  lies.  .  .  .  He,  who  is  the  Pope  in  name  alone,  has  said  that 
we  are  the  Beast  who  rises  from  the  sea  full  of  the  names  of 
blasphemy  and  spotted  like  the  pard.  And  we  maintain  that 
he  is  the  monster  whereof  it  is  written  :  another  horse  rose  from 
the  sea,  a  red  horse,  and  he  who  sat  thereon  stole  peace  from 
the  earth,  so  that  the  living  slaughtered  one  another."  The 
Pope  himself  was  the  great  dragon.  The  Pope  himself  was 
Antichrist,  whose  forerunner  he  had  called  the  Emperor,  a 
prince  among  the  princes  of  darkness,  who  abused  the  gifts  of 
the  prophets,  a  false  vicegerent  of  Christ  who  transformed  his 
priesthood  into  a  beasthood. 

Thus  Frederick  stamped  the  Pope  as  a  heretic.  A  heretical 
Pope  was  a  much  more  revolutionary  thought  than  a  heretical 
Emperor.  This  new  insight  suddenly  metamorphoses  all  the 
relationships  in  the  world.  For  without  more  ado  the  "  true 
believer  "  is  the  friend  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  "  infidel  "  is 
like  the  Lombard  heretics,  a  follower  and  comrade  of  the  Pope. 
The  Pope  can  no  longer  protect  the  Church.  It  is  the  Emperor 
who  upholds  his  credit  as  her  God-appointed  protector,  since 
the  High  Priest  "  acts  against  the  faith,  the  false  vicar  of  him 
who  though  he  was  cursed  yet  answered  not  again."  It  is  the 
Pope  who  brings  discord  into  the  world  and  snatches  peace 
away  which  it  was  the  Empire's  mission  of  salvation  to  bring. 
The  cardinals  as  Roman  Senators  will  no  longer  find  it  their 
duty  to  help  the  Pope  but  will  be  helpers  of  the  protecting, 
rescuing  Emperor.  They  will  even  have  to  act  as  opposing 
forces  "  as  the  planets  circle  in  opposite  directions  to  temper 
the  speed  of  the  firmament."  The  Emperor  writes  to  the 
cardinals,  "  Call  ye  back  our  roaring  lion  from  his  purpose, 
the  beginning  of  which  was  abhorred."  In  similar  strain  to  the 


504  APPEAL  TO   KINGS  vn 

kings  of  Europe  :  they  also  as  defenders  of  the  true  faith  should 
rise  as  one  man  for  the  sake  of  the  world's  peace  against  this 
Pope  and  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Emperor.  u  Ye 
princes,  ye  beloved  princes,  reproach  not  us  alone,  reproach 
also  the  Church  which  is  the  community  of  the  faithful :  for 
her  head  is  weak,  the  leader  in  her  midst  is  as  a  roaring  lion, 
her  prophet  is  a  madman,  her  bridegroom  an  infidel,  her  priest 
a  defiler  of  the  Most  High,  who  acts  unrightepusly  and  con 
temns  the  law.  In  the  sight  of  the  other  princes  of  the  world 
we  must  mourn  as  is  due  the  failure  of  such  an  High  Priest, 
we  who  enjoy  honour  and  bear  burdens  and  who  in  space  are 
as  it  were  nearer  to  him  and  in  office  more  akin."  The  fact 
that  Pope  Gregory  had  protected  the  Empire's  rebels  should 
also  be  a  warning  to  them  :  "  Urgently  and  without  ceasing, 
we  exhort  you,  Beloved,  to  see  in  this  outrage  to  us  an  injustice 
likewise  to  yourselves.  Haste  ye  to  your  houses  with  water 
when  the  fire  flames  in  the  house  of  your  neighbour  !  "  There 
was  no  ordinance  of  the  Church,  no  word  of  Scripture,  no 
legend  from  which  Frederick  failed  to  draw  new  strength,  seeing 
everything  from  new  standpoints,  tillj  finally,  the  Donation 
of  Constantine  itself  was  turned  to  account  for  the  Empire's 
behoof.  This  dangerous  document  was  a  monument  of  the 
gratitude  which  was  owed  to  the  Empire  by  the  Papacy. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  in  this  duel  of  the  Chanceries 
the  genuinely  productive  side  was  the  Emperor's.  The  Curia 
exhausted  itself  in  biblical  turns  of  thought  and  speech  that 
had  been  worn  threadbare  for  centuries,  while  the  manifestos 
of  the  Emperor  sparkled  with  new  ideas,  some  of  which  ripened 
after  centuries.  One  reason  was,  that  whereas  Pope  Gregory 
was  solely  negative  and  destructive,  aiming  at  the  annihilation 
of  his  foe,  Frederick  had  a  constructive  aim.  Without  so 
expressing  it,  Frederick  countered  each  negation  of  the  Pope's 
by  pointing  to  himself,  the  Emperor  of  Justitia,  the  Rescuer, 
the  Bringer  of  Salvation  in  a  day  of  chaos.  Frederick  II,  whose 
very  name  spelt  a  gospel  of  peace,1  might  well  seem  by  his  deeds 
as  by  his  power  the  long-awaited  Prince  of  Peace  :  he  who  had 
worn  the  royal  crown  of  David  in  Jerusalem,  he  to  whom  men 
had  long  applied  promise  and  prophecy — as  they  had  not  to 
1The  Germanic  root  *fride~peace  and  *rik=r«/<?. — Tr. 


PILATE  S°S 

Pope  Gregory.  Men  looked  for  a  messianic  Pope  as  they 
looked  for  a  messianic  Emperor,  but  he  would  come  in  the 
guise  of  Peter  the  Fisherman,  or  the  simple  beggar  Francis,  the 
Bridegroom  of  Poverty,  not  as  an  Emperor-Priest  like  Gregory 
or  Innocent. 

What  Frederick  had  only  indicated  was  explicitly  claimed 
by  a  pamphlet  which  represented  the  Emperor  as  the 
Saviour.  "  The  High  Priests  and  Pharisees  assembled  a 
Council  and  came  together  against  the  prince  and  Imperator 
of  the  Romans,  *  What  shall  we  do/  said  they,  *  since  this  man 
thus  triumphs  over  his  enemies  ?  If  we  do  not  prevent  him 
he  will  overthrow  the  whole  fame  of  Lombardy,  and  coming 
like  a  Caesar  he  will  not  stay  till  he  have  driven  us  from  out 
our  land  and  have  exterminated  our  people.  .  .  .'  "  Thus  the 
pamphlet  opened,  verbally  recalling  the  words  of  scripture 
where  the  High  Priests  and  Pharisees  decide  on  the  Saviour's 
condemnation.  The  parallel  is  pushed  far  :  the  Pope  is  com 
pared  to  Pilate  because  what  he  has  written  he  has  written,  and 
is  reproached  with  his  breach  of  the  peace  since  he  "  as  a  friend 
of  discord  .  .  .  against  the  honour  and  the  right  of  the  Roman 
prince  protects  heretics  who  are  the  enemies  of  God  and  of  all 
believing  Christians/'  As  for  the  Pope's  pious  pretext :  his 
protection  of  the  Lombards  is  to  serve  the  cause  of  the  Holy 
Land.  This  is  scornfully  turned  against  Gregory  himself. 
His  ban  has  so  sorely  damaged  the  cause  of  the  Holy  Land  that 
Jerusalem  might  well  fall  again  a  prey  to  the  infidel :  "And 
thou,  the  vicegerent  of  Christ  sleepest  the  while  and  carest 
naught  that  our  inheritance  has  passed  to  others  !  For  the 
city  which  once  was  full  of  people  and  beautiful  among  cities 
lieth  waste  .  .  .  she  who  was  wont  to  flow  with  milk  and  honey 
floweth  now  with  the  waters  of  bitterness. "  The  guilt  lies  with 
the  Pope.  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  Christ,  uncomforted  by  the 
Pope,  is  awaiting  another  Lord,  "  Without  ceasing  she  waits  for 
him,  the  Roman  prince,  the  comforter  of  her  captivity,  the 
redeemer  of  her  destruction.  But  thou  on  the  other  hand,  thou 
foe,  thou  Godless  Herod,  thou  fearest  to  go  thither  .  .  .  thou 
stone  of  stumbling,  thou  rock  of  offence,  thou  hast  thrown  into 
confusion  the  ways  by  sea  and  land  that  this  Caesar,  this  won 
drous  light  of  the  World,  this  mirror  without  flaw,  might  be 


506  HAMMER  OF  THE  WORLD  vn 

unable  to  hasten  after  the  manner  of  the  Caesars  to  the  help 
of  the  land  of  God."  Let  the  Pope,  concludes  the  pamphlet, 
receive  the  Emperor  again,  the  "  true  born  son/'  once  more 
into  the  bosom  of  the  Church, cc  for  otherwise  our  great-hearted 
lion  which  now  feigneth  sleep,  will  with  his  dread  roaring  draw 
unto  himself  the  fatted  kine  from  all  the  furthest  corners  of  the 
earth,  tearing  out  and  breaking  asunder  the  horns  of  the  proud. 
He  shall  establish  justice  and  bring  the  Church  into  the  right 
way." 


Visions  of  the  Last  Day  are  thus  associated  with  Frederick. 
His  figure  was  destined  to  live  on  in  myth  through  the  centuries 
as  this  pamphlet  pictures  him,  in  the  saga  of  the  messianic 
Emperor,  in  his  mountain  fastness,  who  will  one  day  return, 
establish  the  reign  of  Justice,  castigate  the  Church  and  lead  the 
people  of  Christ  into  Jerusalem.  Herein  lay  something  positive, 
above  and  beyond  accusations  against  the  Pope.  While  the 
Emperor's  partisans  saw  in  Gregory  the  High  Priest  and  the 
Pharisee,  the  Pilate  who  condemned  the  Christ,  the  Emperor 
stood  before  them  as  the  true  Redeemer,  promised  by  the  Sibyls, 
praise-deserving, "  the  wondrous  light  of  the  world,  the  mirror 
without  flaw,"  the  Saviour  chosen  by  God  to  renew  the  peace 
and  order  of  the  world.  The  more  he  felt  compelled  to  deny 
the  worth  of  this  individual  Pope  the  more  insistently  the 
Emperor  pointed  to  the  sacred  and  exalted  mission  of  his  own 
Empire  and  the  sanctity  of  his  own  Caesar-majesty. 

Frederick  found  the  r61e  easy  to  sustain.  Not  only  his  friends 
and  adherents  but  many  of  the  orthodox  recognised  in  him  the 
long-awaited  messenger  of  God  who  had  come  to  chastise  a 
corrupt  priesthood.  They  trembled  before  the  face  of  this 
"  Hammer  of  the  World,"  but  well  they  knew  from  the  sayings 
of  the  prophets  that  a  MAN  was  needed  who  should  smite  with 
iron  fist  both  papacy  and  priesthood,  to  lead  the  world  again 
into  the  state  of  peace  and  of  salvation  which  had  blessed  man 
kind  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  when  Christ  himself  had  walked 
the  earth.  In  the  mystic  circles  of  the  Franciscans,  amongst 
whom  Abbot  Joachim's  teachings  were  still  alive,  these  fears 
and  hopes  were  centred  more  and  more  in  the  person  of  the 


MYSTIC   IMAGININGS  507 

Hohenstaufen  Emperor  who  as  the  Pope's  bitter  foe  threatened 
to  fulfil  the  prophecies.  In  these  Franciscan  convents, 
which  in  apostolic  purity  were  awaiting  the  reform  of  the 
Church,  the  belief  soon  found  credence  (in  spite  of  their 
hostility  to  the  Emperor)  that  Frederick  II  was  in  very  deed 
the  herald  of  the  End,  and  that  no  man,  but  only  God  himself, 
could  remove  or  slay  God's  messenger.  ...  In  Frederick's 
circle  the  legend  later  grew  that  God's  own  hand  had  shaped 
him. 

The  most  various  dreamings  were  here  blended  :  the  Church 
visions  which  dreamed  of  a  Scourge  of  the  peoples  which  should 
restore  the  primitive  Church  of  apostolic  times ;  the  im 
perial  visions  which  dreamed  of  the  revival  of  the  Augustan 
Empire  under  a  new  Caesar  Augustus ;  and,  lastly,  the  more 
human  cravings  which  dreamed  of  a  return  to  the  primitive 
innocence  of  man  before  the  Fall  under  the  rule  of  a  Justitia 
Emperor.  These  mystic  dreams  flourished  in  more  and  more 
riotous  luxuriance,  and  year  by  year  Frederick  II  became  more 
and  more  the  centre  of  the  hopes  of  every  camp.  Judge  of  the 
World,  Justitia  Emperor,  Redeemer  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and 
Messianic  Prince  of  Peace,  all  blent  into  the  figure  of  Caesar 
Augustus  who  himself  expressed  the  ideal  of  a  rex  Justus. 

By  the  minting  of  his  Augustales  Frederick  II  had  already 
shown  that  his  Caesar  gestures  had  a  deeper  significance  than 
the  merely  persdnal  or  political.  The  more  he  resembled  the 
Roman  Caesars  and  Augusti  in  triumph  and  word  and  deed 
the  greater  grew  his  similitude  to  the  Saviour  Vergil  had  fore 
told,  with  whom  Roman  Empire  and  Christian  epoch  were  to 
begin  :  and  end.  Seeds  of  the  Renaissance  lurk  in  this  eschato- 
logical  faith  :  the  Rebirth  of  the  World  both  by  the  cosmic 
rebirth  of  the  natural  man  and  by  the  return  to  the  origins  of 
Church  and  Empire.  Even  for  Dante  these,  however,  lay  in 
Roman  antiquity  in  the  time  of  the  apostles  and  the  golden 
age  of  Rome. 

From  all  the  inextricable  confusion  of  vague,  mysterious, 
terrifying  or  idyllic  visions  of  the  time  Frederick  II  had  hitherto 
seized  only  on  those  features  which  could  be  baldly  and  clearly 
represented  in  the  State  :  first,  the  establishment  of  his  imperial 
world-redeeming  Justitia  in  all  his  domains,  even  in  Italy,  and 


5o8  RULER  OF  THE  FAITHFUL  vir 

then  the  demeanour  of  a  Roman  Caesar  Augustus,  both  of 
which  things  were  without  ulterior  motive,  instinctive  in  his 
blood,  inherent  in  his  office.  The  interpretation  was  left 
mainly  to  others.  Now  all  was  changed.  The  Pope  made 
inevitable  that  religious  speculations  should  play  a  part  in  his 
life.  If  Frederick  was  to  take  the  field  against  the  Pope  as  the 
Saviour  of  the  Church,  it  was  not  enough  to  oppose  the  Reason 
of  the  State  to  the  Faith  of  the  Church.  Frederick  II  must  win 
for  himself  the  transfiguring  halo  of  God's  messenger  which 
must  surround  the  head  of  a  Ruler  of  th£  Faithful,  Unex 
plored  mysteries  lay  to  the  hand  both  of  Empire  and  Papacy. 
Caesar  could  look  for  his  divine  nimbus  to  the  great  peace 
movement  of  these  days  of  crisis  with  their  expectation  of  a 
Messiah-Emperor,  days  filled  with  peace-services,  hallelujahs 
and  flagellation.  .  .  .  The  great  movement  bore  Frederick  on 
its  crest.  He  made  himself  its  hero  and  became  its  God.  So 
it  was  said  that  the  French  took  the  Revolution  for  their 
religion,  and  for  their  God,  Napoleon. 


When  Frederick  left  Lombardy  at  the  beginning  of  1239 
he  had  months  of  intensive  activity  behind  him.  The  more 
manifold  the  tasks,  the  more  comprehensive  the  demands,  the 
swifter  the  progress  of  events,  the  better  it  suited  the  Emperor's 
mood  and  the  more  certain  was  his  success.  Frederick  had 
fought  the  rebels  in  the  Romagna  and  in  Lombardy  ;  from  his 
camp  before  Piacenza  and  Milan  had  issued  the  orders  that 
transformed  Sicily  into  a  fortress ;  from  Lodi  had  radically 
recast  the  Sicilian  constitution  and  set  in  motion  the  most 
elaborate  shipping  transactions  ;  had  sent  orders  to  outlaw 
these,  hang  those,  exile  others,  and  deprive  yet  others  of  their 
goods.  With  it  all  he  had  kept  leisure  enough  to  make  daily 
minute  enquiry  about  the  game,  the  baiting  of  cranes,  the 
breeding  of  horses,  the  destruction  of  vermin,  to  occupy  him 
self  with  horses,  hawks  and  hounds,  to  draft  and  superintend 
drawings  for  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  luxurious  castles 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  for  the  first  Renaissance  gateway,  for  a 
triumphal  arch  whose  detached  figures  mark  the  beginnings 


BROTHER  ELIAS  509 

of  secular  plastic  art.  He  has  not  lost  the  taste  for  costly 
purchases:  a  dish  of  onyx,  curios,  precious  stones.  He 
sends  antique  statues  home  to  his  Sicilian  castles  by  porter :  he 
issues  instructions  for  the  University  of  Naples.  Within  a  few 
months  his  Italian  Seignory  stands  as  a  monument  of  creative 
genius  and  of  organising  skill,  and  he  is  able  to  write  to  a 
friendly  prince  that  he  is  rejoicing  in  the  best  of  health,  every 
thing  is  succeeding  just  as  he  wishes  and  he  is  now  planning 
something  new.  This  new  project  was  the  resolve,  after  the 
many  challenging  pamphlets,  to  assume  the  offensive  against 
the  Pope  and  to  invade  the  States  of  the  Church. 

Commg  from  Lombardy  the  Emperor  marched  by  way  of 
Parma  and  crossed  the  Tuscan  Alps  by  the  La  Cisa  Pass.    Here 
he  was  joined,  it  is  said,  by  the  Minister  General  of  the  Fran 
ciscan  order,  Brother  Elias  of  Cortona,  to  the  further  confusion 
of  parties.    This  was  a  clear  proof  of  the  change  in  relationships 
that  had  taken  place,  and  the  first  indication  of  that  secret 
sympathy  which  united  the  Franciscans  and  the  Ghibellines, 
and  which  is  so  strongly  characteristic  of  Dante  and  the  first 
century  of  the  Renaissance.    Brother  Elias  had  been  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  intimate  disciples  of  St.  Francis,  who  had 
named  him  as  his  successor.    His  stern  piety  was  entirely  free 
from  weakness  or  sentimentality.    He  was  not  strictly  a  mendi 
cant  friar  in  the  original  meaning  of  the  term,  rather  :  a  states 
man,  prince  and  scholar,  with  a  touch  of  genius  leavening  his 
haughtiness  and  love  of  pomp.    The  general  held  somewhat 
aloof  from  the  brethren  and  rarely  ate  with  them.    He  took  his 
meals  in  his  private  room,  and  that  not  only  because  he  relished 
better  fare  than  the  brothers  were  accustomed  to.    He  lived 
either  in  his  handsome  house  in  Cortona  or  in  the  papal  palace 
at  Assisi,  for  he  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Gregory  IX.    He  was 
never  seen  save  on  horseback,  even  though  he  had  only  a  few 
steps  to  go,  and  then  escorted  by  a  handsomely-dressed  page. 
Like  a  true  autocrat  he  repudiated  the  suggestion  that  such 
magnificence  was  contrary  to  the  Rule  of  the  Order :    the 
Minister  General  was  above  the  Rule.    As  befitted  a  spiritual 
noble,  Brother  Elias  was  a  great  builder,  and  the  magnificent 
Lower  Church  in  Assisi  which  he  erected  to  his  Master  was -his 
work.    He  was  said  to  have  got  the  money  for  this  through  his 


Sio  WELCOME  RECRUIT  vn 

knowledge  of  alchemy,  about  which  he  had  written  a  treatise. 
If  this  had  been  the  case  it  might  have  silenced  the  religious 
murmurings  of  many  of  the  brothers,  although  the  horror  of 
money  was  still  vivid  amongst  them.  But  since,  in  fact,  he 
raised  the  money  by  provincial  taxes  on  the  Order  itself  they 
began  to  grow  restive  under  him.  He  was  hated  as  a  despot 
and  a  tyrant :  the  brothers  partly  yearned  for  the  simple  free 
dom  of  the  early  years,  partly  feared  his  harshness,  for  to  their 
great  indignation  Elias  had  appointed  stern  "  visitors  "  to 
stiffen  the  discipline  of  the  order. 

At  this  point  they  rebelled.  The  inclination  of  the  Minister 
General  to  consider  only  the  worldly  aims  of  the  Order  as  a 
State — a  point  of  view  akin  to  Gregory's — finally  brought  about 
his  fall.  Delegates  were  sent  from  all  the  provinces  to  Pope 
Gregory  to  compel  Brother  Elias 's  removal  from  office.  The 
messenger  from  the  Order's  province  of  Saxony  particularly 
distinguished  himself  by  excess  of  zeal.  Brother  Jordan,  on 
his  arrival  in  Rome  in  a  state  of  high  excitement,  contrived  by 
some  means  or  other  to  force  his  way  into  the  Pope's  bedroom  ; 
he  paid  no  heed  to  the  command  to  leave  the  room,  but  joy 
fully  hastened  to  the  bed  and  fetched  out  from  under  the 
bedclothes  the  aged  Gregory's  naked  foot  to  apply  the  necessary 
kiss,  remarking  to  his  companion, "  We  have  no  sacred  relics 
like  this  in  Saxony ! "  Brother  Jordan  himself  tells  the  tale. 
This  same  brother  must  have  taken  part  in  the  great  assembly 
held  in  the  Spring  of  1239  which  removed  Brother  Elias  from 
the  post  of  Minister  General  of  the  Brothers  Minor,  though 
Pope  Gregory  strove  to  retain  him. 

The  fall  of  the  well-known  Minister  General  of  the  Minor 
ites  naturally  caused  a  stir  throughout  the  world.  What 
amazement  when  Brother  Elias,  who  after  his  deposition  at 
first  remained  in  Assisi  doing  penance,  suddenly  appeared  in 
the  train  of  the  excommunicate  Emperor  !  The  inevitable  result 
was  to  draw  on  him  the  papal  ban.  The  Franciscan  was  for 
Frederick  a  most  welcome  recruit.  The  Brother's  intimate 
knowledge  of  Gregory  IX  was  invaluable,*  and  his  presence 
amongst  Frederick's  followers  demonstrated  to  all  that  the 
closest  disciples  of  St.  Francis  were  turning  from  the  heretic 
Pope.  As  a  chronicler  said  :  Frederick  loosed  those  whom  the 


1239  INVASION  OF  PATRIMONIUM  511 

Pope  had  bound,  and  sons  of  the  Church  became  through  the 
papal  behaviour  the  Church's  step-children. 


Under  such  auspices  Frederick  embarked  on  his  new,  perhaps 
fantastic  adventure.  It  began  with  a  short  stay  in  Pisa.  Here 
Frederick  proclaimed  himself  the  Peacemaker  his  name  implied, 
and  succeeded  in  effecting  a  reconciliation  between  the  wildly 
warring  Pisan  parties  of  the  Gherardeschi  and  the  Visconti. 
A  remarkable  scene  followed.  Christmas  was  at  hand,  and  his 
own  birthday  followed  hard  on  that  of  the  Saviour.  To  cele 
brate  the  season,  he,  the  excommunicate,  whose  mere  presence 
brought  an  interdict  upon  the  town,  not  only  caused  a  service 
to  be  held  and  the  mysteries  of  the  mass  consummated,  but 
himself  mounted  the  cathedral  pulpit  on  Christmas  Day  and 
preached  to  the  assembled  people.  He  promised  peace  and 
the  reign  of  peace  to  the  astonished  worshippers.  This  sermon 
brought  down  on  him  the  papalists'  accusations  of  blackest 
blasphemy.  A  few  days  later  he  invaded  the  Pope's  dominion 
as  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

King  Enzio  with  some  force  had  been  sent  on  a  few  days 
earlier  into  the  papal  provinces  that  had  of  old  belonged  to  the 
Empire  :  the  March  of  Ancona  and  Spoleto.  Frederick  fol 
lowing  him  will  not  have  met  with  much  resistance.  Cardinal 
John  Colonna,  whom  the  Pope  had  placed  in  charge  of  the 
defence  of  these  regions,  was  one  of  Frederick's  most  ardent 
supporters,  which  increased  the  confusion.  The  Emperor  thus 
won  once  again  one  of  his  bloodless  victories  :  his  last.  He 
had  contrived,  as  in  the  dramatic  actions  of  his  earlier  years, 
to  make  a  masterly  entry,  so  that  the  gates  of  towns  and  fort 
resses  sprang  open  as  if  by  magic  at  his  approach.  He  trod 
the  soil  of  the  papal  states  as  the  Liberator,  nay,  the  Saviour, 
whom  his  own  were  awaiting  in  Jerusalem.  Summonses  ad 
dressed  under  the  sign  of  the  Cross  to  the  various  communities 
preceded  the  invading  Caesar  with  his  Saracen  escort.  These 
appeals  were  designed  to  give  the  right  tone  to  his  arrival. 
Never  before  had  Frederick  II  so  undisguisedly  proclaimed 
himself  in  the  very  words  of  the  scripture  as  the  Promised 
One: 


5i2  JESI  AND  BETHLEHEM  vii 

"  Since  the  great  and  acceptable  day  is  come  which  ye  can 
make  yet  more  acceptable  to  us  and  to  the  Empire  we  beg  of 
you  :  Arise  !  direct  your  eyes  to  see  the  wisdom  and  the  might 
of  the  Empire  !  And  know  ye  us,  your  prince  and  gracious 
possessor  !  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths 
straight  1  Take  the  bars  from  off  your  doors  that  your  Caesar 
may  come,  gracious  unto  you  and  unto  rebels  terrible,  at  whose 
coming  the  evil  spirits  shall  be  silent  which  have  so  long  op 
pressed  you."  Similar  were  the  words  with  which  the  Baptist 
announced  the  coming  of  the  Lord  and  promised  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  at  hand.  It  can  only  be  the  messenger 
of  God  who  silences  the  evil  spirits  :  him  especially  "  whom 
men  call  the  Pope."  To  another  town  he  calls  :  "  The  moment 
of  your  redemption  for  which  we  and  you  have  yearned  is 
nigh !  "  And  the  town's  joining  him  he  styles  its  "  conversion." 

Frederick's  identification  of  himself  with  him  whom  the 
kings  of  the  east  came  to  seek  in  Bethlehem  appears  more 
unmistakably  than  elsewhere  in  the  famous  letter  to  his  own 
birthplace,  Jesi :  "  The  instincts  of  nature  compel  us  to  turn 
to  thee,  O  Jesi,  and  embrace  thee  with  heartfelt  affection,  noble 
town  of  the  March,  the  place  of  our  illustrious  birth,  where  our 
Divine  Mother  brought  us  into  the  world,  where  our  radiant 
cradle  stood :  that  thy  habitations  may  not  fade  from  our 
memory,  that  thou,  our  Bethlehem,  birthplace  of  the  Caesar, 
may  remain  deep-rooted  in  our  heart,  Thou,  0  Bethlehem, 
city  of  the  March,  art  not  the  least  among  the  cities  of  our  race  ; 
for  out  of  thee  the  Leader  is  come,  the  prince  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  that  he  might  rule  thy  people  and  protect  thee  and  not 
suffer  that  thou  be  in  future  subject  to  a  foreign  hand.  Arise 
then,  0  our  first  mother,  shake  thee  free  from  the  foreign  yoke. 
For  we  take  pity  on  thy  oppression  and  on  the  oppression  of 
the  Faithful.  ..."  A  more  solemn  cult  of  the  birthplace  could 
hardly  be  conceived  than  this,  couched  in  the  words  of  Holy 
Writ.  The  like  had  not  been  heard  since  Justinian  had  raised 
his  birthplace  to  be  a  bishop's  see,  second  only  to  Rome  alone. 
Foligno  is  also  honoured,  "  In  whose  radiance  our  childhood 
began  and  which  we  revere  as  the  home  which  nourished 
us."  The  worship  of  his  Bethlehem  and  the  phrase  "  Divine 
Mother,"  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  legend  that  the  nun 


THE  LIBERATOR  513 

his  mother  had  miraculously  borne  him,  had  a  quite  peculiar 
significance. 

On  the  Emperor's  arrival  in  these  regions  the  papal  authority 
instantly  crumbled  both  in  Spoleto  and  in  the  March  of  Ancona. 
The  towns,  with  few  exceptions,  opened  their  gates  most  gladly 
to  this  Caesar  who  came  "  accompanied  by  Salvation."  And 
wherever  the  Liberator  entered  he  was  received  with  rejoicing, 
for  "  one  and  all  were  right  glad  to  find  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  a  master's  hand."  Deep  emotion  and  astonish 
ment  must  have  gripped  the  people  of  the  Papal  States  at  the 
sight  of  the  Emperor,  especially  those  who  were  papalists 
at  heart.  One  of  these  reported  this  blasphemous  inarch  of 
the  Messiah :  "  He  has  the  Cross  borne  before  him,  himself 
the  enemy  of  the  Cross,  while  he  paces  through  the  land  of  the 
accursed.  In  Foligno  and  in  Gubbio  he  shamelessly  presumes 
to  bless  those  whom  the  Church  has  cast  forth,  consecrating 
them,  so  eyewitnesses  assure  me,  with  his  godless  right  hand. 
And  in  these  and  other  regions  in  spite  of  the  ban  he  has  caused 
masses  to  be  said  and  has  celebrated  the  other  holy  offices  .  .  . 
he,  the  forerunner  of  Antichrist." 


Frederick  II  appears,  in  fact,  to  have  halted  in  Foligno 
in  considerable  state.  The  ambassadors  of  many  towns  and 
many  of  his  own  nobles,  amongst  them  Kong  Enzio,  were 
assembled  round  him  while  he  made  a  speech,  and  in  accord 
ance  with  his  office  restored  peace  between  Gubbio  and  another 
community.  It  is  probably  true  enough  about  his  blessing  the 
people.  For  a  court  was  held  in  Foligno  with  all  the  elaborate 
ceremonial  which  had  been  customary  of  late  since  Cortenuova, 
and  a  firm  and  lasting  peace  proclaimed  throughout  the  Empire, 
The  Emperor  was  enthroned  in  serene  detachment  above  the 
multitude,  while  like  an  officiating  priest  Piero  della  Vigna  stood 
by  his  side  and  communicated  to  the  audience  the  oracle  of  the 
imperial  Godhead  while  the  people  bowed  the  knee  before  his 
majesty.  This  type  of  ceremony  was  exotic  in  the  west  and 
aroused  redoubled  stir  and  amazement  in  the  Papal  States, 
especially  since  the  Emperor's  retinue  included  Mussulmans. 

The  re-occupation  of  the  imperial  provinces  was  one  un- 


5H  AT  GATES  OF  ROME  vii 

interrupted  triumphal  march.  His  success  exceeded  expecta 
tion,  and  decided  Frederick  to  push  on  into  the  Patrimonium 
proper,  papal  Tuscany, "  where  on  all  sides  the  peoples*  prayers 
call  for  our  presence  and  arrival,"  The  same  scenes  are  re 
peated.  The  people  of  Tivoli,  Orta,  Sutri,  the  fortified  Monte- 
fiascone,  and  many  other  towns  went  over  with  banners  flying 
to  the  Emperor,  at  their  head  the  most  important  of  all :  Viterbo . 
By  the  middle  of  February  the  Emperor  was  installed  in  Viterbo 
with  his  whole  court  and  had  been  greeted  with  rejoicing.  The 
imperial  plenipotentiaries  whose  duty  it  is  to  receive  oaths  of 
allegiance  can  scarcely  keep  pace  with  their  task,  writes  the 
Emperor  at  this  time. 

More  and  more  narrowly,  more  and  more  closely,  Frederick 
drew  his  circles  round  the  centre  of  the  Empire  :  suddenly 
he  stands  before  Rome.  The  road  from  Viterbo  lies  open 
before  him.  Shall  he  now  end  his  fantastic  tour  of  victory 
with  the  sack  of  Rome,  take  the  Pope  prisoner  like  any  ordinary 
enemy  general — and  make  the  Church  the  gift  of  another 
martyr  ?  To  Frederick  this  road  was  barred.  Only  as  the 
Caesar  Augustus  of  prophecy,  only  without  a  blow  as  Prince 
of  Peace,  could  he  enter  the  city  of  cities.  This  he  planned  to 
do.  "  One  deed  is  left  to  do :  if  the  whole  Roman  people  is  in 
our  favour  and  greets  our  coming  with  rejoicing  as  it  has  begun 
to  do,  then  we  should  prepare  joyfully  to  enter  the  city  and 
revive  the  ancient  festivals  and  the  triumphal  laurels,  to  show 

the  victorious  eagles  honour  due Then  shall  our  contemners 

feel  belated  shame,  when  they  see  us  face  to  face,  then  they 
shall  fear  him  whom  their  loose  lips  roused  to  wrath." 

The  Roman  populace  was,  in  fact,  well  disposed.  Roman 
nobles  had  again  got  into  touch  with  Frederick,  who  had  him 
self  addressed  new  letters  to  the  Romans  full  of  reproaches. 
Sunk  in  ignoble  lethargy  not  one  of  the  tribe  of  Romulus,  not 
one  of  the  Quirites,  not  one  of  the  many  nobles,  not  one  of 
the  ten  thousands  of  the  Roman  people  had  dared  to  hinder  the 
Pope  when  this  Roman  priest  in  Rome  itself  pronounced  the 
ban  against  the  Roman  Emperor.  That  Emperor  who  derived 
his  name  from  their  city  had  come  once  more  to  make  the  name 
of  Rome  glorious  again  and  famous  as  in  the  days  of  old. 
Frederick  called  himself  the  benefactor  and  father  of  the 


VENIAT  IMPERATOR  515 

Romans,  and  immediately  responded  to  the  request  of  Senate 
and  People  to  spare  the  conquered  town  of  Sutri .  His  influence 
in  Rome  was  increasing  and  grew  with  his  success. 

The  Emperor's  partisans  in  Rome  intrigued  all  the  more 
ardently  against  the  Pope,  whose  position  became  from  day 
to  day  more  untenable.  All  portents  were  against  him,  Far 
from  attacking  Frederick  in  Sicily  or  repressing  him  in  Lom- 
bardy  Pope  Gregory  was  losing  province  after  province  of  the 
States  of  the  Church  left  to  him  by  his  predecessors,  and  while 
he  warned  his  towns  against  the  machinations  of  Antichrist  he 
saw  town  after  town  opening  its  gates  to  the  Saviour.  The 
revolution  which  he  himself  had  conjured  up  was  not  to  be 
stayed  and  was  victorious  all  along  the  line.  Not  only  the 
Roman  people  turned  their  backs  on  the  aged  fanatic.  His 
cardinals  were  no  longer  to  be  trusted.  The  majority  were 
hostile.  Some  had  already  left  him.  By  his  passionate 
obstinacy  the  old  man  had  brought  himself  and  the  Church 
to  the  verge  of  destruction.  He  stood  alone.  His  cause 
seemed  lost. 

Meanwhile  the  excitement  in  Rome  was  at  its  height.  The 
Emperor  had  left  Viterbo  and  started  on  the  march  to  Rome 
by  way  of  Sutri.  Only  one  or  two  days'  march  separated  him 
from  the  city.  The  papalists  spread  the  wildest  rumours. 
What  did  that  avail !  The  Antichrist,  the  Monster  had  sworn, 
they  cried,  to  turn  St.  Peter's  into  a  stable  and  to  make  the 
altar  of  the  apostles  a  manger  for  his  steeds,  to  cast  the  body  of 
his  Lord  to  the  dogs  ...  he  was  approaching  with  his  wild 
Saracens  to  overthrow  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  With  his  new 
rites  he  would  outvie  the  "  three  impostors,"  revive  the  prac 
tices  of  heathen  times,  would  have  himself  installed  as  Pope  or 
even  God  in  the  holiest  of  holies  !  None  of  these  terrifying 
suggestions  carried  weight.  The  Romans  intoxicated  them 
selves  with  the  "  resounding  words,  the  mighty  gestures,  the  awe- 
inspiring  deeds  "  of  their  Caesar  and  Imperator,  and  shouted 
for  joy  at  the  approach  of  the  laurel-crowned  Deliverer  : 

ECCE  SALVATOR!    ECCE  IMPERATOR! 

VENIAT  VENIAT   IMPERATOR! 

The  fate  of  the  world  was  balanced  on  a  knife's  edge. 


516  GREGORY'S  VICTORY  Vn 

But  Rome, "  the  harlot  who  offers  herself  for  sale  to  any  man 
who  draws  near,"  as  a  contemporary  chronicler  phrases  it,  had 
not  been  vainly  depicted  on  the  seals  as  a  woman  with  a  palm 
branch  in  one  hand  and  in  the  other  a  globe,  reposing  on  a  lion, 
symbol  of  world  rule  which  Pope  or  Emperor  could  exercise 
only  in  her  name.  He  was  the  victor  who  first  won  her  favour. 
Pope  Gregory  IX  had  waited  long.  Now  in  the  hour  of  utmost 
need  he  turned  for  help  to  the  saints  of  Rome,  the  two  apostles. 
It  was  the  festival  of  Peter's  Chair.  In  spite  of  riot  and  unrest 
the  Pope  ordered  the  usual  ceremonies  to  be  carried  out  :  the 
heads  of  the  Princes  of  the  Apostles,  Paul  and  Peter,  splinters 
of  the  True  Cross,  and  other  relics  of  Christian  Rome  were 
borne  in  solemn  procession  to  St.  Peter's.  He  himself,  the 
aged  man — reputed  to  be  a  hundred — paced  along  shrouded 
in  incense  amidst  his  prelates  and  the  faithful  cardinals.  The 
crowd  greeted  him  with  boisterous  mockery.  Pope  Gregory, 
however,  at  other  times  so  hot-headed,  preserved  a  royal  calm. 
He  pointed  to  the  heads  of  the  apostles  :  "  These  are  the  anti 
quities  of  Rome,  for  whose  sake  your  city  is  venerated  1  This  is 
the  Church,  these  are  the  relics,  which  it  is  your  duty,  Romans, 
to  protect !  I  can  do  no  more  than  one  man  may  ;  but  I  do 
not  flee,  lo,  here  I  await  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  !  "  And  taking 
the  tiara  from  his  head  he  placed  it  protectively  over  the  relics 
of  the  saints.  "  Ye  Holy  Ones  !  Protect  ye  Rome  when  the 
Romans  care  for  her  no  more !  "  Whereupon  the  mocking 
multitude  broke  into  sobs,  snatched  from  their  garments  the 
imperial  eagles,  tokens  of  Antichrist,  and  replaced  them  by 
the  sign  of  the  Cross,  prepared  to  fight  for  their  threatened 
Church.  Caesar  in  the  purple  of  the  Triumphator  was  for 
gotten.  Frederick  II  passed  by  the  capital  of  the  world,  and 
proceeded  to  his  kingdom  of  Apulia. 


VIII.  DOMINUS  MUNDI 

Cult  of  the  Emperor  -  The  sacratissimum  ministerium  - 
Outburst  of  Sicilian  art  -  Capuan  Gate  -  Nicholas  of 
St.  Francis  and  "  Gothic  "  painting  -  Diet  in 


Foggia,  1240  -  Inefficacy  of  papal  ban  -  Princes'  effort 
to  mediate  -  Surrender  of  Ravenna  -  Resistance  of 
Faenza  -  Cost  of  prolonged  operations  -  Issue  of 
leather  coins  -  Hostilities  against  Venice  -  Gregory's 
General  Council  -  Frederick's  counter-measures  - 
Gregory's  pact  with  Genoa  -  Fall  of  Faenza,  April  14, 
1241  -  Destruction  of  Benevento  -  Victory  at  sea,  1241; 
capture  of  100  prelates  -  Mongol  threat  -  Battle  of 
Liegnitz,  1241  -  Pope  hinders  Crusade  -  Muslims  re 
take  Jerusalem,  Nov.  1240  -  Frederick  negotiates  reco 
very  of  Jerusalem  -  Advance  on  Rome  ;  death  of  Pope 
Gregory  -  Status  of  Empire  in  Europe  -  Relations 
between  Frederick  and  brother  kings  -  Saint  Louis  - 
Stirps  caesarea  -  Deification  of  the  Hohenstaufens 

-  Conclave  of  Terror,  1241  -  Innocent   IV   elected 
Pope  -  Defection  of  Viterbo  -  Treachery  of  Cardinal 
Rainer  -  Provisional    peace,    1244;    breaks    down  - 
Flight   of    Innocent    IV  -  Lyons  -  Diet    of   Verona 

-  Rainer's  hostile  propaganda  -  Council  of  Lyons  - 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa  -  Deposition  of  Frederick  II 


VIII.  DOMINUS  MUNDI 

"  THO'  we  cannot  everywhere  be  present  in  the  flesh,  yet  our 
restraining  hand  is  felt  even  to  the  remotest  frontiers  of  the 
earth."  This  phrase  of  Frederick  II's  is  characteristic,  for 
himself  and  for  his  sacrum  imperium.  All  the  while  that  he 
was  concentrating  his  Empire  at  the  core  in  Italy,  the  land  of 
its  origin,  his  invisible  influences  were  potent  in  the  world  at 
large  and  with  mysterious  power  sucked  the  whole  globe  into 
the  vortex  of  his  strife  with  Rome.  His  dash  for  the  City 
of  Cities,  whose  possession  would  magically  have  assured  his 
world  dominion,  had  unfortunately  failed.  What  the  upshot 
would  have  been  if  he  had  succeeded  none  could  guess.  The 
mere  attempt  had  filled  the  world  with  sudden  unrest :  the 
Emperor  before  the  walls  of  Rome  ;  the  Pope  in  direst  need. 
A  sudden  misgiving  was  felt :  what  unthinkable  development 
might  be  expected  from  this  excommunicate  Emperor  whom 
the  Church  cursed  as  Antichrist,  but  whose  followers  acclaimed 
him  as  the  Saviour  and  Messiah  while  they  prepared  his  paths 
before  him  ? 

For  the  moment  Pope  Gregory  had  averted  Fate,  but  the 
whole  of  Christendom  lived  in  continuous  anxiety  of  what  this 
Emperor  and  the  morrow  might  bring  forth.  The  deafest 
began  to  hear,  the  blindest  to  see  and  to  perceive  something 
fateful  in  Frederick's  mission.  Prophetic  verses  quivering  with 
apocalyptic  horror  filled  Europe  with  a  shudder  of  uncertainty. 
They  reached  Pope  Gregory.  Men  said  that  Frederick  was 
the  author.  The  world  held  its  breath  to  catch  the  wing-beat 
of  those  birds  of  fate  which  in  the  starry  heavens  should  hover 
round  the  Prince  of  the  Last  Days  : 

Fate  is  still  as  the  night.     There  are  portents  and  wars 
In  the  course  of  the  stars,  and  the  birds  in  their  flight, 
I  am  Frederick,  the  Hammer,  the  Doom  of  the  World. 
Rome,  tottering  long  since,  to  confusion  is  hurled, 
Shall  shiver  to  atoms  and  never  again  be  Lord  of  the  World. 

5*9 


520  CHRIST  OR  ANTICHRIST?  vm 

With  what  designs  was  Frederick  credited  who  had  uttered 
dark  threats  against  the  Romans,  "  drunk  with  draughts  from 
the  cup  of  Babylon  I  "  "  Your  Babel  shall  be  dissolved, 
Damascus  shall  fall,  the  bellows  shall  be  consumed  with  fire, 
the  throne  erected  towards  midnight  shall  crash  and  the  apron 
hung  about  your  loins  shall  rot  in  the  zeal  of  our  exalted  glory 
which  the  eye  of  God  ceaseth  not  to  illumine,  which  causeth 
the  ulcers  of  darkness  to  perish,  and  to  which  well-nigh  the 
whole  universe  doeth  homage, " 

Neither  camp  had  failed  to  realise  the  epoch-making  nature 
of  Frederick's  mission  :  whether  with  rejoicing  or  with  para 
lysing  fear  people  saw  the  power  of  the  Divus  Augustus  ever 
growing,  saw  the  dizzy  heights  which  he  was  scaling  and  the 
abysses  which  were  yawning  at  the  Pope's  feet.  Friend  and 
foe  alike  believed  that  the  wearer  of  the  imperial  diadem  was 
sent  by  God  himself  and  was  striding  through  the  world  for  a 
blessing  or  a  curse  to  Christendom.  None  was  insensitive  to 
the  extraordinary  something.  For  decades  the  world  had  been 
busy  seeking  to  interpret  the  imperial  manifestation  :  was 
Frederick,  fulfilling  the  time  as  Tyrant  and  King  to  the  con 
fusion  of  the  peoples,  Antichrist  himself  ? — or  was  he  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  the  Saviour  bringing  in  the  reign  of  Justice  ?  The 
world  recognised  only  these  two  mythical  possibilities  for  a 
ruler  of  this  stature.  Every  act  and  phrase  of  Frederick  was 
forced  into  one  or  other  of  these  ready-made  moulds.  Every 
event  was  interpreted  as  the  fulfilment  of  a  biblical  or  sibylline 
prophecy  pointing  either  to  Christ  or  Antichrist.  Even  the 
complimentary  form  of  address  which  now  became  frequent, 
DOMINUS  MUNDI,  was  full  of  ambiguity,  for  Satan  also  was 
"  Lord  of  the  World."  According  to  taste,  therefore,  Frede 
rick  II  was  the  Bringer  of  Absolute  Good  or  of  Absolute  Evil. 
In  either  case  he  was  the  "Expected  One/'  and  this  he  re 
mained  for  centuries  in  the  faith  of  the  peoples. 

Since  none  even  of  his  foes  failed  to  appreciate  the  excep 
tional  character  of  Frederick's  mission  it  is  easy  to  understand 
the  veneration  he  evoked  amongst  the  "  Faithful."  The 
phrase  of  his  own  that  concluded  the  threats  against  Rome  : 
"  The  earth  obeyeth  us  and  the  sea  doeth  homage  and  all  that 
we  desire  cometh  forthwith  to  pass  "  indicated  the  type  of 


CO-ADJUTOR  OF  GOD  521 

tribute  which  was  seemly.  The  resistance  of  Rome  seemed 
incomprehensible  to  Frederick's  adherents.  A  long  Greek 
poem  against  the  Romans  written  by  the  Chartophylax  Georgios 
of  Gallipoli,  runs  :  "  Rome  who  of  old  had  her  Caesars  and 
her  kings  and  her  satraps  and  rendered  glory  for  glory.  .  .  . 
Alas !  we  must  mourn  that  she  has  driven  forth  her  Caesars, 
the  trebly-blessed  .  .  .  since  Fate  has  plunged  the  best  and 
the  mightiest  Rule  of  One  into  an  evil  Rule  of  None . . .  but 
He  the  mighty  trebly-fortunate  Frederick,  the  Radiant,  the 
Wonder  of  the  World,  TO  davjma  rfc  OLKOV^V^^  whose  bow 
is  of  brass,  whose  lightnings  blind  the  foe  ;  earth  is  his  servant 
and  the  sea  and  the  vault  of  heaven,  the  Just  in  fame,  the 
Exalted  ...  his  voice  thunders  and  the  noise  of  his  chariots  .  .  . 
his  lightnings  flame  from  on  high  annihilating  the  enemy's 
arrogance.  What  trembling  at  such  a  campaign  !  .  .  .  Mur 
mur,  therefore,  0  Rome,  wholesome  words  of  divinely-inspired 
determination  .  .  .  exalt  him  above  every  cedar  .  .  .  and  expel 
for  his  sake  the  whole  race  of  corruption. "  The  Calabrian 
official  utilising  the  resounding  metaphors  of  the  Byzantine 
court  diction  here  represents  the  Emperor  as  Jupiter,  the  angry 
Thunder-God  ;  not  seriously  different  from  the  phrases  which 
the  Imperial  Chancery  was  wont  to  lavish  on  the  Ruler  :  "  Of 
a  truth  earth  and  sea  revere  him  and  the  winds  of  heaven  praise 
him  whom  the  Deity  has  granted  to  be  the  true  Emperor  of  the 
World,  the  Friend  of  Peace,  the  Protector  of  Love,  the  Founder 
of  Law,  the  Preserver  of  Justice,  the  Son  of  Power  who  ruleth 
the  World." 

In  his  great  Crusade  manifesto  from  Jerusalem  Frederick 
had  praised  God,  "  who  commanded  the  winds  and  the  waves 
and  they  obey  him."  Now  the  same  phrase  is  used  of  him  as 
if  he  were  himself  the  incarnate  God  :  "  Who  bindeth  the 
corners  of  the  earth  and  ruleth  the  elements."  Even  the  foe 
recognised  his  supernatural  quality — for  evil.  His  adherents 
worshipped  him  as  a  Gcd :  "  Thy  power,  O  Caesar,  hath  no 
bounds  ;  it  excelleth  the  power  of  man,  like  unto  a  God," 
writes  one  of  his  courtiers.  A  second  says  :  "  Wear  the  crown 
that  beseems  thy  supernatural  position."  A  third  praises  him 
as  the  co-operator  Dei,  the  coadjutor  of  God.  Such  phrases 
were,  of  course,  the  current  coin  of  this  Hohenstaufen  court, 


522  CULT  OF  FREDERICK  vm 

but  they  characterise  the  monarch.  Behind  the  adulations  of 
the  courtiers,  often  grossly  overdone,  we  can  see  the  truth  :  the 
impression  the  Emperor  wished  to  make,  especially  on  his  own 
followers.  The  language  of  a  court  coterie  is  always  two-edged, 
by  turns  veiling  and  revealing.  If  the  phrase  of  the  worshipper 
is  taken  too  seriously  it  immediately  becomes  a  jest,  but  if  it  is 
treated  merely  as  a  courtly  game  it  suddenly  is  fully  and  literally 
intended. 

This  homage  shows  at  least  that  Frederick  enjoyed  a  degree 
of  supernatural  reverence  that  was  unique.  Nothing  proves 
this  more  clearly  than  the  deep  anxiety  which  the  Emperor-cult 
evoked  on  the  papal  side.  They  reproached  him  with  allowing 
himself  to  be  worshipped  like  a  God,  with  letting  men  call 
him  holy  and  kiss  his  feet,  with  aiming  at  founding  a  priestly 
Empire.  None  of  these  accusations  is  strictly  true,  but  none 
is  entirely  false. 

Earlier  Emperors  had  been  praised  as  deus  de  prole  deorum, 
vicar  of  God,  second  David,  holy,  divine,  the  anointed  of  the 
Lord,  Christus  Domini,  Sakator  Muhdi.  There  was  nothing 
far-fetched  in  this  because  the  Christian  Middle  Ages — unlike 
pagan  antiquity — had  only  one  type  of  God  in  human  form  : 
the  Saviour.  What  seemed  to  the  Church  so  satanic,  so 
acutely  dangerous,  was  that  in  addition  to  the  stereotyped  and 
relatively  harmless  formulas  previously  in  use  men  spoke  of 
Frederick  as  "  versed  in  the  divine  plans,"  "  ceaselessly  illumi 
nated  by  the  eye  of  God,"  as  a  real,  active,  divine  force. 
Apparent  humility  took  a  step  back  and  conceived  him  as  an 
emanation  of  the  true  God,  a  son  of  God,  and  continually 
placed  him  on  the  same  plane  as  the  Redeemer  Christ  himself. 
Perpetual  reiteration  gave  these  claims  a  peculiar  ring,  and  their 
effect  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the  world  was  at  the 
moment  wrought  up  to  an  hourly,  vivid  expectation  of  an 
imperial  Messiah.  Frederick  II  was  the  only  Emperor  of  whom 
posterity  cherished  the  dream  that  he  would  return  as  Saviour 
at  the  End  of  the  World. 

The  Emperor  himself,  and  Piero  della  Vigna  earlier,  had 
given  the  courtiers  the  note  :  the  letter  to  Jesi,  the  Emperor's 
Bethlehem,  is  the  best  example  of  the  style.  An  echo  was  only 
to  be  expected.  A  few  years  later  an  imperial  governor  with 


COURTIER'S  STYLE  S23 

his  troops  was  surrounded,  and  in  need  he  wrote :  "  Our  fore 
fathers  looked  no  more  eagerly  for  the  coming  of  Christ  than 
we  do  for  thine.  .  .  .  Come  to  free  and  to  rejoice  us.  ... 
Show  thy  countenance  and  we  shall  find  salvation  !  .  .  .  This 
it  is  for  which  we  groan,  this  for  which  we  sigh  :  to  rest  under 
the  shadow  of  thy  wings. "  An  imperial  notary  goes  even 
further  in  numerous  appeals  from  prison  to  the  Emperor  : 
c<  O  harbour  of  salvation  to  them  that  believe  .  .  .  lead  the 
children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  ...  we  endure  torment  for 
thee  such  as  the  martyrs  endured  for  Christ.  .  .  ."  One  of  the 
faithful  Sicilian  bishops,  when  summoned  to  court,  writes : 
"  Walking  on  the  waters  I  shall  come  to  my  Lord." 

After  the  second  excommunication  it  became  the  fashion  for 
the  courtiers  to  keep  up  this  "  style  "  even  in  conversation 
amongst  themselves.  It  is  noteworthy,  indicating  the  plane 
on  which  the  Emperor  moved,  that  all  their  allusions  are  either 
to  Caesar  or  to  Christ,  never  to  Charlemagne  or  any  of  the 
great  medieval  Emperors.  Piero  della  Vigna  had  had  the 
largest  share  in  creating  this  figure  of  his  master.  The  vital 
thing  was  that  Frederick  II  found  spirits  to  praise  him  and 
recognise  him  :  that  he  not  only  felt  himself  to  be  the  emissary 
of  God  but  was  believed  to  be  so  by  his  followers. 

It  is  Piero  della  Vigna  and  his  circle  of  jurists,  stylists  and 
literati  who  supply  the  enduring  expression  of  this  conception. 
The  time  believed  that  the  first  and  second  ages  of  Adam  and 
of  Christ  were  overpast  and  that  the  third  was  drawing  on. 
Piero  della  Vigna  boldly  pointed  to  his  imperial  master  as  the 
hero  of  the  third  and  coming  age,  the  ruler  "  whom  the  Great 
Artificer's  hand  created  man,"  "  into  whose  breast  all  virtues 
are  poured,  on  whom  the  clouds  rain  justice  and  the  heavens 
send  their  dew."  And  della  Vigna  praises  in  this  last  Emperor 
of  the  ancient  Empire  the  "  ideal  of  good,"  "  who  is  free  from 
crooked  sight,  who  bindeth  the  corners  of  the  earth  and  ruleth 
the  elements,  that  frost  is  mated  with  fire,  and  wet  with  dry,  and 
rough  with  smooth,  and  the  pathless  is  wedded  to  him  whose 
ways  are  straight." 

The  marriage  of  opposites  had  been  from  of  old  the  token  of 
an  aurea  aetas,  a  Golden  Age  in  which  strife  and  war  shall 
cease  :  an  age  of  peace  which  the  Saviour-Emperor  shall  bring. 


S24  A  NEW  PETER  vm 

The  Logothetes,  therefore,  praises  his  master:  "  In  his  day 
shall  the  bonds  of  evil  be  loosened  and  with  might  shall  security 
be  sown  :  men  shall  beat  their  swords  to  ploughshares  for  the 
bond  of  peace  causeth  all  fear  to  cease."  Piero  della  Vigna  was 
not  alone  in  his  belief  that  the  reign  of  peace  had  come  again 
under  Frederick  IL  A  North  Italian  sings :  "cuius  ad  im- 
perium  redit  aetas  aurea  mundo."  Another  Italian  poet  in  his 
enthusiasm  over  Frederick's  great  victory  at  sea  hopes  that  this 
severe  defeat  will  teach  the  Pope  the  kind  of  peace  which  awaits 
him  at  the  end  of  the  strife  : 

Et  Puer  Apuliae  terras  in  pace  habebit. 

The  youthful  name  of  Frederick  II  is  revived  again  to  link  the 
Vergilian  prophecies  of  thje  divine  peace-bringing  boy  with  the 
Messiah  whom  men  now  were  seeking  or  had  found  in  Caesar 
Augustus.  Thus  myth  and  poem  and  prophecy  were  inter 
woven  in  the  life  of  that  Emperor  who  had  redeemed  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  and  was  now  waging  war  on  a  corrupted  clergy. 

The  fusion  of  the  Messiah-Emperor  and  the  Sicilian  God  of 
Justice  in  the  person  of  Frederick  II  gave  a  peculiarly  practical 
and  human  character  to  the  new  Emperor-cult.  In  turning 
over  the  letters  that  passed  to  and  fro  between  the  courtiers 
we  find  such  unanimity  of  tone  and  phrase  as  almost  amounts 
to  a  "  secret  dogma/'  which  grows  more  concentrated  and 
forceful  in  proportion  as  the  Pope  is  seen  as  the  false  and 
Frederick  as  the  true  Vicar  of  Christ.  It  was  natural  to  turn 
to  Piero  della  Vigna  as  the  Peter  and  Prince  of  the  Apostles  of 
this  new  imperial  Savipur.  Delia  Vigna  became  "  like  unto 
the  new  Law-bearer,  Moses,  descending  from  Sinai,  bringing 
the  tables  of  the  law  from  Heaven  to  men,"  or,  again,  "  a  second 
Joseph  to  whom  as  a  true  interpreter  the  mighty  Caesar  whose 
power  the  Sun  and  Moon  admire  has  handed  over  the  direction 
of  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  He  was  the  Peter  who  bears  the 
keys  of  Empire  and  locks  what  no  man  may  open,  and  opens 
what  no  man  again  may  lock."  "  Peter,  the  humble  fisher,  the 
Prince  of  the  Apostles,  who  left  his  nets  and  followed  God  .  .  . 
but  this  law-bearing  Peter  quits  not  his  Master's  side.  The 
Galilean  thrice  denied  his  Lord  ...  far  be  it  from  the  Capuan 
to  deny  his  Master  once."  The  trend  of  courtly  thought  is 


AN  IMPERIAL  CHURCH  525 

even  more  clearly  revealed  in  the  half  serious  letter  which  was 
written  to  Piero  della  Vigna.  "  And  the  Lord  said  :  '  Peter, 
lovest  thou  me  ?  Feed  my  sheep/  and  thus  the  Lord  who 
loveth  Justice  wished  to  build  justice  on  this  rock  and  give  the 
reins  of  law  into  the  hands  of  Peter,  making  you  the  custodian 
of  justice.  To  show  this  the  more  clearly  the  Lord  hath  placed 
you  over  against  the  face  of  him  who  is  the  President  but  also 
the  Perverter  of  the  Church,  that  the  true  vicegerent  Peter  may 
rule  through  Justice  while  the  false  Vicar  of  Christ  perverts  his 
vicegerency  to  the  injury  of  many  in  body,  goods  and  name.  .  .  . 
If  such  a  charge  oppresses  you,  since  you  are  unaccustomed  to 
it  and  never  sought  it  ...  you  can  only  answer  *  Lord  thou 
knowest  that  I  love  thee.  If  I  can  serve  thy  people  I  refuse 
not  the  service  :  Thy  will  be  done.'  " 

This  was  not,  as  has  sometimes  been  assumed,  a  serious 
suggestion  that  Piero  della  Vigna  should  be,  in  fact,  elevated 
as  a  real  Anti-Pope,  but  it  contained  the  idea  that  the  Head  of 
the  "  imperial  Church, "  the  jurist  hierarchy,  should  be  in  a 
special  sense  an  "  Anti-Pope."  Below  the  half-serious,  half- 
jesting  flattery  with  which  the  courtier  recalls  the  master  to  his 
lofty  duties,  urging  :  "  the  Pope  is  useless,  do  thou,  as  the  true 
Peter,  discharge  his  duties/'  we  detect  the  lofty  sense  of  dignity 
and  responsibility  which  inspired  the  Court,  and  the  clear  con 
sciousness  that  the  imperial  hierarchy  of  jurist  and  official 
formed  an  independent  spiritual  order  like  the  Pope's  Church, 
and  quite  as  good.  Napoleon's  thought:  "  Gown  against 
gown,  esprit  de  corps  against  esprit  de  corps,  judge  against 
priest,'*  was  anticipated,  in  other  words,  at  Frederick's  court. 
To  express  ideas  such  as  these  was  in  those  days  only  possible 
by  using  the  symbols  of  the  only  spiritual  kingdom  then  known : 
the  Church  with  Christ  her  King. 

To  establish  the  worship  of  a  spiritual  ruler  without  the 
Church  men  were  fain  to  employ  the  Church's  methods  ; 
while  to  celebrate  the  warlike  triumphs  of  the  Emperor  their 
thoughts  leaped  forthwith  to  the  pagan  Caesars.  Thus  it  is 
that  the  State  is  called  the  imperialis  ecdesia,  the  provinces  are 
conceived  as  bishops'  dioceses  and  the  purchase  of  office  as 
simony.  At  moments  men  went  further  and  stated  that  the 
Emperor's  Church,  founded  on  Peter,  was  manifest  whenever 


526  ART  AND  WORSHIP  vm 

"  the  spirit  of  the  Illustrious  Emperor  draws  strength  from  a 
supper  with  his  disciples.''  We  recall  in  this  connection  the 
High  Mass  of  Justitia^  the  mystery  and  the  sacratissimum 
ministerium,  the  solemn  exotic  ritual  of  the  High  Court  when 
the  Law  Incarnate  was  revealed  in  the  Emperor's  person,  when 
the  Emperor  whispered  his  sentence  to  his  Logothetes,  who 
announced  it  to  the  kneeling  multitude,  while  the  tinkling  of 
the  bell  betokened  the  mystic  communion  that  was  consum 
mated.  The  essential  result  of  the  identification  of  Frederick 
with  the  Son  of  God  is  the  reintroduction  of  the  human  element. 
The  State  was  cemented  by  the  direct  belief  of  his  disciples  in 
a  living  man  and  his  divine  mission.  Such  a  faith  as  saints 
evoke  by  miracles,  but  never  an  Emperor  inspired  save  Frederick 
only.  He  wrought  no  miracles,  but  he  was  called  "  Trans 
former/  ' ' '  Wonder  of  the  World. ' '  He  was  inevitably  glorified 
into  a  saint,  and  men  gave  him  the  title  of  the  Byzantine  Em 
peror  :  "  Long  live  the  name  of  St.  Frederick  amongst  the 
people  !  " 

There  would  be  no  need  to  pay  so  much  attention  to  the 
inflated  homage  of  the  courtiers'  writings  if  this  worship  of 
Frederick  had  been  confined  to  the  rhetoric  of  the  Vigna  circle. 
This,  however,  was  by  no  means  the  case.  This  extra- 
ecclesiastical  "  sacred  cult  "  of  a  living  man  had  other  and  very 
different  consequences  :  it  led  to  the  representation  and  im 
mortalisation  of  this  divine  person  in  art.  The  remarkable 
outburst  of  south  Italian  plastic  art,  an  early  breath  as  it  were 
of  the  Renaissance,  that  suddenly  blossomed  as  if  by  magic  in 
the  carefully-tended  Paradise  that  was  Frederick's  Sicilian 
kingdom,  gave  more  open  and  more  unmistakable  expression 
to  the  feelings  which  the  elaborate  metaphors  of  the  courtiers* 
letters  half  obscured. 


This  new  art  formed  no  exception  to  the  law  that  represen 
tational  art  is  dependent  on  a  living  worship — certainly  in 
primitive  times.  The  great  works  of  Hohenstaufen  sculpture 
in  Sicily  date  almost  without  exception  from  the  last  ten  years 
of  Frederick's  life,  from  the  period  after  Cortenuova  when  the 
Emperor-worship  began  to  take  more  definite  shape  and  play 


FREDERICK-WORSHIP  527 

a  more  ceremonial  role.  Amongst  court  circles  it  began  to 
strike  a  more  human  and  personal  note  and  gradually  to  develop 
into  a  Frederick- worship.  The  sculpture  was  inspired  by  the 
worship  of  the  Hohenstaufen  God  :  at  no  moment  was  this 
"  ruler,  wrought  and  made  man  by  the  Great  Artificer's  hand  " 
more  vividly  present  to  men's  minds  than  in  that  solemn 
ceremony  in  which  he,  clothed  in  the  awe  of  his  divine  majesty 
as  highest  judge  and  lawgiver,  consummated  in  the  eyes  of  all 
his  communion  with  God  when  God,  incarnate  as  Law,  became 
man  in  the  stainless  Son  !  " 

The  literary  records  tell  of  that  High  Mass  of  the  Emperor's, 
the  "  supper  with  the  disciples/'  the  founding  of  the  imperialis 
ecclesia  on  Peter,  his  nearest  intimate,  and  the  works  of  art 
themselves,  representing  man  in  his  "  ideal/5  i.e.  his  divine 
moment,  can  mean  no  less.  In  those  days  when  the  solemn 
ritual  was  evolved  and  della  Vigna,  under  the  exotic  title  of 
Logothetes,  officiated,  as  intermediary  and  speaker  for  the 
Emperor,  there  was  created  in  Naples  a  representation,  prob-% 
ably  a  relief,  picturing  the  scene.  It  has  not  been  preserved, 
but  has  been  described  with  considerable  exactness  :  In  the 
background  the  Emperor  was  seen  high  and  lifted  up,  seated 
on  his  throne,  beside  him  at  a  more  modest  elevation  Piero 
della  Vigna,  and  in  the  foreground,  at  the  Emperor's  feet,  the 
kneeling  people.  The  multitude  was  demanding  Justice  from 
the  Emperor,  the  chronicler  declares,  and  the  inscription  tells 
the  same  tale  : 

CAESAR — AMOR  LEGUM.      FREDERICK   PIISSIME   REGUM 
CAUSARUM  TELAS        NOSTRARUM  SOLVE  QUERELAS. 

The  person  so  addressed  who  is  to  loose  the  web  of  strife,  and 
who  in  his  Book  of  Laws  describes  himself  as  weaving  the  woof 
of  Justice,  points  to  Piero  della  Vigna,  the  transmitter  of  the 
divine  commands,  as  who  should  say  ;  "  Turn  to  this  man  in 
your  strife.  He  will  give  judgment  or  beg  me  to  do  so,  Vigna 
is  his  surname  ...  he  is  called  Peter,  the  Judge." 

Even  without  the  explanatory  verses  of  the  inscription  the 
arrangement  of  the  scene  would  have  indicated  what  was  here 
represented  :  this  was  the  Emperor  "  in  cultu  Justitiae" 
Justice,  poured  forth  in  due  gradation.  As  Justice  reigns  as 


S28  A  PROFANE  ART  vm 

mediatrix  between  God  and  the  Emperor,  so  Petrus  Judex  is 
represented  as  mediator  between  the  Emperor  of  Justice  and 
the  people.  Men  were  accustomed  thus  to  see  their  ruler 
holding  his  High  Court.  The  vitally  important  point  is  that 
we  have  here  a  representation  of  no  abstract  thought,  but  of 
real,  actual  life  as  it  was  known  and  seen.  We  have  no  know 
ledge  how  far  this  relief  in  the  palace  of  Naples  approached  the 
antique,  but  under  Frederick  II  all  plastic  art  turned  towards 
antiquity,  driven  by  an  inner  necessity,  quite  independent  of 
the  Emperor's  personal  predilections.  For  the  sculpture  that 
came  to  birth  in  Sicily  was  a  "  profane  "  art.  Here,  in  the 
Pope's  fief,  in  scorn  of  the  Church,  came  to  birth  the  first  great 
non-religious  art  of  the  West  such  as  served  to  celebrate  the 
State  and  the  State  Gods  in  the  days  of  the  old  Roman  Divi,  if 
by  "  profane  "  we  understand  a  contrast  to  ecclesiastical  and 
religious  representation.  The  secular  art  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
State  was  in  its  own  way  no  less  "  sacred.0 

In  the  Middle  Ages  all  creative  art  had  been  exclusively 
ecclesiastical ;  the  outburst  of  new  creativeness,  and  the  new 
style  associated  with  the  secular  state,  inevitably  meant  rever 
sion  to  the  antique,  and  the  dependence  was  surprisingly 
intimate.  For  a  whole  millennium  all  pictorial  representation 
had  served  the  glorification  of  the  Saviour  or  his  followers,  the 
Saints.  Pictures  of  rulers  formed  no  exception  :  they  were 
confined  to  chapels  and  cathedrals  and  were  designed  to  magnify 
the  Redeemer.  Now  for  the  first  time  plastic  art  was  given  a 
meaning,  a  life,  a  consecration,  a  raison  d'etre  by  the  secular 
State.  Only  the  worship  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  makes  this 
possible.  Here,  in  the  secular  world,  outside  the  Church, 
another  son  of  God  was  glorified. 

From  another  point  of  view  this  ultimate  dependence  on 
antiquity  and  its  method  of  seeing  and  portraying  was  entirely 
logical.  The  hieratical-ecclesiastical  art  had  devoted  its  first 
attention  to  the  relation  which  the  presentation  bore  to  the 
God  of  the  other  world,  and  its  second  thought  only  to  the 
object  represented.  Here  a  bodily  presentation  of  the  World 
Ruler  himself  was  possible  :  a  portrait  of  the  man  who  was,  as 
he  was.  Truth  and  reality  in  art,  which  a  heavenly  subject 
rendered  superfluous  and  which  could  be  replaced  by  signs  and 


REALITY  IN  ART  529 

symbols  and  frozen  symmetries,  now  became  the  important 
aim.  The  beautiful  golden  coins  indicate  that  even  a  "  like 
ness  "  was  by  no  means  to  be  despised :  "  In  order  that  the 
form  of  the  money  may  bring  our  name  to  your  memory  and 
our  illustrious  image  to  your  eyes  .  .  .  that  the  frequent  sight 
thereof  may  strengthen  you  in  your  loyalty  and  fire  your 
devotion."  Above  the  image  on  the  seal  is  written  :  "  The 
human  impulse  to  fulfil  commands  received,  faith  in  the  mes 
sage  sent,  these  things  are  only  justified  by  the  image  stamped 
in  wax  or  metal  of  him  who  issues  the  commands."  On  the 
seals  the  image  is  still  mainly  a  mere  "  sign,"  but  this  image 
speaks  like  a  command,  and  the  more  it  resembles  the  com 
manding  person  the  greater  will  be  the  force  it  carries.  This 
was  the  point  to  which  the  Emperor  attached  importance  :  the 
imperial  image  would  be  potent  by  recalling  the  PERSON,  and 
power  would  radiate  from  it  as  grace  from  a  sacred  picture 
through  religious  faith. 

Emancipated  from  the  rigidity  and  symbolism  of  religious 
convention  and  once  more  in  touch  with  life,  everything  in 
Hohenstaufen  plastic  art  turned  towards  antiquity,  whose 
achievements  in  a  "  profane  "  self-sufficing  State  had  no  need 
of  Christian  or  mystic  interpretation  to  be  sacred.  The  recog 
nition  that  every  thing  existed  in  its  own  right,  was  in  itself 
divine  and  god-devised,  was  reinforced  by  the  new  conception 
of  art  for  which  Frederick  stood.  He  had  an  eye  for  the  bodies 
of  man  and  beast  such  as  no  man  before  him  had  possessed, 
and  his  strong  feeling  of  affinity  with  the  Caesars  had  given  him 
a  keen  appreciation  of  the  art  of  their  times.  He  filled  his 
Apulian  castles  with  ancient  sculptures.  From  Grottaferrata, 
near  Rome,  he  had  a  bronze  cow  and  a  bronze  male  statue 
transported  to  Apulia.  From  Naples  slaves  had  had  to  carry 
on  their  shoulders  ancient  works  of  art  to  adorn  the  castle 
of  Lucera.  Almost  all  his  castles  boasted  similar  treasures. 
High  on  a  wall  of  the  inner  court  of  Castel  del  Monte  a  relief 
may  even  now  be  seen,  on  which  horses  and  riders  can  still  be 
distinguished.  Perhaps  it  was  a  Meleager  hunting-scene  such 
as  was  a  favourite  subject  for  sarcophagi  .  .  .  such  as  adorns 
the  tomb  in  which  Frederick  buried  the  remains  of  his  first 
consort,  Constance  of  Aragon,  in  the  cathedral  of  Palermo. 


530  MASONS  AS  SCULPTORS  vin 

The  Emperor  by  no  means  contented  himself  with  such 
works  of  art  as  were  already  to  hand.  His  sculptors  were  com 
missioned  to  make  more.  Many  heads  and  fragments  of 
sculpture  in  Castel  del  Monte  are  probably  copies  of  antique 
originals.  Imitation,  however,  was  not  good  enough.  The 
Apulian  stone  masons  received  remarkable  commissions  and 
were  set  to  work  from  real  life,  though  in  antique  style.  At 
times  one  might  imagine  that  these  were  genuine  relics  of 
Roman  days  did  not  some  detail  betray  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  Emperor's  "  unquenched  desire  "  to  renew  the  greatness 
of  the  Caesars,  to  take  his  stand  beside  the  Augusti  and  measure 
himself  against  them,  called  forth  these  wonderful  creations  : 
figures  in  the  round  more  like  the  antique  than  any  preceding 
medieval  work.  Since  the  days  of  the  Roman  Emperors  no 
state  divinities  had  called  for  representation.  What  Christian 
ruler  would  have  thought  it  necessary  to  build  a  great  triumphal 
arch  to  glorify  himself  and  his  State,  and  decorate  it  with  the 
figures  of  his  trusty  followers.  Who  would  have  dared  to  crave 
it !  Who  would  have  dared  to  execute  it ! 

We  need  not  here  further  emphasise  the  boldness  of  an 
earthly  warrior's  celebrating  his  own  triumph  in  a  day  when 
men  recognised  only  One  as  victor.  A  strongly  fortified  bridge 
head  had  been  in  course  of  construction  since  1234  in  front  of 
the  town  of  Capua,  to  guard  the  Via  Appia  where  it  crossed  the 
Volturno.  The  fortification  itself \  the  plan  of  which  the 
Emperor  had  sketched  with  his  own  hands,  seems  to  have  been 
roughly  finished  by  1239.  It  was  probably  about  this  time, 
when  Frederick  was  returning  as  Triumphator  to  his  own  king 
dom,  that  he  decided  to  adorn  the  gate  of  the  bridge  with 
sculptures  and  develop  it  into  an  ornamental  arch.  "  The 
magnificent  marble  portal  "  which  has  been  so  much  praised 
was  not  completed  till  1247.  This  work  of  art,  begotten  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  rule  in  Sicily,  was  much  admired  throughout 
Renaissance  times. 

It  must  not  be  compared  with  the  Arch  of  Trajan  in  the 
adjacent  Benevento.  The  combination  of  fortification  and 
triumphal  arch  recalls  rather  the  gate  of  the  Castel  Nuovo  in 
Naples  which  was  erected  two  centuries  later  by  Alfonso  I  of 
Aragon,  a  ruler  who  in  many  points  is  a  true  heir  of  Frederick  II. 


THE  CAPUAN  GATE  531 

We  are  told  that  "  two  towers  of  astounding  size,  beauty  and 
strength  "  flanked  the  entrance  to  the  Capuan  Gate.  Every 
thing  was  faced  with  marble  or  a  stone  resembling  marble ;  the 
hewn  stones,  as  in  all  Frederick's  buildings,  were  so  skilfully 
fitted  that  the  joints  secured  by  molten  lead  were  practically 
invisible.  The  victories  and  triumphs  of  Frederick  were  por 
trayed  in  relief.  The  side  that  faced  the  town  was  adorned 
with  figures  of  Mercury,  and  the  keystone  was  a  laurel-crowned 
head  of  Jupiter  (possibly  plundered  from  the  neighbouring 
amphitheatre  of  Capua).  The  outer  side  that  faced  the 
traveller  who  was  approaching  Capua  along  the  Via  Appia  was 
more  ornate.  Gigantic  statues,  all  carved  by  Frederick's  own 
sculptors,  filled  the  niches.  We  are  not  absolutely  certain  of 
the  arrangement  of  the  figures,  but  everything  indicates  that  in 
the  highest  place  of  all  there  stood  a  female  form,  double  or 
even  treble  life-size,  whose  powerful  and  beautiful  head  is  still 
extant.  The  features  recall  the  majesty,  the  reflective  power, 
the  serenity  of  a  Farnese  Juno.  In  spite  of  the  general  antique 
effect  of  this  colossal  figure  the  details  are  not  indebted  to 
antique  models.  The  hand  of  this  goddess  is  pointing  to  her 
breast,  where  instead  of  a  heart  the  imperial  eagle  stretches 
his  wings  and  claws — perhaps  the  scarcely-tamed  eagle  of 
the  coins. 

This  figure  probably  stood  alone,  crowning  the  summit  of 
the  structure.  The  eagle  is  not  the  only  indication  that  this 
figure  stands  in  intimate  relation  to  that  of  Frederick  himself 
in  the  niche  immediately  below.  The  armies  of  the  French 
Revolution  shattered  the  head  of  this  figure  and  have  left  only 
the  trunk,  but  much  can  be  deduced  from  even  the  fragments 
of  this  life-size  statue.  Frederick  was  represented,  as  on  the 
Augustales,  wearing  the  mantle  of  the  Roman  Imperator,  but 
otherwise  the  usual  dress  of  his  day ;  his  beardless,  still-youthful 
face  (deduced  from  a  gem)  looking  straight  before  him,  scanning 
the  new  arrival  with  his  calm  unruffled  gaze.  His  forearm  is 
stretched  out  in  an  attitude  half  of  menace,  half  of  benediction, 
familiar  in  certain  pictures  of  Christ.  Two  fingers  of  one  hand 
were  raised  "  as  if,"  says  the  chronicler, "  his  mouth  were  about 
to  give  voice  to  the  resonant  threatening  of  the  verses  "  which 
are  engraved  in  a  semicircle  above  his  head.  They  form  a 


532  JUSTITIA  IN  STONE  vm 

distich  :  the  hexameter  is  apparently  spoken  by  the  Goddess 
above  : 

At  the  bidding  of  Caesar  I  stand,  guarantor  for  the  peace  of 
the  kingdom. 

The  pentameter  is  assigned  to  Frederick  himself : 

In  wrath  I  shall  ruin  the  man  whom  I  know  to  be  faithless. 
This  couplet  forms  a  second  link  between  Frederick  and  the 
Goddess. 

Two  other  figures  give  the  clue  to  the  identity  of  the  exalted 
figure  who  is  represented  as  larger  than  the  Emperor,  and  stands 
above  him  and  yet  with  him  forms  a  unity.  Right  and  left  of 
the  Emperor  and  probably  slightly  lower,  very  possibly  one  on 
each  of  the  towers,  are  two  busts  which  are  usually  interpreted 
with  extreme  probability  as  two  High  Court  Judges  :  the  one 
Piero  della  Vigna,  the  other  Thaddeus  of  Suessa.  Each  of  their 
niches  bears  a  hexameter.  The  one  offers  the  invitation  : 

Enter  with  confidence  all  who  purpose  to  live  without  trepass  ; 
while  the  second  threatens  : 

He  who  is  faithless  may  fear  to  end  as  an  exile  in  fetters. 

This  more  than  human  female  form,  which  later  patriotism 
interpreted  as  a  representation  of  the  town  of  Capua,  can  have 
been  no  other  genius  than  the  "  Justitia  Augusti,"  one  with 
Caesar  and  yet  greater  than  man,  and  exalted  even  above  the 
Emperor :  Justice  communicating  her  commands  through  the 
Emperor  to  the  Judges,  Frederick  II  in  life :  "  Father  and 
Son  of  Justitia." 

The  composition  of  the  three-storied  Capuan  Gate  tells  the 
same  tale  as  the  relief  in  the  palace  at  Naples,  where  the  mul 
titude,  awed  by  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  kneel  before  incarnate 
Justice.  There  was  no  need  to  portray  the  multitude  on  the 
triumphal  arch ;  they  were  represented  by  the  living  passers-by, 
who  if  they  did  not  pause  to  kneel  would  yet  shudder  before 
the  threatening  Judgment  Day.  It  was  certainly  Frederick's 
intention  here  to  inspire  the  people  with  fear  of  the  divine 
imperial  power  by  this  image  of  himself,  by  the  impression  on 
the  eye — "  whose  sight  is  more  potent  than  aught  that  the  ear 
perceives."  The  chronicler  confirms  this  hypothesis,  for  he 


NO  CHRISTIAN  SYMBOL  533 

himself  felt  the  effect  the  Emperor  intended :  "  The  threatening 
verses  were  inscribed  to  inspire  fear  in  those  who  passed  through 
the  gate  and  fear  in  those  to  whom  the  figures  themselves  spake." 

We  recall  the  Sicilian  representatives  of  the  "  Pantocrator  " 
or  "  Immanuel,"  "  famous  in  his  majesty,  terrible  in  his  glory," 
figures  of  Christ  still  Byzantine  in  style,  with  unmoved  gaze, 
slightly  oblique,  almost  cruel,  compelling  perhaps  a  shuddering 
love  through  the  fear  of  sword  and  lawbook  which  the  threaten 
ing-blessing  figure  holds  in  its  hands. 

Such  fear  Frederick  II  definitely  sought  to  evoke.  The 
Sicilian  Kingdom  of  Peace  and  of  Justice  whose  threshold  was 
marked  by  this  Gate  of  Judgment  could  only  be  maintained,  to 
quote  Piero  della  Vigna,  "  by  the  fear  which  the  Emperor  in 
spired  who  was  skilled  both  to  correct  and  to  chastise  by  the 
rod  of  his  victory  ".  .  .  a  spirit  close  akin  to  Dante's,  who 
inscribed  the  verse  :  "  All  hope  abandon  ye  who  enter  here/' 
over  the  gate  that  led  into  the  realm  of  God's  Justice. 

People  of  those  days  were  ready  to  give  an  ecclesiastical- 
allegorical  turn  to  the  interpretation  of  the  gate  of  Capua.  The 
Gesta  Romanorum  first  describe  the  portal  with  accuracy,  and 
then  provide  a  strange  interpretation  :  the  Emperor's  figure 
becomes  that  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  marble  gate 
represents  Holy  Church  through  which  men  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  female  figure  of  Justice  becomes 
the  Saviour's  Virgin  Mother  and  the  Vigna  bust  John  the 
Evangelist,  Even  the  courtiers  could  scarcely  have  given  an 
interpretation  more  flattering  to  their  imperial  master.  The 
pious  writer,  however,  had  another  end  in  view.  This  building 
and  these  figures  which  display  no  solitary  Christian  symbol — 
the  Emperor  has  not  even  a  cross  upon  his  crown  but  is  wearing 
the  simple  Roman  pointed  diadem—must  be  robbed  of  their 
dangerous  pagan  suggestion  and  ecclesiasticised.  As  a  cardinal 
wrote  about  Frederick,  however,  in  another  context,  "  The 
stones  hurled  against  him  by  the  Pope  turn  to  straw,  like  filth 
he  scatters  the  gold  of  the  papal  anathema,  he  lets  the  rays  of 
the  sun  fall  upon  him,  and  he  fears  the  God  of  the  Lightning 
as  little  as  an  archer  with  his  bow.1' 


534  HOME-GROWN  ARTISTS  vm 

The  Church  looked  askance  at  this  new  art,  and  amongst  the 
papalists  it  became  an  obsession  to  accuse  the  Ghibellines  of 
idol-  and  image-worship.  Even  Dante  did  not  escape  :  he  was 
said  to  have  placed  wax  figures  in  smoke.  It  must  have  seemed 
an  unspeakable  hubris  that  the  same  Emperor  who  denied  the 
general  immortality  of  the  soul  should  cause  the  perishable 
body  to  be  carved  in  stone  "  for  eternal  and  undying  memory." 
"  Frederick  dares  to  alter  laws  and  epochs  "  was  the  papal 
verdict  on  the  "  Transformer  of  the  World/' 

Sicilian  plastic  art  would  have  been  unthinkable  without  the 
glorification  of  the  World  Ruler  and  the  World  Judge,  and  was 
indeed  so  entirely  grounded  thereon  that,  apart  from  a  few  late 
echoes,  monumental  art  in  the  antique  style  died  with  the  death 
of  Frederick  II.  A  Gothic  reaction  set  in  everywhere,  super 
seding  the  antique  which  had  been  reawakened  by  the  State  for 
the  glory  of  the  State. 

For  many  decades  to  come  there  was  no  call  for  the  repre 
sentation  of  godlike  man  ;  only  one  Emperor  had  been  able  to 
inspire  and  to  compel  this  homage.  After  him  no  one  indi 
vidual  was  sufficiently  pre-eminent ;  without  the  Emperor,  the 
unique  ruler  who  is  "  the  one  thing  that  exists  in  its  own 
integrity  and  forms  no  part  of  another/'  the  life-giving  breath 
was  lacking.  Thus  it  fell  out  that  the  magic  glory  of  the 
Caesars  that  had  suddenly  blazed  up  in  the  south  with  Frede 
rick  perished  with  him  and  died  away  like  a  terrifying  but 
seductive  emanation  of  Lucifer. 

Not  the  least  part  of  the  miracle  lay  in  Frederick's  finding 
the  artists  who  could  carry  out  such  unwonted  tasks  in  a  form 
so  perfect.  For  the  products  of  these  imperial  sculptors  reached 
a  level  which  Italian  art  did  not  soon  regain.  The  amazing 
thing  was  that  Frederick  drew  these  artists  from  his  own 
Sicilian  kingdom,  and  begot  as  it  were  his  own  sculptors,  as  he 
had  earlier  begotten  his  own  poets.  How  he  conjured  this 
ability  from  his  simple  Apulian  stone-masons  is  a  mystery. 
He  required  it  for  the  glorification  of  his  State  and  his  State 
Gods,  and  what  he  required  he  was  wont  to  get. 

The  names  of  some  of  these  masters  are  known.  They  were 
for  the  most  part  natives  of  Apulia  and  the  Capitanata.  Their 
names  throw  no  light  on  the  mystery.  The  creative  force  was 


ART  AND   INTERDICT  535 

not  theirs.  These  masons  were  instructed  to  follow  closely  the 
antique  models  ;  the  first  school  of  art  that  worked  systemati 
cally  from  the  antique,  directed  by  one  master  mind,  was  the 
imperial  School  of  Sculpture  in  Apulia.  Without  the  com 
pulsion  which  the  Emperor  exercised  the  work  of  the  Sicilian 
sculptors  ceased,  though  a  son  of  the  imperial  master-craftsman, 
Bartholomew  of  Foggia,  was  still  able  to  carry  out  a  noble  work, 
the  bust  of  Sigilgaita  at  Ravello.  Only  one  exception  might 
perhaps  be  made  in  favour  of  Nicholas  of  Pisa. 

It  seems  no  longer  in  doubt  that  this  artist,  though  later 
settled  in  Pisa,  was  a  native  of  Apulia.  Vasari,  who  counts 
him  as  the  earliest  master  of  plastic  art  in  the  Italian  Renais 
sance,  relates  him  vaguely  to  the  Sicilian  school  and  to  the 
master  of  the  Capuan  Gate.  It  is  by  no  means  impossible  that 
Nicholas  had  learned  and  worked  anonymously  amongst  the 
imperial  sculptors  of  his  native  country  before,  in  1260,  he 
created  his  first  masterpiece,  the  pulpit  in  the  Baptistery  at 
Pisa.  Whether  Nicholas  of  Pisa  was  directly  or  indirectly  the 
bringer  of  new  vision  to  Italy,  there  is  no  doubt  that  sculpture 
after  the  antique  spread,  as  vernacular  poetry  had  spread,  from 
south  to  north,  from  Sicily  to  Upper  Italy.  It  was  noticed 
from  the  beginning  that  poetry  and  the  new  plastic  art  alike 
struck  their  first  roots  in  the  imperial  towns  of  Italy.  Nicholas's 
first  works  were  created  in  Pisa,  Siena,  Pistoia,  at  a  time  when 
these  towns  lay  under  papal  interdict. 

Vasari  records  that  Nicholas  of  Pisa  learnt  his  craftsmanship 
by  copying  ancient  vases  and  sarcophagi.  Where  was  this  done 
elsewhere  in  Italy,  and  where,  with  such  method  as  in  the 
imperial  School  in  Apulia,  in  which  this  exercise  was  imposed 
by  Frederick  as  a  duty  ?  Who  opened  the  eyes  of  the  Apulian, 
and  indirectly,  therefore,  of  the  Italian  masters,  to  see  and 
appreciate  the  works  of  the  ancients,  if  not  the  man  who  in 
other  spheres  taught  men  "  to  draw  new  water  from  old 
wells  "  ?  Frederick  did  not  himself -wield  hammer  and  chisel, 
yet  the  sculptors  are  his  creatures  and  his  pupils.  A  recent 
French  art-critic  exclaims  :  C'est  Tempereur  qui  a  &t&  le  vrai 
sculpteur  ! 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  true  statesman  can  evoke 
a  new  art  of  poetry,  of  architecture  and  of  sculpture,  the  more 


536  DIET  IN  FOGGIA  vm 

that  the  magic  of  the  chisel  thrives  best  in  the  ordered  atmos 
phere  of  a  living  state,  in  which  the  voice  of  the  community 
begins  to  make  itself  heard.  Thus  this  Hohenstaufen  Emperor, 
whom  men  hailed  as  the  image  of  God,  who  was  the  first  human 
incarnation  of  Universal  Law,  became  by  the  glorification  of 
his  state  and  of  his  person  the  founder  of  a  new  plastic  art, 
consciously  drawing  its  inspiration  from  the  pagan.  Almost 
contemporaneously  a  new  school  of  painting  was  born  within 
the  Church,  which  based  itself  immediately  on  the  reanimated 
myth  of  early  Christian  worship.  The  recent  theory  is  that  the 
glorification  of  St.  Francis  fired  the  new  "  Gothic'*  painting. 


In  March  1240  Frederick  II  returned  to  his  Sicilian  kingdom, 
but  all  his  thoughts  and  plans  were  now  directed  to  the  develop 
ment  of  the  Italian  monarchy.  In  spite  of  having  been  absent 
for  five  years,  in  spite  of  having  spent  four  in  almost  continuous 
campaigning  in  Upper  and  Central  Italy,  he  allowed  himself 
only  a  few  weeks  of  rest  in  his  beloved  Sicily.  "  Such  yearning 
and  care  for  the  pacification  of  Italy  impels  us  ...  that  neither 
the  need  of  rest  nor  recreation,  nor  yet  the  delights  of  our 
kingdom  can  hold  us  back.  When  with  diligence  and  perse 
verance  we  had  accomplished  the  great  tasks  which  were 
inherent  in  our  greatest  task  of  all,  we  speedily  quitted  Sicily 
without  rest,  which  would  have  been  fatal  to  our  activity,  and 
fared  forth  in  the  heat  of  summer  and  the  dust  of  the  camp, 
eschewing  dangers  neither  to  our  faithful  followers  nor  to 
ourselves." 

After  a  Diet  in  Foggia,  the  complete  restaffing  of  all  Sicilian 
offices,  and  the  promulgation  of  a  number  of  new  laws, 
Frederick  was  in  May  1240  actually  again  encamped  near 
Capua  with  the  newly-levied  army.  In  June  he  advanced 
against  the  frontier  of  the  Papal  States.  His  intention  was  to 
compel  the  Romans  to  open  their  gates  and  the  Pope  to  make 
peace  if  possible,  by  a  campaign  of  devastation  in  the  Roman 
Campagna.  At  the  last  moment  the  Emperor  had  to  change 
his  plans.  The  new  Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order, 
Conrad  of  Thuringia,  arrived  as  envoy  from  the  secular  and 
spiritual  princes  of  Germany  who  hoped  as  intermediaries  to 


1240  WEAKENING  BAN  537 

negotiate  a  peace  between  Emperor  and  Pope,  as  they  had  been 
successful  in  doing  after  the  Crusade. 

The  Pope's  proceedings  against  Frederick  had  completely 
failed  in  their  effect.  From  over-frequent  use  the  ban  had  lost 
its  edge,  and  was  no  longer  the  formidable  weapon  it  had  been 
of  yore  ;  the  release  of  subjects  from  their  allegiance  had  like 
wise  worn  thin.  The  sentence  of  excommunication  was,  it  is 
true,  to  be  pronounced  anew  every  Sunday  from  every  pulpit 
in  the  world  with  burning  of  candles  and  tinkling  of  bells. 
This,  no  doubt,  took  place  in  foreign  countries,  though  often 
under  protest.  In  those  very  countries,  however,  where  the 
reading  of  the  papal  bull  was  most  vital  to  Pope  Gregory, 
within  the  Empire  itself,  there  was  no  lack  of  resistance  and 
obstruction.  Innumerable  communities  in  Italy  were  them 
selves  under  the  ban  for  the  most  various  reasons,  and  no 
Church  service  was  being  held  in  them  in  any  case.  Every 
town  which  Frederick  visited  fell  automatically  under  an  inter 
dict,  and  we  may  fairly  doubt  whether  in  any  case  any  bishop 
throughout  Imperial  Italy  would  have  dared  to  read  the  ban  : 
and  in  Sicily  it  is  improbable  that  any  single  priest  was  found 
to  incur  the  risk  to  life  and  property.  Moreover,  all  adherents 
of  the  Emperor's,  like  the  Archbishop  of  Palermo,  were  also 
excommunicate,  and  any  Sicilian  bishop  who  was  not  an 
adherent  was  speedily  banished. 

In  Germany  also  numerous  spiritual  princes  refused  to  pro 
claim  the  excommunication  from  the  pulpit.  The  bishops  of 
Germany  were  as  reluctant  as  the  secular  princes  to  imperil 
their  rights  as  lords  of  the  land  by  taking  sides  against  the 
Emperor  to  whom  they  owed  so  great  an  extension  of  these 
rights.  They  rarely  went  so  far  as  to  make  any  move  against 
the  Pope,  and  certainly  not  against  the  Emperor :  for  the  most 
part  they  calmly  looked  on. 

Pope  Gregory  may  well  have  hoped  to  win  over  the  princes, 
usually  so  ready  to  revolt  against  the  Emperor,  and  to  turn 
them  against  this  Hohenstaufen,  as  Innocent  III  had  so  suc 
cessfully  done  against  the  Welf  Otto.  But  Gregory's  expec 
tations  were  disappointed,  as  at  the  time  of  the  Crusade.  His 
attempt  to  set  up  a  rival  king  failed  utterly  ;  the  envenomed 
letters  in  which  he  posed  as  the  protector  of  princely  privilege 


538  LOYALTY  OF  PRINCES  vm 

which  Frederick  was  seeking  to  undermine  fell  on  deaf  ears, 
as  did  his  insinuations  that  Frederick  was  seeking  to  destroy 
all  Christian  princes  and  magnates  by  the  hands  of  his  assassins 
in  order  to  rule  alone.    Frederick  II  had  succeeded  beyond 
belief  in  attaching  the  princes  to  himself,  and  they  viewed 
the  situation  clearly.    First  the  spiritual  and  then  the  secular 
princes  wrote  unanimously  to  the  Pops,  and  stated  in  the 
clearest  and  most  unequivocal  language  that  the  sole  cause  of 
the  ban  was  the  Pope's  having  espoused  the  cause  of  those  arch- 
traitors,  the  Lombards.    The  princes  recalled  that  their  posi 
tion  was  a  dual  one  :   on  the  one  hand  as  prelates  they  were 
sons  of  the  Church,  on  the  other  hand  as  princes  of  the  Empire 
they  were  vassals  of  the  Emperor,  and  that  they  must  not  fail 
in  their  duty  as  members  of  the  Empire ;  they  would  greatly 
grieve  if  they  were  driven  to  mourn  for  the  Church.    At  the 
same  time  they  offered  the  Pope  their  assistance  in  re-estab 
lishing  between  him  and  the  Emperor  the  peace  they  most 
earnestly  desired  to  see.    All  the  princes  joined  in  one  great 
common  declaration,  and,  further,  each  wrote  separately,  de 
scribing  the  confusion  into  which  th£  world  had  been  plunged 
by  this  new  quarrel,  and  imploring  the  Pope  to  release  the 
Emperor  from  the  ban. 

The  German  Grand  Master  had  just  at  this  moment  reached 
the  Pope  bearing  the  princes'  proposals,  and  Frederick  did 
not  care  to  jeopardise  the  arbitration  by  a  new  invasion  of  the 
Patrimonium.  The  Emperor  had,  it  is  true,  no  hope  that  the 
stiff-necked  Pope  would  accept  any  peace  that  was  not  wrung 
from  him,  and  the  negotiations  in  fact  proved  fruitless. 

With  unblushing  effrontery  the  Pope  suddenly  announced 
that  he  could  release  the  Emperor  from  the  excommunication 
incurred  by  his  heresy,  godlessness  and  persecution  of  the 
Church,  only  if  the  enemies  of  the  Emperor,  the  Lombards, 
were  included  in  the  peace.  Though  Pope  Gregory  had  always 
firmly  denied  that  the  Lombard  question  was  in  any  way  con 
nected  with  the  excommunication,  and  had  made  the  most 
far-fetched  allegations  in  his  bulls  and  manifestos  (though  it 
was  known  in  the  market-place  that  he  had  banned  the  Emperor 
to  save  the  Lombards  from  his  vengeance),  yet  now  Frederick's 
release  was  to  be  effected,  not  by  penance  for  acknowledged 


1240  FALL  OF  RAVENNA  539 

sin,  but  by  political  concessions  to  the  Lombards.  We  can 
hardly  wonder  that  the  negotiations  broke  down;  not  even 
an  armistice  was  achieved.  All  subsequent  peace  overtures 
foundered  on  the  same  reef ;  the  Curia  clung  to  the  Lombard 
clause,  and  Frederick  with  perfect  justice  refused  to  buy  his 
absolution  at  the  price.  The  German  Grand  Master  died  a 
few  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Rome,  and  Frederick  meantime 
had  resumed  the  fighting  in  the  Romagna,  though  not  in  the 
Patrimonium. 


The  Emperor's  position  had  grown  less  favourable  since  the 
defection  of  Ravenna  in  the  preceding  year.  The  imperial 
cause  was  gravely  endangered  in  the  Romagna.  The  papal 
legate,  Gregory  of  Montelongo,  had  rallied  Venetians,  Bolog- 
nese  and  others  and  conquered  Ferrara,  while  Bologna  and 
Faenza  had  throughout  belonged  to  the  League.  The  Em 
peror  now  marched  north  along  the  Adriatic  through  the  March 
of  Ancona.  It  was  summer  and  he  was  attacked  by  a  slight 
fever  in  the  swampy  country  which,  however,  "  we  so  over 
came  by  the  might  of  the  spirit  that  it  did  not  presume  to  stay 
our  victorious  progress  after  the  end  of  the  critical  day."  By 
the  middle  of  August  he  lay  with  a  modest  force  of  Germans, 
Tuscans  and  Apulians  before  Ravenna.  He  had  originally 
intended  to  march  on  Bologna,  but  hearing  that  Paulus  Traver- 
sarius  was  dead,  who  had  been  the  leader  of  the  anti-imperial 
party  in  Ravenna,  and  that  feeling  in  the  town  was  veering 
round,  he  changed  his  plan  and  appeared  before  Ravenna. 
The  water  supply  was  cut  off,  and  the  town  after  a  six-day 
siege  surrendered  and  gave  hostages.  It  was  then  received 
into  favour. 

Frederick  was  now  free  to  turn  to  Bologna.  If  he  had 
invested  Bologna,  however,  Faenza  lying  further  to  the  south 
would  have  threatened  his  rear.  It,  therefore,  seemed  prudent 
first  to  take  Faenza.  Frederick  counted  no  doubt  on  succeed 
ing  as  quickly  here  as  at  Ravenna.  But  a  mere  siege  effected 
nothing.  The  town  offered  an  unexpectedly  strong  resistance, 
the  garrison  having  been  heavily  reinforced  by  Venetians  and 
Bolognese,  and  the  defence  was  conducted  by  a  young 


S4o  BLOCKADE  OF  FAENZA  vm 

Florentine  of  twenty-three,  Count  Guido  Guerra.  The  Counts 
Palatine  of  the  Guidi  family  were  usually  staunch  imperialists, 
but  this  one  grandson  of  "  the  chaste  Guldrada  "  (whom  Dante 
praises  as  a  fine  soldier  though  a  sodomite)  had  broken  with 
the  tradition  of  his  house.  He  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
anti-Hohenstaufen  campaigns  as  one  of  the  bravest  Florentine 
leaders  on  the  Guelf  side. 

The  Emperor  soon  got  into  difficulties  at  Faenza.  Sep 
tember  had  slipped  by  without  a  decision.  October  came 
and  still  the  end  was  not  in  sight.  Frederick  now  decided  to 
blockade  Faenza  completely  and  spend  the  winter  before  the 
town.  He  struck  his  tents  and  to  everyone's  amazement  built 
strong  wooden  huts.  Before  long  a  complete  wooden  town, 
protected  by  trenches,  stretched  in  a  wide  circle  round  the 
beleaguered  fortress.  Winter  undertakings  of  this  sort  were 
unprecedented.  It  had  not  hitherto  been  Frederick's  way  to 
show  this  bulldog  tenacity.  He  had  usually  achieved  success 
at  the  first  onslaught  with  comparatively  little  trouble,  and  if 
that  did  not  succeed  he  preferred  to  withdraw  as  he  had  done 
from  Brescia.  At  this  juncture  a  spectacular  failure  would  have 
been  fateful,  and  in  spite  of  innumerable  obstacles  he  must 
carry  the  siege  through  to  the  end. 

The  Emperor's  aversion  from  long-drawn  military  enter 
prises  which  involved  large  numbers  of  troops  had  a  very 
practical  basis  :  the  cost  was  enormous.  The  imperial  army 
was  largely  a  mercenary  one.  The  only  unpaid  troops  were 
the  Saracens,  who  were  probably  indemnified  by  grants  of  land. 
All  the  other  Sicilian  troops  were  paid  either  from  the  very 
first,  or  after  a  certain  number  of  days.  The  feudal  system  had 
been  almost  wholly  superseded  in  Sicily.  At  best  the  vassals 
served  within  the  kingdom  for  a  short  time  at  their  own  ex 
pense.  If  this  period  was  exceeded,  or  if  they  were  employed 
outside  Sicily,  they  received  pay,  and  that  at  a  very  high  rate. 
The  difference  between  vassals  drawing  pay  and  ordinary 
mercenaries  was  slight.  The  Italian  towns  gave  the  Emperor 
troops  on  somewhat  more  favourable  terms.  The  infantry 
militia  and  the  knights  received  pay  from  their  commune  for 
the  first  four  or  six  weeks.  If  this  was  exceeded,  which  it 
almost  always  was,  then  the  payment  fell  on  the  imperial 


FINANCIAL  STRAITS  541 

Treasury,  and  this  question  naturally  was  of  prime  importance 
in  waging  war.  The  storming  of  a  town  was  often  fixed  for  a 
certain  day,  say  November  loth,  not  with  reference  to  the 
military  situation  but  because  November  i2th  was  the  day  on 
which  several  thousand  men  ended  their  term  of  service,  and  a 
prolongation  of  the  siege  would  mean  expense.  Considera 
tions  of  this  sort  probably  accounted  for  the  speedy  abandon 
ment  of  the  siege  of  Brescia  by  the  immense  army. 

Want  began  to  be  felt  outside  Faenza.  In  order  to  make  the 
blockade  complete  it  was  necessary  to  call  up  large  forces, 
especially  infantry,  which  the  Italian  State  had  to  find.  The 
surrounding  towns,  Imola,  Forli,  Forlimpopolo,  Ravenna, 
Rimini,  were  first  drawn  upon,  then  Florence  and  Tuscany  in 
general,  where  King  Enzio  was  in  charge  of  recruitment ; 
finally,  troops  were  even  brought  from  Western  Lombardy, 
from  Lodi,  Vercelli,  and  Novara.  As  the  blockade  grew  more 
and  more  protracted  money  grew  scarcer  than  it  had  ever  been. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  campaign  the  Emperor  had  had  recourse 
to  the  expedient  of  collecting  the  taxes  from  the  Italian  towns 
in  advance  for  the  coming  year,  remitting  one-fifth  as  interest. 
He  next  helped  himself  to  the  treasuries  of  the  Church  in 
Sicily,  as  the  leaders  of  the  papal  troops  had  done  on  a  previous 
occasion.  Gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  costly  brocades,  silken 
garments,  were  taken  over  against  a  receipt  and  stored  in  the 
imperial  Treasury.  Then  the  ingenious  Emperor — perhaps  on 
the  credit  of  this  large  treasure — hit  on  the  expedient  of  issuing 
leather  money  showing  the  head  and  the  eagle  of  the  golden 
Augustales.  This  leather  money  was  everywhere  accepted 
without  protest,  and  was  later  redeemed  by  the  imperial 
Treasury. 

On  the  other  hand  there  was  no  shortage  of  provisions,  for 
the  routes  to  Sicily  were  open  to  the  Emperor.  The  favourite 
sea-route  from  the  Apulian  harbours  to  Ravenna  was  not  wholly 
safe.  The  Emperor's  siege  of  Faenza  involved  Bologna  and 
Venice  also,  and  the  Venetians  had  succeeded  in  plundering 
and  burning  to  the  ground  the  two  Apulian  coast  towns  of 
Termola  and  Vasto  and  in  capturing  an  imperial  galley  near 
Brindisi  which  was  returning  from  Jerusalem.  Frederick 
at  once  instituted  reprisals  ;  he  requested  the  Emperor  John 


542  REPRISALS  vm 

Vatatzes  of  Nicaea  to  raid  any  Venetian  possessions  within  his 
reach  and  the  Sultan  of  Tunis  to  break  off  all  commerce  with 
Venice  for  the  moment.  He  also  subsidised  the  Dalmatian 
pirates  of  Zara  and  despatched  ships  from  Ancona  against  the 
Venetians.  His  Apulian  fortresses  and  dungeons  were,  more 
over,  full  of  hostages  from  almost  all  Italian  towns,  on  whom 
he  could  wreak  his  vengeance.  It  was  at  this  period  that 
Pietro  Tiepolo  was  hanged,  the  son  of  the  Doge  of  Venice,  who 
had  been  taken  prisoner  at  Cortenuova.  These  measures  put 
a  stop  to  the  attacks  of  Venice. 

The  Emperor  lay  for  eight  months  before  Faenza  in  enforced 
idleness  while  his  troops  constructed  underground  tunnels  to 
the  beleaguered  town,  and  the  provisions  of  the  besieged  began 
gradually  to  be  exhausted.  He  occupied  himself  by  reading 
and  correcting  the  translation  of  an  Arabic  treatise  on  hawking 
which  Master  Theodore  had  made.  Weightier  matters  than 
his  falcons,  however,  claimed  his  attention  in  this  winter  camp. 
Pope  Gregory  had  schemes  afoot  that  Frederick  could  not 
ignore. 


Immediately  after  his  excommunication  Frederick  had 
written  to  the  cardinals  and  conjured  them,  "the  coadjutors  of 
Peter,  the  Senators  of  the  City,  the  hinges  of  the  World/'  to 
invite  the  whole  Christian  world,  kings  and  princes,  bishops 
and  church  dignitaries  alike,  to  send  their  delegates  to  a  General 
Council.  He  himself  would  be  prepared  to  submit  his  case  to 
this  council,  even  to  appear  before  it  in  person  to  prove  his 
complaints  against  Pope  Gregory,  who  had  in  the  most  serious 
manner  infringed  imperial  law  in  Italy.  He  might  himself 
have  had  recourse  to  the  age-old  imperial  right  to  summon 
such  a  council.  To  preserve  the  impartiality  of  this  tribunal, 
however,  which  was  to  judge  between  him  and  the  Pope,  it 
seemed  to  him  right  that  neither  he  nor  Pope  Gregory  should 
approach  the  world  in  his  own  cause  ;  the  College  of  Roman 
Cardinals  should  issue  the  invitations. 

This  eagerly-desired  Council  never  met.  Pope  Gregory  had 
sound  reasons  for  preventing  it :  no  Council  should  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  Vicar  of  Christ.  He  notified  instead  a  Church 


GREGORY'S  COUNCIL  543 

Council  to  be  held  a  year  later.  His  letters  of  invitation  sug 
gest  a  commonplace  agenda  :  certain  affairs  of  Church  and 
State  are  to  be  discussed  :  as  if  one  of  the  usual,  not-infrequent 
synods  was  in  question.  The  Pope's  real  intentions,  however, 
were  not  to  be  misunderstood.  The  Council  was  to  be  sum 
moned  by  the  Pope  and  to  be  his  instrument,  and  its  first  duty 
would  be  the  deposition  of  the  Emperor.  Pope  Gregory  had 
already  been  canvassing  for  a  successor  to  the  Hohenstaufen  : 
without  success.  He  first  sounded  a  Danish  prince ;  when  this 
candidate  refused  the  Pope  tried  to  win  France  over  by  playing 
on  her  historic  yearning  to  fill  the  imperial  throne  :  a  dream 
that  had  not  slept  since  the  days  of  Charlemagne,  which  lived 
in  Louis  XIV  and  was  realised  by  Napoleon.  Pope  Gregory 
suggested  Count  Robert  of  Artois,  brother  of  Louis  IX  of 
France,  as  Frederick  IPs  successor.  France  declined  with  the 
proud  remark  that  a  man  in  whose  veins  ran  the  royal  blood  of 
France  was  greater  than  any  Emperor  whose  throne  depended 
on  election.  Further,  that  the  Count  of  Artois  had  informed 
his  friend  the  Hohenstaufen  Emperor,  a  man  whom  France 
beyond  measure  respected,  of  the  Pope's  proposal,  and  that  the 
Emperor  Frederick  had  called  on  the  God  of  Vengeance  to 
requite  His  Holiness. 

No  one  could  for  a  moment  mistake  the  intention  of  this 
Council,  summoned  by  Frederick's  personal  enemy,  the  Pope, 
to  which  Milan  and  the  other  rebel  towns  were  invited  to  pass 
sentence  on  the  Emperor.  This  Council,  usurping  the  place 
of  the  Council  which  Frederick  desired,  must  not  take  place. 
Immediately  on  learning  of  the  Pope's  design  Frederick  started 
his  counter-measures.  He  addressed  innumerable  letters  to 
bishops,  princes  and  kings,  declaring  that  this  Council  sum 
moned  by  his  personal  enemy  had  only  one  aim  :  to  decide  the 
Lombard  question.  He  would,  however,  never  concede  the 
principle  that  a  spiritual  power  should  adjudicate  in  state 
affairs.  He  had  no  quarrel  with  the  Most  Holy  Church  of 
Rome,  but  a  grave  one  with  the  existing  Pope,  and  as  long  as 
Gregory  IX  acted  as  a  foe  of  the  Empire  he,  Frederick,  as 
Emperor,  would  take  steps  to  prevent  any  Council  of  the  High 
Priest.  He  would  refuse  safe  conduct  to  all  delegates  attending 
the  Council,  and  he  warned  the  whole  world  against  sending 


544  FREDERICK'S  WARNINGS  vm 

representatives  thereto.  He  had  secured  all  routes  by  sea  and 
land  and  no  one  would  reach  Rome  against  his  wishes.  Simul 
taneously  with  these  warnings  he  issued  stringent  orders  to  his 
supporters  in  all  countries  of  the  Empire  to  refuse  passage  to 
any  seeking  to  attend  the  Council,  and  offered  rewards  for  each 
delegate  captured.  No  one  could  question  the  possibility  of 
this  blockade,  for  it  was  well  known  that  remittances  of  money 
to  the  Pope  merely  swelled  the  imperial  coffers. 

Frederick  II  cannot  be  accused  of  having  made  a  secret  of 
his  intentions.    He  always  made  a  practice  of  making  his  plans 
known  beforehand  down  to  the  minutest  details.    He  was  not 
believed ;   no  one  credited  him  with  the  serious  intention  of 
carrying  his  threats  into  execution,  and  the  world  was  im 
mensely  surprised  when  he  did  so.    The  Emperor's  strict 
command  deterred  the  prelates  of  Germany,  Italy  and  Sicily 
from  attending.    The  western  powers,  however :    England, 
France  and  Spain  could  scarcely  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  papal 
summons,  and  proposed  to  send  the  heads  of  their  churches  to 
Rome.    Since  the  Emperor  at  Faenza  could  block  most  of  the 
land  routes  Pope  Gregory  recommended  the  sea  routes  to  these 
western  travellers.    He  put  himself  in  touch  with  Genoa.    A 
fleet  composed  of  cargo-boats  and  war-galleys  was  to  await  the 
prelates  in  Nice  and  Genoa  and  conduct  them  to  the  Tiber 
mouth.    Corresponding  recommendations  were  made  to  the 
prelates  :  they  would  find  sea-travel  the  safer,  and  might  con 
fidently  trust  themselves  to  the  Genoese,  with  whom  the  Pope 
had  made  all  arrangements  and  had  concluded  the  necessary- 
agreements.    The  sea-republic  was  to  profit  by  three  thousand 
five  hundred  pounds,  of  which  one  thousand  was  to  be  paid  at 
once.    The  papal  legate  to  whom  the  negotiations  had  been 
confided  had  to  raise  the  money  from  Genoese  merchants  who 
demanded  two  hundred  pounds  as  interest.    The  balance  was 
to  fall  due  for  payment  a  month  before  the  departure  of  the 
fleet,  and  if  Pope  Gregory  broke  the  contract  he  was  to  pay 
five  hundred  pounds  as  penalty.    The  property  of  the  Roman 
Church  was  pledged  as  security.    Genoa  was  not  giving  her 
assistance  for  love.    Gregory  IX  accepted  all  the  terms  pro 
posed,  but  begged  that  the  preparations  might  be  secret,  so  that 
no  hint  of  them  might  reach  the  Emperor. 


FREDERICK'S   FLEET  545 

Frederick  II,  however,  had,  as  it  happened,  more  adherents 
in  Genoa  than  in  any  other  enemy  town.  The  upper  nobility 
like  the  Spinola,  Doria,  Grilli  and  de  Mari  were  almost  ex 
clusively  Ghibelline  (the  Margrave  Caretto  was  later  to  be  the 
Emperor's  son-in-law),  so  that  Frederick  was  in  constant  com 
munication  with  the  town.  One  letter  of  the  Emperor's  which 
had  been  hidden  in  an  imitation  loaf  made  of  wax  was  inter 
cepted  by  the  enemy,  and  created  great  excitement  in  the  town, 
but  other  despatches  safely  reached  their  destination.  How 
ever  it  was  achieved,  the  Emperor  in  his  winter  quarters  before 
Faenza  learned  exactly  what  the  Pope  had  planned. 

Quietly  he  made  his  counter-preparations.  First  Sicily  was 
instructed  to  mobilise  and  man  the  fleet.  The  Emperor  was 
now  to  reap  the  benefit  of  the  sea-power  he  had  so  steadily 
built  up.  For  years  past  ship  after  ship  had  left  the  royal 
wharves,  and  Frederick  was  now  in  a  position  to  command 
at  need  a  fleet  of  sixty-five  galleys.  For  comparison's  sake  it 
should  be  mentioned  that  Genoa  could,  with  difficulty,  man  a 
contingent  of  fifty  boats  of  war.  The  Sicilian  crews  were 
brought  up  to  strength  by  levies  on  the  maritime  peoples  who 
were  compelled  to  serve  as  sailors,  but  in  return  were  relieved 
from  other  obligations.  The  ships'  captains  were  sea-counts, 
feudal  vassals.  Frederick  IPs  whole  organisation  of  the  fleet  was 
so  admirable  that  the  Aragonese  in  Sicily  later  exactly  repeated 
his  decrees  and  re-issued  his  instructions  about  the  duties  of  the 
Admiral,  which  included  regulations  for  every  branch  of  the 
service.  The  previous  Admiral,  Nicolas  Spinola,  a  Genoese, 
had  recently  died.  From  Faenza  Frederick  II  appointed  in 
March  1241  another  Genoese,  Ansaldus  de  Mari,  first  as 
Admiral  of  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily.  Shortly  after,  the  Emperor 
sent  him  an  imperial  banner  and  his  warrant  as  Admiral  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  an  office  which  Frederick  created.  The 
strength  and  equipment  of  the  squadron  which  was  destined  for 
the  transport  of  the  prelates  was  known  in  its  minutest  details 
to  the  new  Commander  of  the  Fleet,  who,  being  an  imperialist, 
had  thought  it  discreet  to  escape  secretly  from  Genoa  in 
February  1241.  His  powers  as  Admiral  left  him  completely 
free  to  take  what  measures  he  deemed  best.  He  immediately 
assumed  command  of  the  Sicilian  fleet,  which  was  in  readiness  to 


546  FALL  OF  FAENZA  vm 

put  to  sea,  and  sailed  that  same  March  with  twenty-seven  galleys 
to  Pisa  to  join  forces  with  an  equal  number  of  Pisan  ships. 

Frederick  II  had  been  instant  in  warning  the  invited  guests 
to  refrain  from  attending  the  Council.  The  Pisans  even  sought 
to  dissuade  their  rivals,  the  Genoese,  from  the  undertaking,  and 
other  voices  also  made  themselves  heard,  pointing  out  the  grave 
danger  of  visiting  Rome  against  the  Emperor's  wishes.  One 
pamphlet — a  product  perhaps  of  the  imperial  Chancery — pur 
porting  to  be  addressed  by  a  well-meaning  cleric  to  his  friends 
the  prelates  was  particularly  urgent.  The  author  dwelt  at 
length,  with  evident  glee,  on  the  general  miseries  of  a  sea- 
voyage,  describing  sea-sickness  in  its  minutest  consequences 
with  the  satanic  pleasure  of  a  non-sufferer,  and,  finally,  demon 
strating  that  Frederick  II, <c  a  second  Nero,  a  second  Herod, " 
was  "  miserly  in  mercy,  prodigal  in  punishment,  full  moreover 
of  wrath,  and  entirely  lacking  in  piety."  He  was  in  command 
of  all  harbours  from  sea  to  sea  with  the  sole  exception  of  Genoa  ; 
from  Pisa,  Corneto,  Naples  or  Gaeta,  he  could  lie  in  wait  for 
all  vessels  sailing  the  Ligurian  Sea,  and  who  could  tell  but  that 
this  man  of  pre-eminent  acuteness  and  cunning  might  have 
bought  over  the  sailors  of  Genoa  !  <c  Ye  are  no  gods  or  saints," 
cried  the  author,  "  to  have  power  over  his  powers."  The  Pope, 
moreover,  had  embarked  on  this  quarrel  without  the  prelates, 
let  him  conclude  it  also  without  them.  *'  But  since  the  Pope 
sees  that  his  undertaking  against  this  mightiest  of  Tyrants  has 
been  unsuccessful  he  is  now  anxious  further  to  sharpen  the 
sentence  pronounced  against  him,  or  to  threaten  him  with 
deposition  and  to  instal  another  Emperor  in  his  room,  and  ye 
forsooth  are  to  give  your  advice  and  concurrence  whether  it 
seemeth  to  you  good  or  ill,  ye  are  to  be  the  organ  pipes  which 
echo  to  the  touch  and  at  the  good  pleasure  of  the  organist/' 


The  town  chronicler  of  Genoa  opens  his  entries  for  1241 
with  the  remark  "  In  this  year  it  pleased  the  Lord  that  great 
misfortunes  should  overtake  the  town."  The  Sicilian  fleet  set 
out  for  Pisa  at  the  end  of  March,  and  the  prelates  were  to  sail 
from  Genoa  at  the  end  of  April.  The  intervening  weeks  saw 
the  fall  of  Faenza.  Several  times  during  the  winter  Frederick 


AN  HEROIC  TOWN  547 

had  foretold  the  certainty  of  its  capitulation  in  the  spring.  The 
heroic  town  had  defended  itself  with  the  courage  of  despair,  and 
its  resistance  was  strengthened  rather  than  weakened  by  fear 
of  the  Emperor's  wrath  and  the  Emperor's  vengeance.  In  the 
extremity  of  famine  the  Faentines  tried  to  send  away  the  women 
and  girls.  Frederick  ordered  them  to  return  at  once  and  to 
remind  the  besieged  of  the  unforgotten  insult  that  Faenza 
had  done  him  of  old  :  half  a  century  before  they  had  mortally 
offended  the  Empress  Constance,  his  imperial  mother,  and 
fifteen  years  before  they  had  sought  to  assassinate  him  as  he 
entered  Lombardy  on  his  way  to  the  Diet,  though  they  had  in 
fact  mistakenly  slain  a  knight  in  his  stead  who  had  been  wearing 
the  imperial  clothes. 

This  was  the  voice  of  the  World  Judge  who,  if  he  is  to  be 
just  in  the  day  of  judgment  cannot  and  must  not  forget,  and  for 
whom  Time  is  naught  in  face  of  his  own  Eternity.  Since 
Faenza  hoped  for  no  mercy  it  had  resisted  to  the  utmost. 
The  siege  had  lasted  eight  months,  food  was  completely 
exhausted,  the  walls  were  destroyed,  and  the  imperial  forces  had 
entered  the  city  by  underground  tunnels,  then — and  not  till 
then — the  valiant  town  surrendered  without  awaiting  the 
Emperor's  coup  de  grdce.  Their  lives  had  been  promised  to 
the  podesta  and  the  foreigners  in  the  town,  but  not  to  the 
citizens  themselves,  who  now  awaited  their  fate  with  natural 
anxiety.  Frederick,  smiling,  showed  his  magnanimity :  "  Thus 
we  enter  the  town  in  our  overflowing  gentleness  and  with  the 
outstretched  arms  of  inexhaustible  clemency  we  greet  the  con 
version  of  the  believers  .  .  .  that  they  may  know  that  nothing 
is  juster  and  lighter  and  easier  to  take  on  them  than  the  yoke 
of  the  Empire." 

Faenza  fell  on  April  I4th.  Frederick  remained  for  a  few 
weeks  in  the  devastated  town  and  arranged  for  the  construction 
of  a  fortress  and  a  palace.  While  he  was  still  there  several 
items  of  good  news  arrived.  At  about  the  same  moment  the 
papal  enclave  of  Benevento  in  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  had  been 
conquered,  destroyed  and  obliterated.  In  the  west  of  Northern 
Italy  the  Emperor's  generals  were  harassing  the  outlying  lands 
of  Genoa  to  disorganise  the  preparations  for  the  Council.  The 
Apulian  Marinus  of  Eboli,  Vicar  General  of  "  Upper  Pavia," 


548  PAPAL  FLEET  SAILS  vm 

had  invaded  Genoese  territory  from  the  North  and  the  Mar 
grave  Uberto  Pallavicini  attacked  from  the  East.  He  had  had 
several  successes  and  had  conquered  two  fortresses,  and  the 
Emperor,  whose  arms  were  now  everywhere  victorious,  wrote 
these  handsome  words  to  him  :  "  Continue  therefore  in  the 
same  path  and  thou  wilt  assuredly  bring  to  a  successful  issue 
those  royal  services  of  ours  which  thou  didst  with  honourable 
intention  undertake,  Success  and  Fortune  will  wait  upon  thy 
deeds,  since  thou  art  fighting  with  the  guidance  of  wisdom  in 

a  fortunate  cause,  and  under  a  prince  whose  star  is  fortunate " 

The  culminating  success  was  still  lacking.  Shortly  before 
the  surrender  of  Faenza  Frederick  II  had  sent  his  son,  King 
Enzio,  on  a  special  mission  to  Tuscany,  "  representing  the 
person  and  the  likeness  of  his  father.*'  In  Florence  King 
Enzio  received  the  news  of  the  Emperor's  victory.  The 
Florentine  infantry  and  cavalry  had  so  long  served  in  the 
Emperor's  armies  that  the  town  shared  in  the  glory  of  his 
victory,  and  the  son  must  have  received  in  his  father's  place 
their  testimonies  of  exultant  homage.  Enzio  hurried  on  after 
a  few  days.  He  travelled  by  way  of  Prato,  giving  instructions 
for  the  enlargement  of  the  imperial  castle  (whose  beautiful 
entrance  gate  recalls  that  of  Castel  del  Monte  and  anticipates 
the  Renaissance),  and  thence  to  Pisa.  He  must  have  reached 
Pisa  just  before  the  departure  of  the  united  Sicilian-Pisan  fleet. 
He  will  have  brought  just  the  final  orders  for  the  Admiral. 
He  did  not  himself  take  part  in  the  naval  action,  but  in  Pisa 
awaited  the  outcome. 

The  prelates  had  embarked  at  Genoa  on  the  28th  of  April. 
Only  a  few  of  the  spiritual  princes,  amongst  them  the  English 
with  their  knowledge  of  the  sea,  had  decided  to  be  warned  in 
time  after  seeing  the  overcrowded  vessels  and  the  imperfect 
equipment  of  some  of  them.  These  either  remained  behind 
altogether  or,  at  best,  sent  on  their  procurators.  All  the  rest, 
however :  French,  Spaniard  and  Italians  from  the  League 
towns  had  sailed  from  Genoa  amid  the  blaring  of  trumpets  and 
the  cheers  of  the  people.  They  passed  Pisa  in  safety  and  the 
narrow  strait  between  Piombino  and  Elba.  They  were  ap 
proaching  their  goal,  the  Roman  harbour  of  Civitavecchia. 
After  eight  days  at  sea,  on  the  3rd  of  May,  the  festival  of  the 


VICTORY  AT  SEA  549 

Elevation  of  the  Cross,  they  were  attacked  by  the  Emperor's 
fleet,  which  had  been  lying  in  ambush  between  the  islands  of 
Monte  Christo  and  Giglio.  A  short  and  bloody  battle  decided 
the  victory  :  three  enemy  ships  were  sunk  and  the  passengers 
drowned,  amongst  them  the  Archbishop  of  Besan9on.  Twenty- 
two  ships  were  captured,  and  only  three  sailing  ships  with 
Spanish  passengers  succeeded  in  escaping  to  Genoa.  It  was 
a  complete  victory  for  the  Imperialists,  who  took  over  four 
thousand  ordinary  prisoners  and  over  one  hundred  Church 
dignitaries  of  high  rank :  three  papal  legates,  including  the 
Emperor's  Mte  noire,  Cardinal  Jacob  of  Palestrina  ;  the  abbots 
of  the  celebrated  monasteries  of  Cluny,  Citeaux,  Clairvaux  and 
Pr6montr6,  and  a  host  of  archbishops  and  bishops  were  in 
Frederick's  hands. 

King  Enzio  welcomed  the  victors  and  their  captives  in  Pisa. 
He  ordered  a  mild  detention  for  the  highest  prelates  till  an 
order  from  the  Emperor  arrived  commanding  him  to  proceed 
with  the  utmost  severity :  the  prelates  had  not  asked  his 
mercy  ;  they  had  defied  his  warning.  The  inferior  clergy 
remained  in  the  prisons  of  Pisa,  the  more  important  were  first 
sent  to  the  imperial  castle  of  San  Miniato  and  afterwards  for  the 
most  part  despatched  to  Apulia,  where  they  were  kept  in  strict 
confinement.  Frederick  II  now  held  pledges  of  the  utmost 
value  and  utilised  them  with  skill.  After  a  short  detention  he 
released  the  French,  though  he  had  in  the  first  instance  met 
King  Louis'  haughty  demand  fpr  the  release  of  his  prelates  with 
a  courteous  but  decided  refusal :  "  Where  persecutors  of  the 
Empire  exist,  the  Empire's  defenders  must  not  be  lacking. 
The  Empire  is  greater  than  individuals,  and  the  single  animals 
tremble  at  the  sight  of  the  lion's  spoor.  Your  exalted  majesty 
will  therefore  not  marvel  that  Augustus  keeps  the  prelates  of 
France  in  fear,  since  they  sought  to  compass  the  Emperor's 
downfall." 

Frederick  interpreted  the  victory  as  the  judgment  of  God 
"  who  looketh  down  from  Heaven  and  fighteth  and  judgeth 
righteously."  A  judgment  against  the  Empire's  deadly  foe, 
against  Pope  Gregory  whom  God  himself  had  smitten.  The 
faithful  followed  the  Emperor.  The  will  of  God  had  been 
revealed  to  the  World  :  the  Emperor  Frederick's  office  was  to 


5so  GREGORY  IMPLACABLE  vm 

castigate  clergy  and  church,  and  to  renew  Justice  on  the  Earth 
and  Peace.     Songs  were  composed  in  praise  of  the  Child 
of  Apulia,  victorious,  world-conquering.    A  Dominican  an 
nounced  that  in  this  sea  victory  "  the  God  of  the  Earth  and  of 
the  Sea  had  testified  that  He  Himself  was  the  ally  of  the  vic 
torious  Caesar  .  .  .",  and  people  recalled  a  prophetic  saying,  or 
perhaps  invented  it  for  the  occasion  :   "  The  sea  will  be  in 
carnadined  with  the  blood  of  the  saints."     This  event  made  an 
enormous  impression  on  the  world.    Nothing  that  any  previous 
emperor  had  ever  dared  or  done  was  comparable  to  this  capture 
of  cardinals  and  a  hundred  priests,    Frederick's  power  seemed 
boundless,  but  a  certain  horror  was  blended  with  the  admira 
tion.    Enemies  recognised  therein  the  ruthlessness  of  Satan. 
Nothing  had  so  strongly  ministered  to  the  conviction  that 
Frederick  was  the  herald  of  Antichrist  as  the  capture  and 
continued  captivity  of  the  princes  of  the  Church  in  the  prisons 
of  the  Emperor.   Many  of  them  died  in  his  dungeons,  and  their 
blood  cried  out  against  this  enemy  of  the  faith. 

Possibly  Frederick  hoped  to  be  able  to  bend  the  Pope  by  this 
deed  of  violence  and  to  move  him  to  peace.  He  presumably 
hoped  to  barter  the  release  of  the  prelates  against  his  release 
from  the  papal  ban.  The  prisoners  themselves  implored  the 
Pope  to  make  peace  at  last,  and  the  general  opinion  in  Italy  was 
that  this  blow  would  compel  Pope  Gregory  to  do  so.  Gregory 
was  at  the  point  of  death  and  suffered  indescribably  from  this 
rain  of  heavy  blows,  and  felt  himself,  moreover,  personally 
responsible  before  God  for  the  death  and  imprisonment  of  so 
many  priests,  but  he  was  less  ready  to  make  peace  than  ever 
before.  More  than  ever  must  the  fight  be  fought  and  the 
dragon  laid  low  !  He  besought  the  captives  for  the  sake  of 
God  and  of  the  Church  to  bear  their  sufferings  with  patience 
and  to  endure  to  the  end.  Even  when  a  new  visitation  came 
that  shook  the  whole  Christian  world  to  its  foundations,  and 
imperatively  demanded  the  peace  and  co-operation  of  all  the 
western  powers — even  then  the  aged  man  clung  to  his  hate, 
unbending  and  unbent.  Nothing  could  shake  him  in  his  faith- 
that  he  was  called  by  God  to  fight  against  Frederick  II,  though 
victory  after  victory  waited  on  the  eagles  of  Rome,  which  the 
Emperor  was  bearing  against  the  City. 


CHINGIZ  KHAN  551 

Whilst  Frederick  was  still  encamped  before  Faenza,  and  the 
fleet  still  lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbour  of  Pisa,  Europe  had,  as  by 
a  miracle,  escaped  the  direst  fate.  The  strangest  rumours  were 
current,  fed  by  the  Crusaders  who  brought  back  tales  they  had 
heard  :  far  in  the  East  there  was  a  mighty  king  who  ruled  over 
an  enormous  Empire  and  was  moving  towards  the  west  and 
conquering  one  by  one  the  princes  of  the  Mussulmans.  The 
Christians  thought  to  see  in  him  again  the  legendary  Prester 
John,  a  king  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek,  who  had  so  vividly 
appealed  to  the  imagination  not  only  of  the  people  but  of 
Innocent  the  Great  himself.  He  was  coming  to  obliterate  the 
teachings  of  Muhammad,  to  unite  in  Jerusalem  with  the  King 
of  the  West,  and  to  fulfil  the  time.  The  Jews,  on  the  other 
hand,  believed  that  this  King  of  the  East  was  King  David,  who 
was  returning  as  the  Messiah  to  redeem  them.  Their  faith  was 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  year  1240  was,  according  to 
their  calendar,  the  year  5,000.  The  Messiah  was  to  appear  in 
the  first  year  of  the  sixth  millennium.  Christian  sources  tell  the 
same  tale,  and  the  identification,  in  his  most  victorious  year,  of 
Frederick  with  the  Messiah,  was  not  unaffected  by  this  belief. 
The  Jews  gave  free  rein  to  their  joy  at  King  David's  approach 
and  even  dreamt  of  going  forth  to  meet  him  with  sword  and 
shield  and  spear.  In  many  places  they  were  bitterly  persecuted 
and  massacred  for  their  obstinacy  in  clinging  to  this  belief. 

Suddenly  the  West  recognised  its  error  and  armed  itself  in 
terror-stricken  fear  against  the  tumultuous  hordes  of  Chingiz 
Khan.  We  now  know  that  it  was  not  Chingiz  Khan  himself 
who  was  leading  his  hosts  against  Europe.  This  Earth- Shaker 
of  Asia,  for  sheer  power  the  most  appalling  phenomenon  of 
historic  time,  the  man  who  conquered  and  organised  the  most 
extensive  empire  the  world  has  ever  seen,  who  amalgamated 
peoples,  gave  them  religion  and  laws,  and  let  loose  the  greatest 
human  hurricane  that  the  force  of  one  man  has  ever  conjured 
up,  Chingiz  Khan,  had  already  closed  his  unique  career  of 
conquest.  But  his  will  lived  on.  That  will  which  had  issued 
orders  to  his  son  who  sought  to  check  the  hordes  who  were 
plundering  Herat :  "I  forbid  thee  ever,  save  at  my  direct 
command,  to  treat  the  inhabitants  of  any  land  with  leniency. 
Pity  belongs  to  weaklings,  only  severity  keeps  men  in  servitude. 


55* 


THE  MONGOL  PERIL 


VIII 


An  enemy  merely  conquered  is  not  tamed,  and  only  hates  his 
new  master." 

In  the  year  1227,  when  Frederick  II  was  setting  out  on  his 
crusade,  the  Great  Khan  was  buried  in  the  Karakoram.    He 
had  divided  up  his  Empire  in  his  lifetime  between  his  four  sons 
The  West  fell  to  the  lot  of  Batu,  who  had  his  capital  at  Sarai 


THE  MONGOL  PERIL 


on  the  Volga  and  was  himself  the  founder  of  the  "  Golden 
Horde."  The  momentum  generated  by  Chingiz  Khan  con 
tinued  uninterrupted  in  this  son.  The  Russian  principalities 
had  succumbed  to  him  by  1240,  and  by  the  beginning  of  1241 
he  was  approaching  Hungary.  Another  section  of  Batu 's  army 
had  conquered  Poland  and  was  proceeding  against  Silesia. 
The  danger  seemed  overwhelming.  The  whole  of  Asia  was  for 
once  united ;  Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  divided,  disinte 
grated,  rent  by  a  thousand  mutually-hostile  forces.  The  West 
at  last  began  to  mobilise,  Germany  in  breathless  haste,  for  the 


i24i  LIEGNITZ  553 

Mongols  were  swarming  over  Hungary.  An  army  which  the 
King  of  Bohemia  recruited  came  too  late  :  on  the  loth  of  April 
he  made  a  stand  at  Liegnitz,  but  on  the  9th,  30,000  men  (it  is 
computed)  under  Duke  Henry  of  Liegnitz  had  been  cut  down 
by  the  Mongols  on  the  battlefield.  The  Duke,  a  son  of  St. 
Hedwig,  with  Slav,  Polish  and  German  nobles,  had  flung  them 
selves  against  the  Tartars.  His  army  was  defeated  and  he 
himself  was  slain  :  Germany  lay  exposed  to  the  onrush  of  the 
foe,  but  the  sacrifice  had  not  been  made  in  vain.  In  spite  of 
their  victory  the  Mongols  were  shaken,  and  could  not  face 
another  encounter  with  the  forces  of  the  King  of  Bohemia. 
They  turned  sharply  south,  devastating  the  greater  part  of 
Moravia,  and  thrust  forward  as  far  as  Vienna,  but  then  with 
drew  to  Hungary,  The  conquering  invaders  had  only  for  a 
short  time  pushed  beyond  the  territories  whose  natural  con 
ditions  and  features  resembled  those  of  their  homeland.  The 
death  of  Ogotai,  the  Great  Khan,  far  away  in  Eastern  Asia, 
ended  the  danger. 

The  news  of  these  events  spread  like  wildfire  throughout 
Europe,  whidht  conceived  a  new  attack  imminent.  Minor 
quarrels  were  forgotten  in  face  of  the  graver  danger  and  the 
whole  of  Germany  united— the  last  time  for  centuries.  King 
Conrad  held  a  Diet  at  Esslingen  in  May  1241  and  proclaimed 
a  Landpeace,  preached  a  Crusade  against  the  Tartars  and  took 
the  Cross  himself,  stipulating  only  that  this  involved  him  in  no 
obligations  towards  the  Pope  but  only  in  a  campaign  against 
the  foe.  Otherwise  the  papalists  would  have  led  the  Crusaders, 
as  was  now  their  habit,  against  the  Emperor. 

The  news  of  Liegnitz  must  have  reached  Frederick  in  May, 
just  as  he  was  advancing  on  Rome  from  Faenza.  King  Bela 
of  Hungary  in  his  need  offered  Emperor  Frederick  suzerainty 
over  all  his  lands  if  he  would  free  them  from  the  Mongol  threat. 
This  alluring  offer  was  not  needed  to  summon  Frederick  to  the 
North  East  battlefields.  He  might  have  become  in  very  deed 
the  saviour  of  Europe  in  this  year  of  grace  1241— King  of  the 
West  he  had  himself  united.  His  manifestos,  masterpieces  of 
the  imperial  Chancery,  were  despatched  to  all  the  Kings  and 
great  ones  of  the  earth.  The  Christ-like  Imperator,  throned 
above  the  clouds,  sounded  the  blasts  of  his  trumpet  to  rally 


554  MONGOL  HABITS  vm 

"  powerful  imperial  Europe  "  against  the  foe  before  whose 
victorious  eagles  the  pride  of  the  Dragon  should  be  laid  low 
and  the  Tartar  hurled  to  Tartarus.  Each  and  every  nation 
should  despatch  with  speed  her  chivalry  to  fight  under  the  two 
standards  of  Europe,  the  imperial  eagles  and  the  banner  of  the 
Cross  :  Germany  fiery  and  furious  in  arms,  France  the  mother 
and  nurse  of  chivalry,  Spain  valiant  and  warlike,  England  fertile 
in  men  and  ships,  Allemania  full  of  daring  warriors,  Dacia 
strong  on  the  sea,  untamed  Italy  and  Burgundy  unacquainted 
with  peace,  restless  Apulia  with  her  Adriatic  and  Tyrrhenian 
and  Greek  islands  of  unconquered  sailor-folk,  Crete,  Cyprus, 
Sicily,  bloodstained  Hibernia  with  lands  and  islands  ocean- 
bound,  quick  Wales  and  marshy  Scotland,  icy  Norway,  and 
every  noble  and  renowned  land  under  the  Western  sky, 

Had  Frederick  hastened  north  he  would  have  stilled  the 
voices  which  were  murmuring  everywhere,  that  he  himself  had 
called  the  Dragon  forth,  lusting  by  the  aid  of  Tartarean  allies 
to  make  himself  Dominus  Mundi,  and  to  destroy  like  Lucifer 
the  Christian  faith.  These  rumbling  murmurs  were  doubtless 
strengthened  by  the  intimate  knowledge  of  Mongolian  habits 
and  customs  displayed  in  the  manifestos.  Frederick  II  had 
probably  made  it  his  business,  with  eager  curiosity,  to  acquire 
all  the  information  he  could  about  these  unknown  Mongols,  a 
people  "  whose  origin  and  first  home  we  do  not  know,"  who 
were  fabled  to  have  lived  hidden  beyond  the  seven  climates  under 
burning  sun.  They  are  described  with  ethnographic  exactness, 
not  without  an  implicit  side-glance  at  the  Emperor  himself, 
"A  wild  people  are  they  and  lawless  and  without  ruth,  but 
they  have  a  lord  whom  they  follow  and  whom  they  obey,  and 
whom  they  honour  and  whom  they  call  Lord  of  the  Earth. 
The  bodily  frame  of  this  man  is  small  and  undersized,  but 
powerful,  broadshouldered,  hardy  and  enduring.  Stout  of 
heart  and  courageous  they  plunge  into  any  danger  at  a  sign 
from  their  leader.  Their  face  is  broad,  their  gaze  is  sinister, 
they  utter  a  terrifying  cry  that  is  like  their  heart.  They  wear 
untanned  hides  of  oxen,  horses  and  asses.  Into  these  they 
stitch  sheets  of  iron  and  use  them  as  armour,  or  have  heretofore 
done  so.  Alas,  they  now  bear  handsomer  and  better  weapons 
from  the  spoils  of  conquered  Christians.  These  Tartars  are 


BITTER  MEMORIES  555 

incomparable  archers,  and  have  ingeniously  inflated  skins  in 
which  they  swim  across  lakes  and  flooded  rivers.  The  horses 
they  have  brought  with  them  are  said  to  be  content  with  roots 
and  leaves  and  bark  when  other  fodder  fails,  and  yet  they  are 
swift  and,  at  need,  long-enduring."  Thus  writes  the  Emperor 
of  their  customs,  and  he  counsels  his  correspondents  to  avoid 
open  battle,  to  provision  their  fortresses  and  to  arm  their 
people.  But  he  did  not  himself  set  out  against  the  Mongols. 


The  unity  which  Frederick  so  strongly  recommended  to  the 
peoples  of  Europe  he  was  unable  to  attain  in  his  own  Empire. 
Even  the  Mongol  peril  brought  no  peace  with  the  Church  ; 
and  as  long  as  the  war  with  Pope  Gregory  lasted  he  dared  not 
quit  Italy,  especially  as  on  all  sides  he  was  now  victorious. 
His  previous  experience  had  been  too  bitter.  "  The  painful 
memory  of  ancient  days  recurs :  once  of  old  we  sailed  to  the 
rescue  of  the  Holy  Land  and  the  destruction  of  the  Saracens, 
who  were  no  less  persecutors  of  our  religion  than  the  Tartars 
of  to-day,  and  while  we  were  thus  active  beyond  the  sea  our 
beloved  Father,  having  raised  troops  amongst  the  Milanese  and 
their  allies,  subjects  all  of  our  Empire,  broke  forcibly  into  our 
kingdom  of  Sicily  and  by  the  mouth  of  his  legates  forbade  all 
followers  of  Christ  to  help  us  in  the  cause  of  the  Crucified." 
The  Emperor  was  within  sight  of  final  success,  he  dared  not 
imperil  the  harvest  of  years  unless  Pope  Gregory,  whether 
voluntarily,  or  under  compulsion,  would  consent  to  peace.  The 
Pope  was  unmoved  by  the  crisis  ;  since  the  capture  of  the 
prelates  he  was  less  than  ever  inclined  to  make  peace.  The 
imperial  despatches  kept  the  world  informed  that  only  the 
Pope's  lust  for  strife  prevented  Frederick  from  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  campaign  against  the  Mongols. 

The  Pope's  behaviour  in  other  affairs  was  no  less  ambiguous. 
Frederick  II  designated  his  supporters  as  "  faithful  Christians  " 
and  the  papalists  as  heretics  whose  "  heresiarch  "  was  Gregory 
IX.  Other  events  justified  his  terminology  :  the  state  of 
affairs  in  the  Holy  Land. 

Frederick  had  previously  declared  that  there  could  be  no 
thought  of  a  new  crusade  till  the  expiration  of  the  ten-year 


556  PAPAL  OBSTRUCTION  vm 

truce :  that  is  not  before  1239.  I*1  March  1239  he  was  ex 
communicated  by  Pope  Gregory  amongst  other  reasons  because 
his  Lombard  war  was  making  a  crusade  to  the  glory  of  the 
Redeemer  impossible.  The  Crusaders  were  summoned  to 
meet  at  Lyons  in  this  same  March,  and  numbers  duly  assembled 
there  under  the  leadership  of  the  King  of  Navarre.  Suddenly 
a  papal  messenger  arrived,  forbade  the  Crusade  for  this  year, 
ordered  the  pilgrims  to  return  home,  and  fixed  the  start  for 
March  1240.  The  journey  was  to  be  made  not  to  Jerusalem 
but  to  Constantinople  to  bolster  up  the  Latin  Empire,  a  papal 
creation,  of  which  Baldwin  II  of  Flanders  was  now  Emperor. 
The  disobedient  were  threatened  with  spiritual  penalties.  The 
luckless  Crusaders  who  had  equipped  themselves  by  the  sale  or 
mortgage  of  their  possessions  felt  themselves  befooled,  and  were 
so  enraged  that  they  nearly  attacked  the  messenger.  They  did 
not  know  where  to  turn.  The  Emperor  came  to  their  relief. 

It  seemed  that  the  Curia  was  determined  on  principle  to 
permit  no  crusade  to  Syria,  and  did  not  abandon  this  attitude 
as  long  as  Frederick  lived.  A  little  later  the  papal  legates  in 
Germany  went  so  far  as  to  excommunicate  all  who  entertained 
even  the  idea  of  crusading  against  the  Saracens  or  the  heathen 
of  Prussia.  In  England,  likewise,  the  Curia  sought  to  prevent 
a  crusade  to  Palestine,  It  was  perfectly  obvious  that  the  Pope 
was  bent  on  wrecking  the  crusade  he  had  begun  by  proclaim 
ing.  His  motives  were  clear.  In  the  previous  year  he  had 
concluded  an  offensive  alliance  with  Venice  and  Genoa  against 
the  Emperor.  Both  these  maritime  towns  had  interests  in  the 
Holy  Land  and  both  were  at  war  with  the  Emperor,  A  crusade 
against  Syria  would  have  strengthened  Frederick's  position  in 
Jerusalem,  which  was  none  too  secure,  just  at  a  moment  when 
Venice  and  Genoa  were  hoping  to  drive  him  out  of  all  his 
territories,  including  Sicily.  It  would,  therefore,  have  stultified 
Pope  Gregory's  whole  policy  :  hence  the  crusade  must  be 
abandoned,  even  though  the  Holy  Land  should  thus  be  lost  not 
only  to  Frederick  but  to  Christendom.  The  same  indulgences 
could  lure  the  crusaders  to  war  with  Frederick  in  Italy.  It  is 
said  that  when  Frederick  captured  rebels  fighting  against  him 
and  wearing  the  sign  of  the  Cross  that  he  forthwith  crucified 
them  so  that  they  might  realise  the  meaning  of  the  symbol. 


I24o  LOSS  OF  JERUSALEM  557 

This  may  be  untrue,  but  Frederick  would  have  been  quite 
capable  of  it  and  would  have  held  that  the  responsibility  fell 
on  the  Pope,  who  was  misusing  Crusaders  for  his  own  ends. 

Frederick  had  again  and  again  deprecated  a  campaign  against 
Syria  till  he  should  be  free  to  lead  the  crusade,  from  which 
only  the  quarrel  with  Pope  Gregory  was  detaining  him.  And 
the  crusaders  well  knew  that  without  the  Emperor  they  would 
be  "  as  sand  without  lime  or  a  wall  without  mortar."  Never 
theless  he  put  no  obstacles  in  their  way  and  helped  them  where 
he  could.  He  urged  them  to  travel  by  way  of  Sicily,  where 
they  would  find  shipping  facilities,  and  he  gave  immediate 
instructions  to  his  Sicilian  officials  to  look  after  the  pilgrims, 
many  of  whom  had  to  winter  in  Sicily  waiting  for  the  new  date 
proposed.  The  imperial  marshal  in  Syria,  Richard  Filangieri, 
received  the  necessary  instructions.  In  the  spring  of  1240  the 
pilgrims  set  forth  for  Syria,  where,  as  was  to  be  expected,  they 
increased  the  existing  confusion.  The  lack  of  a  common  leader, 
the  proverbial  disunion  of  Christians  in  the  Holy  Land,  the 
untrustworthiness  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  and  of  the  Temple, 
contributed  to  a  severe  defeat  in  November  1240,  which  was 
immediately  followed  by  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
Muslim  prince  of  Kerak, 

Frederick  II  was  encamped  before  Facnza.  He  bestirred 
himself  to  salvage  what  he  could.  He  hastened  to  get  into 
touch  with  the  Sultans  of  Damascus  and  Egypt  and  to  negotiate 
at  least  the  release  of  the  prisoners.  He  despatched  his  Sicilian 
captain  Roger  de  Amicis  to  Egypt  to  conclude  a  treaty  with 
the  Sultan  Malik  Salih,  the  son  of  al  KamiL  For  al  Kamil  had 
died  in  1238,  deeply  mourned  by  Frederick,  who  wrote  to  the 
English  king :  "  Many  things  would  have  been  very  different 
in  the  Holy  Land  if  only  my  friend  al  Kamil  had  been  still 
alive."  England  was  to  espouse  his  cause  in  the  East,  Despite 
the  Pope  the  Emperor's  brother-in-law,  Richard  Earl  of  Corn 
wall,  sailed  to  Palestine  with  the  English  pilgrims.  Frederick 
provided  him  with  plenary  powers  and  instructions,  and  he 
succeeded,  thanks  to  dissensions  no  less  acute  in  the  Saracen 
ranks,  in  renewing  the  truce  and  in  recovering-  Jerusalem  for 
the  Emperor  and  for  Christendom.  In  the  eyes  of  the  world 
Frederick  was  once  more  the  protector  of  the  Holy  Land  and 


558  ADVANCE  ON   ROME  vm 

Pope  Gregory  its  destroyer,  and  the  pamphlets  of  the  time 
openly  express  this  view. 

Meantime,  in  the  face  of  the  Mongol  peril,  Frederick  had 
been  striving  to  reach  an  understanding  with  the  Pope.  When 
this  failed  he  invaded  the  Papal  States  to  compel  the  Pope  by 
force  to  make  peace.  When  the  Earl  of  Cornwall  returned 
from  the  Holy  Land  negotiations  seemed  possible  once  more. 
He  landed  in  Trani  in  July  1241,  met  the  Emperor  and  betook 
himself  to  Rome  with  full  credentials  to  act  as  mediator. 
Frederick  had  no  hope  of  success,  but  the  Englishman  would 
not  be  dissuaded.  After  a  short  time  he  returned  empty- 
handed,  and  much  annoyed  by  the  stiff-necked  obstinacy  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome.  Richard  of  Cornwall,  not  improbably,  met 
Count  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  at  the  Emperor's  court  on  this 
occasion.  If  so  it  was  a  remarkable  rencontre  ;  for  these  two 
noblemen  were  later  the  two  chosen  successors  of  Frederick  II 
in  the  tarnished  splendour  of  the  Roman  throne. 


Frederick  now  gathered  all  his  strength  for  a  final  thrust 
against  Rome.  His  prospects  were  on  the  whole  better  than 
last  year  ;  the  Pope's  position  was  hopeless.  To  add  to  his 
misfortunes,  one  of  his  cardinals,  John  of  Colonna,  had  openly 
deserted  to  the  Emperor  and  was  prepared  now  to  take  arms 
against  the  Pope,  of  whose  policy  he  had  long  disapproved. 
While  Colonna's  adherents  in  Rome  fortified  themselves  in 
their  towers  and  palaces,  the  Baths  of  Constantine  and  the 
Mausoleum  of  Augustus,  against  the  papalists,  who  at  the 
moment  had  the  upper  hand  in  the  city,  the  cardinal  betook 
himself  to  Palestine,  and  besieged  several  positions  in  the 
Emperor's  name.  Frederick  hastened  to  comply  with  his  call 
to  join  him.  The  Emperor  wrote  to  the  cardinal  that  he  had 
at  first  been  surprised  to  find  in  him  an  upholder  of  plans  for 
renewing  the  Imperium,  No  cardinal  and  no  priest  had  pre 
viously  given  such  encouragement  to  the  Eques  and  Imperator 
of  the  Romans,  and  he  attributed  this  "  to  the  noble  anxiety 
of  a  noble  race  and  the  fire  of  noble  blood."  It  proved  to  be 
the  fact  that  in  many  particulars  the  Colonna  were  the  inheritors 
of  Frederick  II's  plans  for  the  rebirth  of  Rome. 


i24i  GREGORY'S  LAST  CARD  559 

Nothing  now  lay  between  the  Emperor  and  his  longed-for 
Roman  triumph.  He  had  now  determined,  whatever  might 
be  the  outcome,  to  use  open  force  against  the  Pope,  and  he  had 
no  lack  of  fighting  strength.  In  June  he  had  captured  Terni 
and  then  lay  before  Rieti,  and  was  now  advancing  nearer  to 
Rome  itself.  In  August  Tivoli  opened  its  gates  to  him,  and 
his  troops  were  laying  waste  the  country  up  to  the  walls  of 
Rome.  Frederick  was  already  comparing  himself  to  the 
"  Libyan  Hannibal  "  before  the  gates  of  Rome.  By  the  middle 
of  August  his  headquarters  were  in  Grottaferrata,  nine  miles 
south  of  Rome.  Piero  della  Vigna  wrote  "  the  path  of  peace 
which  base  obstinacy  has  hitherto  kept  closed  will  now  be 
opened  by  the  pressure  of  the  Pope's  advancing  enemies. " 
At  this  moment,  when  Frederick  was  about  to  strike  the  final 
blow,  news  came  from  Rome  that  Pope  Gregory  IX  was  dead* 
The  Pope  had  for  the  second  time  snatched  the  certain  con 
quest  of  Rome  from  the  hand  of  his  hated  foe  :  Frederick's 
sword  a  second  time  smote  empty  air.  Pope  Gregory  had 
played  his  last  card.  No  enemy  was  left,  for  the  Emperor 
was  fighting  neither  Church,  nor  Pope,  nor  Rome,  but  only 
Gregory  :  and  Gregory  was  dead. 

The  Pope's  advanced  age  had  long  since  made  his  death  a 
contingency  to  be  reckoned  with.  The  fever-laden  air  and  the 
burning  heat  of  a  Roman  August,  and  the  impossibility  of 
seeking  healing  in  the  baths  of  Viterbo  or  elsewhere,  may  have 
hastened  the  end.  There  were  some  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
dub  Frederick  the  murderer  of  Gregory,  and  others  who  said 
the  Pope  had  died  "  unable  to  bear  the  sorrow  he  had  brought 
upon  himself."  Just  as  the  Pope  refused  till  the  last  moment 
to  grant  peace  to  the  foe,  so  Frederick's  hate  against  this 
"  disturber  of  the  world's  peace  "  lasted  beyond  the  grave, 
"  And  so  he  who  refused  to  make  peace  or  to  treat  of  peace, 
who  took  upon  himself  to  challenge  Augustus,  was  fated  to  fall 
a  prey  to  the  avenger  August.  And  now  is  dead  indeed  1 
Through  him  the  earth  lacked  peace,  the  strife  was  great  and 
how  many  perished ! " 

Such  was  Frederick's  epitaph  on  his  dead  foe.  He  had 
little  cause  to  feel  magnanimous  towards  Gregory  IX,  who 
had  persecuted  him  till  his  last  breath  as  the  "  Beast  of  the 


560  TWO  GREAT  FOES  vm 

Apocalypse/'  One  of  the  Pope's  last  letters  had  been  directed 
to  the  prelates  imprisoned  through  his  fault,  bidding  them  take 
courage  though  they  languished  in  the  hands  of  Pharaoh,  of  the 
snare-devising  Satan.  His  very  last  conjured  the  Genoese  "  to 
arise  with  the  might  of  their  galleys,  and  avenge  the  new  in 
justice  which  the  Church  was  suffering.''  Hate  was  Gregory's 
greatness  and  he  hated  to  the  end,  though  it  seemed  as  if  his 
hate  might  wreck  the  Church.  Frederick  returned  his  hate. 
During  the  fourteen-year  war  in  which  the  two  monarchs  strove 
each  with  every  nerve  to  wrest  the  world-crown  from  the  other 
they  had  both  grown  in  stature.  These  deadly  enemies  were 
the  incarnation  of  two  hostile  worlds  who  in  each  encounter 
outvied  and  re-outvied  each  other.  Gregory  IX  was  never 
so  great  as  in  his  last  years,  and  Frederick  II  would  never 
have  attained  the  heights  he  did  without  his  abysmal  hatred 
of  the  Pope.  Nothing  less  than  Gregory's  double  power,  as 
Caesar-Pope  and  disciple  of  St.  Francis,  would  have  compelled 
Frederick  to  put  forth  his  utmost  effort.  Even  in  his  age  we 
can  only  picture  Gregory  with  eyes  flashing  in  the  passion  of 
unbridled  wrath,  and  yet  this  savage  obstinate  old  man  was 
attuned  to  the  sublime  ecstasy  and  mystic  rapture  of  St, 
Francis.  As  an  aged  man  he  wrote  beautiful  hymns  in  praise 
of  his  friend,  in  one  of  which  he  celebrates  Francis  as  the 
Archangel  Michael  who  slays  the  mighty  dragon.  Both  as 
St.  Francis'  friend  and  as  the  papal  politician  of  the  decretals, 
Gregory  was  bound  to  consider  Frederick  II  as  the  dragon 
whom  the  Devil  had  sent  to  the  confusion  of  the  Christian 
world.  The  weapons  Gregory  used  had  little  resemblance  to 
those  of  St.  Francis,  nor  was  he  destined  to  become  the  papa 
angelicus  for  whom  the  world  was  waiting.  The  fact  that 
Gregory  wielded  the  "  dragon  weapon  "  transformed  Frederick 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world  into  a  "  saint,"  and  Frederick,  stung  by 
the  power  of  such  a  hate,  had  Gregory  to  thank  for  his  elevation. 
The  death  of  Gregory  brought  relief  from  intense  strain, 
Frederick  II  abandoned  his  attack  on  Rome  and  marched  into 
Sicily,  which  he  scarcely  quitted  again  for  the  next  two  years. 
He  had  no  remaining  enemy,  but  neither  was  there  any  Pope 
to  release  him  from  the  ban.  For  two  and  twenty  months  the 
orphaned  chair  of  St.  Peter  remained  empty  and  no  absolution 


DOMINUS  MUNDI  56* 

was  possible.  No  warlike  events  demanded  Frederick's  pre 
sence  in  Italy.  People  always  feel  respect  for  well-proved  force, 
and  the  capture  of  Faenza,  the  victory  at  sea,  the  conquest  of 
a  further  part  of  the  Patrirnonium  had  all  had  an  intimidating 
effect.  Finally,  Gregory's  death  had  produced  cairn.  King 
Enzio  was  able  to  hold  the  Lombards  in  check,  and  the  im 
perial  fleet  inflicted  injury  on  Genoa's  trade.  A  strange  repose 
brooded  over  Italy,  From  his  Apulian  castles  Frederick  watched 
events.  Without  the  Pope  the  Emperor  was  sole  Lord  of  the 
West,  in  very  fact  the  Dominus  Mundi. 


As  such  he  needed  to  find  a  responsive  world.  The  imperial 
mantle  with  its  heavy  folds,  embroidered  with  the  symbols  of  the 
Macrocosm,  was  no  mere  ornamental  robe,  accidental  perhaps, 
or  even  burdensome.  Being  what  he  was  and  honoured  as 
he  was,  he  might  have  been  lord  of  a  few  hundred  acres 
and  yet  he  would  have  dominated  the  world.  Everything, 
from  the  conception  of  a  re-birth  of  Rome  down  to  Sicilian 
sculpture,  was  interwoven  with  the  Empire  and  the  Emperor  : 
"  Our  influence  is  felt  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  earth. .  .  ." 
The  suzerainty  of  the  Macrocosm  is  in  its  nature  spiritual. 
Frederick's  task  was  now  to  translate  into  reality  this  spiritual 
overlordship. 

The  conception  of  a  spiritual  overlordship  is  a  commonplace 
in  the  ages  of  the  Church,  though  it  may  seem  strange  in  rela 
tion  to  an  Emperor.  Frederick  II  had  been  the  ward  and  pupil 
of  the  great  Innocent,  founder  of  the  Church  as  a  State.  He 
was  an  intellectual  man,  and  we  need  not  wonder  to  find  in 
his  conception  of  Empire  a  reflection  of  the  Church.  The 
whole  Italian- Sicilian  State  which  the  Popes  coveted  as  their 
Patrimony  of  Peter  became  as  it  were  the  Patrimony  of 
Augustus  for  this  gifted  monarch,  who  sought  to  release  the 
secular  and  intellectual  powers  that  were  fused  into  the  spiritual 
unity  of  the  Church  and  to  build  a  new  empire  based  on  these. 
The  Popes  with  their  encyclicals  summoned  the  whole  of 
Christendom  to  arms,  and  now  Frederick  II  with  his  circulars 
stirred  the  whole  Roman  world  to  battle  with  the  Pope,  The 
priesthood  had  laid  claim  to  men  or  money  from  the  kings,  but 


562  ATTITUDE  TO  KINGS  vm 

Frederick  begged  rather  the  moral  backing  of  the  European 
rulers  against  the  clergy.  Each  of  the  opposing  powers, 
Empire  and  Papacy,  sought  what  it  needed  to  complete  itself, 
no  longer  representing  moon  and  sun,  but  the  "  two  suns  "  that 
Dante  styled  them.  The  empire  of  the  sword,  however,  was 
uplifted  by  becoming  an  intellectual  State,  while  the  Church 
degraded  herself  by  "  secularisation."  The  Hohenstaufen 
sought  to  rouse  and  rally  round  him  all  the  statesmanlike 
instincts  of  his  fellow-kings  against  the  ever-spreading  organi 
sation  of  a  world-church,  to  lead  the  Empire  to  battle  as  a 
spiritual,  not  as  a  political  unity.  Such  was  the  sum  of  all 
Frederick's  communications  to  the  Christian  kings  of  Europe. 

Up  till  about  1236  Frederick's  relations  with  the  Christian 
rulers  of  the  West  had  been  confined  to  casual  interchanges. 
The  first  excommunication  and  the  Crusade,  events  which 
touched  the  whole  of  Christendom,  made  the  Christian  kings 
appear  to  form  a  sort  of  forum.  When  Frederick  took  rank  as 
a  world  ruler  by  entering  on  the  Lombard  war  his  relation  to 
the  kings  of  Europe  assumed  another  colour.  Active  diplo 
matic  exchanges  took  place  between  the  imperial  and  the  various 
royal  courts,  a  regular  interchange  of  news  concerning  the  most 
diverse  affairs  became  established,  imperial  envoys  often  re 
mained  a  considerable  time  at  foreign  courts,  and  Frederick 
could  count  on  the  sympathy  of  the  kings  in  his  actions  and  in 
his  plans  ;  for  what  concerned  the  Emperor  of  the  West  now 
concerned  also  the  western  kings.  The  theatre  was  enlarged 
and  all  the  world  was  touched  by  whatever  happened  in 
the  imperial  sphere. 

Frederick  did  not  cultivate  "  foreign  politics."  He  would 
not  have  recognised  their  existence.  For  him  there  was  one 
"  Europa  imperialist'  one  res  publica  universae  christianitatis , 
one  Imperium  Romanum  embracing  the  whole  of  Christendom. 
He  held  himself  aloof  from  all  quarrels  of  the  kings  amongst 
themselves.  England  distrusted  him  when  with  the  help  of 
France  he  won  the  Empire  at  the  battle  of  Bouvines.  France 
distrusted  him  when  he  married  the  Englishwoman.  They 
were  both  unjust.  Not  that  he  observed  "  neutrality  "  ;  this 
idea  also  was  foreign  to  him.  As  Roman  Emperor  he  had  a 
super-national  character  which  he  prudently  would  not  forego. 


EMPIRE  SUPER-NATIONAL  5^3 

England  offered  him  an  alliance  which  he  steadfastly  refused. 
It  would  have  been  treachery  to  the  still-valid  conception  of  a 
universal  empire  to  form  an  alliance  with  one  of  the  European 
kings.  It  would  also  have  been  unwise,  for  a  counter-alliance 
would  inevitably  have  followed,  and  the  world  which  should  be 
one  would  have  split  in  twain.  An  alliance  would  have  been 
to  fling  away  the  Empire  and  descend  to  the  level  of  a  territorial 
king  of  Germany,  Italy  and  Sicily,  as  inevitably  happened  with 
the  later  Emperors,  even  Charles  V.  Frederick  IFs  task  was 
rather  that  of  Dante's  Emperor  :  to  command  sufficiently 
superior  force  to  preserve  peace  and  with  it  the  unity  of  Europe. 
Such  ideas  were  powerful  in  an  age  in  which  the  idea  carried 
as  much  weight  as  the  fact,  or  more.  The  feeling  never  arose 
that  there  was  a  discrepancy  between  the  Empire  as  a  divine 
world-embracing  institution  and  the  actual  imperial  territory 
of  political  realities. 

For  Frederick  and  for  the  world  at  large  the  hegemony  of 
the  Roman  Emperor  was  a  matter  of  course  :  suzerainty  and 
leadership,  but  not  by  any  means  the  exercise  of  ruling  power. 
All  his  contemporaries,  kings  included,  acknowledged  the 
imperial  superiority,  but  they  would  all  have  instantly  and 
vigorously  repulsed  any  attempt  by  him  to  interfere  in  the  life 
of  their  states.  The  Emperor  could  issue  no  orders  to  the 
kings  of  Europe,  in  which  his  position  was  inferior  to  the  Pope's, 
as  a  chronicler  has  shrewdly  remarked  who  puts  these  words 
into  the  Emperor's  mouth  apropos  of  the  Council :  "  The  Pope 
is  my  inveterate  foe  and  open  enemy,  and  he  moreover  has  the 
power  to  deprive  any  man  of  his  dignity  who  opposes  him,  and 
even  to  fetter  the  deposed  person  with  the  bonds  of  his  curse, 
and  to  hurl  him  into  the  abyss  of  yet  more  terrible  punishment. 
Our  position  is  endangered,  the  position  of  the  Emperor  is 
that  of  all  the  princes,  and  I  alone  stand  as  the  champion  of  all, 
The  kings  of  the  earth  and  the  princes  whose  cause  I  defend, 
who  have  made  me  their  counsellor  and  representative,  would 
not  answer  my  summons  nor  obey  my  command.  They  are 
not  my  subjects  that  I  could  compel  them  or  could  punish  the 
disobedient. " 

The  earlier  Hohenstaufens  had,  indeed,  attempted  to  compel 
the  kings  to  obedience,  Barbarossa  called  his  fellow-monarchs 


564  REBEL  AND  PRIEST  vm 

"  heads  of  provinces,"  Henry  VI  considered  them  his  vassals, 
and  both  sought  to  trample  on  the  petty  kings  to  augment 
thereby  their  own  greatness.  Things  had  changed  by 
Frederick's  time  :  the  "  nations  "  had  come  to  birth,  and  the 
stronger  national  feeling  grew  in  the  western  dominions,  the 
more  difficult  it  became  to  maintain  at  all  a  universal  empire  : 
even  in  the  abstract.  If  Frederick  II  had  shown  hostility  to 
the  national  impulses  and  sought  to  limit  the  independence  of 
the  kings,  he  would  infallibly  have  come  to  grief  and  had  the 
royal  pack  at  his  heels  as  well  as  the  Pope.  He  had  to  take 
another  line  if  he  was  to  bridge  the  gulf  implied  in  the  challenge  : 
a  Roman  Empire  and  yet  nations. 

Frederick's  policy  towards  the  kings  was  not  unlike  that 
which  he  pursued  towards  the  German  princes  or  the  Roman 
citizens  :  instead  of  swimming  against  a  powerful  living  current 
he  sought  to  turn  it  to  account,  to  let  it  sweep  him  on  to 
greater  greatness.  Far  from  suggesting,  as  his  forefathers  had 
done,  that  the  western  kings  should  sacrifice  their  national 
independence  on  the  altar  of  a  universal  empire,  Frederick  used 
his  most  eloquent  manifestos  to  adjure  them  jealously  to  guard 
their  independence,  their  nations  and  their  separate  states,  not 
against  the  Emperor,  who  "  filled  with  highest  happiness  and 
content  with  his  own  lot,  envies  the  life  of  none,"  but  in  co 
operation  with  the  Emperor  to  defend  them  against  the  two 
enemies  of  all  kings  and  of  all  states  :  the  rebel  and  the  priest. 

A  common  cause  against  the  attacks  made  by  rebels  and  by 
clerics  on  the  majesty  of  the  State  is  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  all  the  political  relations  of  Frederick  with  the  kings  of 
Europe.  Instead  of  trampling  on  the  kings  Frederick  sought 
to  enhance  their  self-consciousness.  He  considered  them  as, 
like  himself,  immediate  under  God.  He  sought  to  enlist  them 
in  the  same  cause  and  be  himself  merely  their  leader,  their 
counsellor,  their  champion.  This  solved  the  question  of 
peace  amongst  the  kings  themselves.  By  compelling  them 
continually  to  keep  their  minds  on  world-questions  which 
equally  affected  all,  he  left  them  no  opportunity  for  strife,  so 
that  apart  from  a  peripheral  quarrel,  even  the  eternal  war 
between  England  and  France  was  laid  for  a  time  to  rest.  "  By 
God,  most  well-beloved  brother,"  he  wrote  to  the  King  of 


SODALITY  OF  KINGS  565 

England,  who  was  despatching  money  to  the  Curia,  u  let  not 
such  procedure  take  place,  least  of  all  against  us,  that  monarchs 
should  voluntarily  fight  against  monarchs.  Let  not  the  yoke 
of  papal  authority  press  so  heavily  on  the  neck  of  kings  !  " 

Frederick  rallied  the  kings  against  the  common  foe  :  first 
against  the  rebels  who  threatened  monarchy  itself ;  next 
against  the  Pope,  who  was  in  league  with  the  rebels  and  under 
mined  the  independence  of  the  secular  power,  even  challeng 
ing  secular  by  spiritual  jurisdiction.  There  was  no  western 
ruler  who  was  not  entangled  in  similar  conflict  with  his  church 
and  with  the  Roman  Curia,  none  who  had  not  to  protect 
himself  against  similar  encroachments  on  his  royal  power. 
The  question  of  lordship  in  Italy  merely  provoked  the  quarrel 
earlier  and  more  fiercely  between  Frederick  II  and  the  Pope, 
"  All  of  us  kings  and  princes,  especially  those  of  us  who  are 
jealous  for  the  true  religion  and  the  true  faith,  suffer  from  the 
open  and  secret  hate  of  our  peoples,  and  the  special  but  secret 
strife  with  the  princes  of  our  Church.  For  our  peoples  hunger 
to  abuse  this  pestilential  freedom,  but  the  priests  misuse  our 
benevolence  to  injure  us  in  our  possessions  and  in  our  privi 
leges."  Hence  Emperor  and  king  had  the  same  interests  to 
defend,  and  all  the  monarchs  should  form  a  "  sodality  "  under 
imperial  leadership.  If  Frederick  had  insisted  on  claiming 
imperial  power  and  titles  he  would  have  accomplished  nothing, 
and  assuredly  have  awakened  resistance.  On  the  path  he  chose 
he  achieved  much.  He  had  flung  a  new  idea  to  the  dynasts  ; 
the  corporate  unity  of  kings.  The  echo  of  the  ancient  Roman 
Imperium  was  still  clearly  to  be  heard  and  lent  breadth  and 
meaning  and  cohesion  to  the  idea.  This  community  of  kings 
was  something  new,  non-hieratic,  non-feudal,  independent  of 
force,  firmly  based  on  the  common  secular  interests  of  the 
State  and  on  the  ever-growing  national  power  and  conscious 
ness.  This  separate  power  of  the  several  nations  might  prove 
the  ideal  cement  for  a  super-national  Empire— or  its  solvent. 
Universal  monarchy  was  almost  on  its  deathbed,  but  Frederick 
II  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  able  to  give 
it  again,  for  the  last  time,  a  short  new  lease  of  life,  a  complete, 
practical  and  genuine  raison  d*£tre>  by  converting  it  into  a  volun 
tary  co-operation.  He  could  only  succeed  by  emphasising  the 


566  PAPAL  ENCROACHMENT  vm 

contrast  between  Church  and  State  and  rallying  all  secular 
forces  to  his  banner. 

Frederick  took  his  stand  on  this  commonwealth  of  western 
kings,  and  strove  to  bind  them  together  into  a  royal  corporation. 
An  insult  to  the  Emperor  was  an  insult  to  his  fellow-monarchs. 
"  Hasten  with  water  to  your  homes  when  fire  flames  in  your 
neighbour's  house  .  .  ,  fear  the  same  danger  in  your  own 
affairs.  The  humiliation  of  other  kings  and  princes  will  be  a 
little  thing,  if  the  power  of  the  Roman  Caesar  whose  shield 
bears  the  brunt  of  the  first  onslaught  should  crumble  under 
perpetual  attack.  .  .  .  We  conjure  you,  nobles  and  princes  of 
the  earth,  and  cry  you  the  alarm,  not  because  our  own  weapons 
are  unavailing  to  ward  off  such  shame,  but  that  the  whole  world 
may  know  that  the  honour  of  all  is  touched  when  insult  is 
offered  to  any  one  of  the  guild  of  secular  princes. " 

As  Germany  had  her  "  Illustrious  Body  of  the  Holy  Empire  " 
Frederick  saw  the  ideal  Imperium  as  a  corpus  saecularium 
principum  under  the  leadership  of  the  Emperor — a  Corpus 
which  he  was  the  first  to  call  to  life.  He  thus  set  himself  to 
awaken  the  non-ecclesiastical  but  spiritual  instincts  of  the  west 
and  (as  he  had  done  on  a  smaller  scale  in  Sicily)  to  marshal 
them  as  one  universal  whole  against  the  Church.  Again  and 
again  he  utters  his  warning  cry,  "  the  aifairs  of  the  secular  power 
should  not  be  subordinated  to  the  Church,"  and  explains  that 
that  is  why  he  prevents  the  papal  Council  which  was  intended 
to  decide  the  Lombard  question.  His  theory  that  with  the  fall 
of  the  Emperor,  the  head  of  all,  the  whole  world  would  fall,  was 
quite  in  tune  with  the  mental  atmosphere  of  the  time.  "  They 
begin  with  us,  but  be  assured  of  this  they  will  end  with  the 
other  princes  and  kings  whose  might  they  will  no  longer  fear 
when  once  we  are  overcome.  Defend  therefore  your  own 
rights  in  defending  ours."  He  summons  the  kings  to  vigorous 
resistance,  for  the  Pope  is  bent  on  subduing  to  himself  all  the 
dominions  of  the  faithful. 

Such  exhortation  was  by  no  means  unjustified.  Pope 
Gregory's  successor,  Innocent  IV,  met  with  some  resistance  in 
France,  Aragon  and  England,  and  is  said, "  with  rollings  of  the 
eyes  and  curlings  of  the  nostril,"  to  have  thus  addressed  the 
messengers  of  England.  "  It  is  better  for  us  to  make  a  treaty 


PRIESTLY  ARROGANCE  567 

with  your  prince  to  crush  these  recalcitrant  kinglets.  When 
once  we  have  quelled  or  destroyed  the  great  Dragon  the  petty 
snakes  will  easily  be  trodden  under  foot." 

The  world  feared  some  such  treatment  by  the  Pope  if  the 
mighty  Emperor  Frederick  were  once  laid  low.  The  Curia 
would  boast :  •"  We  have  trampled  on  the  great  Frederick,  and 
who  then  art  thou  that  thou  dare  hope  to  resist  us  ?  "  If  the 
Pope  acted  thus  the  fault  lay  with  the  kings  themselves  and  with 
them  alone.  The  Emperor's  words  are  menacing :  "  Neither  the 
first  are  we,  nor  yet  the  last,  whom  priestly  power  opposes  and 
seeks  to  hurl  from  the  seats  of  the  mighty.  And  the  fault  is  yours 
who  give  ear  to  these  hypocrites  of  holiness  whose  arrogance 
would  fain  believe  that  into  their  gullet  all  the  Jordan  floweth." 

What  the  Emperor  perceived  as  the  gravest  danger,  threatened 
not  indeed  by  the  Church  but  by  the  new  hierarchy,  was  the 
sacrifice  of  original  loyalties  made  by  the  Roman  priest.  He 
writes  in  wrath  to  one  of  the  kings  :  "  These  who  call  them 
selves  priests  now  turn  oppressors,  grown  fat  upon  the  alms  of 
the  fathers  and  of  the  sons.  Although  they  be  themselves 
the  sons  of  our  loyal  subjects,  yet  do  they  render  no  reverence 
to  Emperor  nor  king  when  once  they  are  ordained  as  apostolic 
fathers/'  Napoleon  felt  the  same  bitterness. 

Frederick  II  was  the  first  to  feel  the  fact  acutely  and  express 
it  freely.  With  diabolic  ingenuity  he  turned  the  tables  and 
challenged  the  whole  conception  of  spiritual  authority.  He 
wrote  to  the  Christian  kings  that  he  considered  it  base  of  the 
Pope  to  hinder  him,  the  Emperor,  from  marching  into  Lorn- 
bar  dy,  the  historic  inheritance  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen, 
Especially  base  since  the  Pope  had  claimed  his  imperial  help 
against  the  Romans,  who  owed  no  allegiance  to  Gregory's 
father,  nor  to  his  grandfather,  nor  to  his  kin.  One  argument  of 
Frederick's  in  particular  carried  great  weight  with  the  national 
nobility  of  England  and  of  France.  A  movement  of  the  French 
barons  against  the  clergy  adopted  bodily  the  Emperor's  ideas, 
and  rebelled  particularly  against  the  fact  that  priests  u  aforetime 
the  sons  of  slaves  presume  according  to  canonical  precept  to 
judge  free  men  and  the  sons  of  free  men,"  They  demanded 
that  all  jurisdiction  should  be  withdrawn  from  the  priests  in 
favour  of  the  king. 


568  PASSIVE  RESPONSE  vin 

Although  Frederick  II  never  ceased  to  emphasise  the  com 
munity  of  Emperor  and  kings,  he  did  not  fail  in  his  letters  duly 
to  stress  the  unique  and  eminent  position  of  the  Roman 
monarch  and  the  comprehensiveness  of  the  Empire,  What 
was  an  individual  king  beside  an  Emperor  !  A  pitiful  figure, 
standing  alone,  surrounded  by  danger  on  all  sides.  u  Ye  single 
kings  of  single  countries  what  have  ye  not  to  fear  from  such  a 
High  Priest  who  dares  to  depose  us  .  .  .  ,  us,  whom  God  hath 
singled  out  by  the  imperial  diadem,  us  who  mightily  hold  sway 
over  illustrious  dominions/'  The  exalted  character  of  the 
Imperium  is  again  expressed  not  less  haughtily  and  clearly. 
An  English  or  French  bishop  who  crowns  and  anoints  his  king 
has  thereby  acquired  no  right  to  depose  his  king.  No  greater 
right  has  the  Pope  to  dethrone  the  Roman  Caesar  whom  he  has 
anointed  and  crowned.  This  sentence  sets  clearly  forth  the 
difference  in  status  between  king  and  Emperor.  Frederick  was 
fond  of  describing  himself  as  "  geographically  nearer  in  space 
and  in  office  more  akin  "  to  the  Pope  than  to  his  fellow- 
monarchs. 


What  was  the  reaction  of  the  western  kings  to  these  theories 
of  the  Emperor  ?  Though  Frederick  reiterated  his  absence  of 
envy  towards  the  kings  they  did  not  wholly  trust  him.  In 
England  it  was  considered  not  impossible  that  Frederick  might 
cross  the  narrow  Channel  to  avenge  himself  if  England  resisted 
his  request  and  continued  her  payments  to  the  papal  overlord. 
In  spite  of  assurances  of  friendship  the  King  of  France  was 
prepared  at  any  moment  to  leap  to  arms  to  defend  his  frontiers. 
Not  till  the  very  last  did  they  consider  themselves  wholly  safe 
from  possible  conquest.  Nevertheless,  a  feeling  of  fellowship 
with  the  Emperor  was  strong,  as  was  shown  at  the  outset  of  the 
Lombard  War  when  the  kings  intervened  with  the  Pope  on  the 
Emperor's  behalf,  and  two  years  later  actually  sent  auxiliaries 
for  the  campaign  against  Brescia.  On  the  other  hand  the  idea 
of  a  league  of  secular  monarchs  against  the  Church  awakened 
little  direct  response.  No  active  common  resistance  to  the 
Pope  was  organised,  though  in  all  countries  the  aristocracy 
sympathised  with  the  Emperor.  None  of  the  kings  was  anxious 


SAINT  LOUIS  569 

wantonly  to  attack  the  Church,  though  each  was  engaged  with 
her  in  open  or  in  secret  strife.  It  was,  however,  an  extra 
ordinary  triumph  of  imperial  policy  that  none  of  the  kings 
allowed  himself  to  be  seduced  into  alliance  with  the  Pope,  none 
of  them  stabbed  the  Emperor  in  the  back,  and  none  recognised 
his  excommunication  or  deposition.  Passively  the  solidarity 
of  the  kings  was  perfect. 

Any  sign  of  partisanship  for  one  side  or  the  other  was  made 
impossible  in  France  by  the  strict,  unerring  uprightness  of 
King  Louis  IX,  known  as  St.  Louis.  He  was  by  far  the 
most  important  royal  contemporary  of  Frederick  II,  and  one  of 
the  noblest  figures  in  the  roll  of  the  kings  of  France.  His 
reverence  and  simple  humility  made  him  a  saint,  but  with  these 
he  combined  all  the  knightly  pride  of  a  Western  Frank,  and  that 
genuine  royalty  of  kingship  which  left  its  impress  so  deeply  on 
the  land  of  France,  down  to  the  days  of  le  Roi  Soleil.  Germany 
was  the  land  of  Emperors,  and  France  was  the  cradle  of  kings. 
The  Valois  and  the  Bourbons  may  well  have  outshone  St.  Louis 
in  royal  pomp  ;  as  little  more  than  a  boy  he  had  forsaken  all 
outward  show.  He  was  second  to  none,  however,  in  royal 
pride ;  and  in  royal  sincerity  he  outshines  most  of  his  suc 
cessors.  As  founder  of  the  Law- State  of  France  he  seems  to 
have  learnt  more  from  Frederick  II  than  is  generally  recognised, 
and  he  had  the  clear  eye  of  a  great  man  for  the  problems  of 
Christendom  whose  confusions  frequently  distressed  him.  As 
he  lay  at  nights  on  his  plank  bed  pondering  eternity  he  never 
lost  sight  of  the  universal  meaning  of  the  western  powers,  he 
was  never  seduced  by  expediencies,  he  never  forgot  what  the 
honour  of  his  country  demanded. 

The  importance  of  St.  Louis  lies  in  this  :  that  at  a  time  when 
Christian  chivalry  was  beginning  to  crumble  and  peter  out  in 
the  petty  and  the  commonplace,  this  Prankish  king  sot  her  to 
new  and  universal  tasks,  inflamed  the  torpid  for  the  last  great 
Crusade  with  the  same  fire  and  enthusiasm  as  he  brought  to 
conquer  his  own  bodily  weakness,  which  was  never  allowed  to 
deter  him  from  midnight  prayers  or  matins.  The  world  saw 
in  him  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  early  Templars  :  a  com 
bination  of  pride,  humility  and  joy  in  work,  transfigured  by  the 
same  faith.  A  generation  later  this  Order  was  abolished  ;  its 


5?o  HENRY  PLANTAGENET  vm 

degeneration  had  caused  him  bitter  sorrow.  The  last  symbol 
of  its  greatness  perished  with  St.  Louis  off  the  Tunisian  coast. 

On  a  royal  plane  St.  Louis  had  the  same  significance  for 
Frederick  that  the  German  Grand  Master,  Hermann  of  Salza, 
had  had  on  the  more  modest  stage  of  earlier  days.  As  all- 
Christian  King,  Louis  IX  was  the  God-given  peacemaker 
between  two  warring  powers,  Empire  and  Papacy ;  for  a 
decade  he  strove  indefatigably  to  fulfil  his  task.  His  failure 
brought  him  grief,  for  his  dream  of  freeing  again  the  Holy  Land 
was  shipwrecked  on  the  arrogant  obstinacy  of  the  Curia.  Yet 
with  strict  impartiality  he  rendered  unto  the  Pope  the  things 
that  were  the  Pope's  and  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
Caesar's.  He  permitted  the  proclamation  in  France  of  Frede 
rick's  excommunication,  but  forbade  all  armed  assistance  for 
the  Pope,  and  he  threatened  to  confiscate  the  goods  of  the 
Church  when  he  found  his  clergy  raising  money  in  France  for 
the  war  against  Frederick.  The  French  prelates  who  were 
setting  out  to  attend  the  Pope's  Council  seem  to  have  been  for 
bidden  to  undertake  anything  against  Frederick  II,  even  if 
Gregory  should  demand  it.  On  the  other  hand  he  wrathfully 
resented  the  Emperor's  retention  o'f  French  clerics  in  his 
prisons.  "  The  kingdom  of  the  Franks  is  not  so  weak  that  it 
is  wise  to  goad  it  with  the  spur,"  thus  he  writes  to  Frederick. 
As  confidant  of  both  parties  he  was  ready  to  fly  to  arms  against 
either,  if  either  sought  to  lure  him  from  his  neutrality.  He 
succeeded  in  preventing  a  decisive  predominance  of  either  Pope 
or  Emperor. 

Beside  King  Louis  the  other  kings  make  a  poor  showing. 
King  Henry  III  of  England  is,  in  comparison,  characterless  and 
poor-spirited.  He  was  a  puppet,  unable  to  hold  his  own  with 
Emperor,  Pope  or  peers.  Beyond  other  kings  he  had  ties  to 
each  of  these  powers  :  the  Emperor  was  his  brother-in-law, 
the  Pope  his  feudal  overlord,  and  the  peers  took  their  stand  on 
Magna  Charta.  Cowardly  and  undecided,  Henry  agreed  with 
whoever  at  the  moment  happened  to  be  his  interlocutor.  His 
phrase  "  I  do  not  wish  to  contradict  the  Pope  in  anything :  I  dare 
not,"  might  mutatis  mutandis  equally  apply  to  Emperor  or  barons. 
On  occasion  he  gave  in  to  the  Emperor  when  Frederick,  sup 
ported  by  the  peers  and  their  spokesman  Richard  of  Cornwall, 


ROYAL  BLOOD  571 

demanded  that  he  should  refuse  the  papal  tribute.  For  Henry 
III,  to  the  indignation  of  many  of  his  subjects,  had  permitted 
the  Pope  to  raise  money  levies,  and  had  allowed  the  country 
to  be  mercilessly  exploited,  besides  thus  supplying  the  Pope 
with  money  for  his  war  and  indirectly  injuring  the  Emperor. 
Under  pressure  from  Frederick  and  the  barons  he  defied  the 
Curia  for  a  little  while,  Henry  of  England  and  Sancho  II  of 
Portugal,  whom  the  Pope  had  deposed,  supplied  the  Emperor 
with  two  classic  instances  of  the  way  in  which  Roman  priests 
sought  to  suppress  the  secular  royal  power.  He  constantly 
pointed  out  to  the  other  kings  how  dearly  England  paid  for  her 
subjection  to  the  priest, 

The  corpus  saecularium  prindpum  under  the  Emperor's 
leadership  was  entirely  a  creation  of  Frederick  IFs,  and  a  com 
pletely  new  way  of  conceiving  the  world  as  a  sort  of  corporate 
State.  The  conditions  precedent  for  this  were  a  very  con 
siderable  independence  of  the  individual  kings  on  the  one  hand, 
and  on  the  other  the  emancipation  of  the  secular  state  from  the 
Church,  an  emancipation  which  had  everywhere  begun  to  set 
in.  By  striving  to  kindle  this  corporate  spirit  in  the  kings, 
which  was  everywhere  in  evidence  in  Europe,  Frederick  was 
taking  the  only  line  by  which  the  maintenance  of  a  world 
monarchy  was  possible.  When  we  dream  to-day  that  we  have 
approached  nearer  to  a  community  of  equal  nations,  such  as 
Frederick  II  and  Dante  had  in  mind,  let  us  not  forget  that  the 
bond  that  then  united  them  was  the  dignity  and  nobility  and 
supremacy  of  the  worthiest  among  them. 


Amongst  the  elements  which  the  western  monarchs  had  in 
common,  their  royalty,  their  intellect,  their  secularity,  Frederick 
laid  stress  on  another  common  tie,  valid  until  very  recent  times  : 
their  common  blood.  This  was  another  bond  which  Frederick 
valued  highly,  the  more  because  it  lay  outside  the  Church. 
Frederick  liked  to  boast  that  he  was  connected  by  descent  or 
by  marriage  with  almost  all  the  royal  houses  of  Europe. 
Hohenstaufen  blood  was  almost  synonymous  with  imperial 
blood.  People  had  ceased  to  look  for  the  scion  of  another 
house  fitted  to  wear  the  imperial  diadem.  For  Frederick  was, 


572  AN  EMPIRE  BREED  vm 

in  fact,  the  fifth  of  his  family  to  reign  as  Emperor  in  this  elective 
kingdom,  and  the  succession  of  Conrad,  his  son,  the  sixth,  was 
well  assured. 

Frederick,  therefore,  treated  the  royal  houses  of  Europe  as 
one  great  princely  family,  within  whose  circle,  however,  the 
Hohenstaufen  was  the  imperial  branch,  the  "  Empire  breed  " 
as  Manfred  called  it.  A  special  virtue  resided  in  the  race,  and 
to  their  offspring  it  was  given  "  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  .  .  ,  but  to  the  others  only  in  parables." 
"  What  German,  what  Spaniard,  what  Englishman,  what 
Frenchman,  what  Proven?al,  what  man  of  whatever  nation  or 
tongue,  could,  without  our  will  rule  over  thee,  0  Rome,  or  to 
thy  glory  exercise  the  imperial  office  ?  The  inexorable  neces 
sity  of  the  Universe  replies  :  None,  save  the  son  of  the  greatest 
Caesar  whose  gifts,  inborn  in  his  imperial  blood,  ensure  him 
force  and  fortune." 

These  words  of  Manfred's  clearly  indicate  the  new  line  of 
thought  that  Frederick  had  initiated.  The  Hohenstaufens  rule 
the  world  not  as  the  old  Germanic,  Prankish,  royal  stock— what 
weight  could  that  carry  in  England  or  France,  in  Spain  or 
Hungary  ?  In  the  person  of  Frederick  II  the  regia  stirps  of  the 
Waiblings  had  become  the  stirps  caesarea,  the  imperial  race  of 
Rome  !  The  divine  stock  of  the  Roman  Caesars  appears  once 
more  in  the  Hohenstaufen,  "  the  heaven-born  race  of  the  God 
Augustus,  whose  star  is  unquenched  for  ever,"  a  race  which 
springs  from  Aeneas,  the  father  of  the  Roman  people,  and 
descends  through  Caesar  to  Frederick  and  his  offspring  in 
direct  descent.  All  members  of  this  imperial  race  are  called 
divine.  The  predecessors  on  the  imperial  throne  are  dim  and 
the  living  no  less,  finally  all  members  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
family.  By  a  coincidence  King  Conrad  from  the  very  day  of 
Cortenuova  drew  up  his  documents  as  "  Conrad,  son  of  the 
divine  Frederick,  the  exalted  Emperor,  chosen  by  God's  Grace 
King  of  the  Romans, "  whereas  before  he  had  styled  himself 
simply,  "  Conrad,  son  of  the  glorious  and  exalted  Frederick." 
Frederick's  own  letter  to  Jesi,  his  reference  to  the  divine 
imperial  mother  in  Bethlehem  of  the  March  had  an  almost 
embarrassingly  definite  ring  about  it,  and  he  addressed  his  son 
Conrad  as  a  "  divine  scion  of  the  imperial  blood."  Decades 


AN  HOUSE  ACCURSED  573 

after  Frederick's  death  the  Margrave  of  Meissen,  who  had 
married  the  Hohenstaufen  princess,  Margaret,  Frederick's 
daughter,  was  flattered  as  the  "  father  of  divine  children." 
Even  at  the  end  of  the  century  a  daughter  of  Ottocar  II  of 
Bohemia  was  celebrated  as  "  an  offshoot  of  the  divine  blood  " 
whom  fortunate  Bohemia  had  begotten,  because  Ottocar's 
mother  had  been  a  daughter  of  Philip  of  Swabia,  and  another 
great  grandmother  had  been  "  of  the  race  of  the  Roman  Gods." 
So  deeply  rooted  was  this  deification  of  the  Hohenstaufens  in 
Italy  that  Boccaccio,  arch-Guelf  that  he  was,  lodged  a  protest 
against  the  prevailing  assumption  that  the  imperial  Hohen 
staufen  race  was  the  noblest  that  ever  breathed.  The  "  blood 
of  Barbarians,"  he  contended,  could  never  exceed  in  worth  the 
matter  which  Nature  had  used  to  shape  the  Italian  ! 

The  imperial  office  had  been  held  divine  by  Barbarossa  ; 
now  gradually  not  only  Frederick's  person  but  the  Hohen 
staufen  race  and  the  Hohenstaufen  blood  was  Caesarean  and 
divine.  Yet  one  half-century  of  Staufen  rule,  the  longed-for 
THIRD  FREDERICK  whom  the  Sibyls  had  foretold,  and  the  West 
would  have  seen  the  God  Augustus  marching  in  the  flesh 
through  the  gates  of  Rome,  would  have  burnt  incense  on  his 
altars  and  offered  sacrifice.  In  the  Hohenstaufens  the  son  of 
God  had  appeared  for  the  last  time  on  earth. 

The  Roman  Curia  was  right  that  she  dare  neither  slumber 
nor  sleep  till  this  accursed  race  had  been  exterminated  down  to 
the  last  bastard  of  the  second  and  third  generation.  For  the 
Church  recognised  the  Staufen  as  a  race  apart  in  whom  a 
mysterious  intangible  power  resided,  a  race  of  priest-haters  and 
priest-persecutors,  a  house  on  whom  the  Church's  ban  rested 
for  all  time.  Each  separate  member  was  equally  accursed,  not 
for  his  personal  guilt  but  for  the  crime  of  belonging  to  the 
"  tribe  of  the  ungodly  "  !  "  Destroy  ye  name  and  fame,  body 
and  soul,  seed  and  sapling  of  the  Babylonian !  "  was  for  decades 
the  battlecry  of  the  vengeful,  hate-haunted  priesthood  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  For  the  first  time  since  ancient  days  a  curse 
was  to  overshadow  a  whole  house,  cruel,  unrelenting,  terrible, 
executed  by  the  priests  of  a  wronged  and  jealous  God.  The 
priests  had  no  alternative.  They  were  faced  by  the  hubris  of 
a  race,  growing  from  generation  to  generation  more  youthful 


574  CARDINALS1  CONCLAVE  vm 

and  more  beautiful,  approaching  near  and  nearer  to  God  and 
to  the  Gods. 


A  Cardinals '  conclave  frequently  takes  time.  An  earnest, 
solemn  assembly  of  reverend  men,  meeting  in  the  seclusion  of 
a  luxurious  room  in  some  papal  palace,  to  treat  in  peace  con 
cerning  the  person  of  a  new  Pope  :  such  is  it  normally — but 
not  always.  The  history  of  the  Roman  Church  records  many 
a  meeting  long-drawn-out  and  many  marked  by  wild  excitement, 
but  scarce  another  to  compare  in  savagery  with  that  first  real 
"  Conclave  "  which  took  place  in  1241. 

Rome  and  the  Church  were  in  acute  danger  at  the  moment 
of  Gregory's  death.  Emperor  Frederick  was  at  the  gate 
"  with  an  army  like  the  Libyan  Hannibal  " ;  the  Church  lacked 
leaders ;  two  cardinals  were  in  prison  since  the  fight  at  sea, 
Cardinal  John  Colonna  was  a  deserter  in  the  imperial  camp, 
the  remaining  cardinals  in  Rome  were  split  into  two  factions  : 
the  stronger  peace-party  inclining  to  the  Emperor,  the  weaker 
war-party  bent  on  continuing  the  fight.  It  was  clear  that  a 
unanimous  vote  was  hardly  to  be  hoped  for  and  that  the  election 
business  would  be  protracted.  This  was  little  to  the  liking 
of  the  Senator  of  Rome.  For  the  safety  of  Rome  and  of  the 
Church  he  wanted  a  new  Pope  chosen  with  the  minimum 
delay.  The  sole  Senator  of  the  day  was  Matthew  Orsini,  a 
papalist  whom  Gregory  IX  had  helped  to  power,  and  who  now 
ruled  Rome  like  a  Dictator.  He  reflected  that  uncomfortable 
quarters  would  promote  speed,  and  laid  his  plans  accordingly. 

Immediately  after  the  Pope's  death  Orsini  had  the  cardinals 
seized  by  his  myrmidons  and  dragged  to  the  election  like  pick 
pockets  to  gaol.  Their  treatment  was  harsh  enough,  the  car 
dinals  were  driven  along  with  kicks  and  blows,  one  feeble  man 
was  thrown  down  and  dragged  by  his  long  white  hair  over  the 
sharp  stones  of  the  street,  so  that  he  arrived  all  battered  and 
torn  in  the  council  chamber  whose  doors  were  closed  on  him 


A  CONCLAVE  OF  TERROR  575 

for  many  weeks.  The  election  room  as  on  previous  similar 
occasions  was  in  the  so-called  Septizonium  of  Septimius  Severus 
on  the  Palatine.  This  had  been  in  its  day  a  fine  building  with 
fountains  and  waterworks  and  nymphs  >  but  it  was  now  a  ruined 
sort  of  tower  which  had  suffered  considerably  in  recent  earth 
quakes. 

Only  one  single  apartment  with  a  kind  of  alcove  was  pkced 
at  the  disposal  of  the  ten  cardinals,  and  the  soldiers  of  the 
Senator  kept  the  prelates  so  strictly  in  confinement  that  the 
place  resembled  a  prison.  The  guards  accepted  large  bribes, 
but  no  amount  of  bribery  permitted  the  entrance  of  servants 
or  of  doctors,  and  doctors  were  sorely  needed  before  long. 
The  whole  building  was  faulty  and  the  rain  dropped  through 
the  fissures  in  the  roof,  and  not  only  rain  but  revolting  filth,  for 
the  guards  who  were  quartered  at  night  above  the  conclave 
chamber  facetiously  used  the  faulty  floor  as  a  latrine.  The 
cardinals  contrived  by  improvised  tents  to  keep  their  actual 
sleeping  quarters  reasonably  clean  and  dry,  but  it  is  unnecessary 
to  labour  the  insanitary  conditions  and  the  resultant  stench. 
Add  to  this  the  fever  and  heat  of  a  Roman  August,  inadequate 
food,  lack  of  medical  attendance,  and  an  overbearing  soldiery  ; 
it  was  not  long  till  almost  all  ten  cardinals  fell  seriously  ill,  and 
three  actually  died  in  consequence  of  hardship. 

The  Senator's  calculations  were  so  far  correct :  the  cardinals 
were  anxious  to  agree  as  soon  as  possible  on  a  new  Pope  and 
quit  this  hell.  The  difficulties,  however,  were  unusually  great. 
The  peace-party  was  numerically  stronger,  but  not  one  of  the 
other  side  would  allow  himself  to  be  converted,  and  the  neces 
sary  two-thirds  majority  could  not  be  attained.  The  result  was 
a  dual-election  :  five  of  the  peace-cardinafe  chose  a  sixth,  one 
of  their  own  number,  the  Milanese  Godfrey  of  Sabina ;  three 
of  the  war-cardinals  chose  a  fourth  of  their  party,  Romanus  of 
Porto,  a  man  peculiarly  hateful  to  Frederick. 

At  this  point  Frederick  intervened.  Reviving  an  ancient 
imperial  right  in  cases  of  indecisive  election  he  rejected 
Romanus  of  Porto  and  confirmed  the  election  of  Godfrey. 
The  peace  party  might  perhaps  have  succeeded  in  winning  the 
one  vote  they  lacked,  but  unfortunately  one  of  their  number » 
the  English  Robert  of  Somercote,  died  in  the  conclave.  The 


576  CELESTINE  IV  vm 

conditions  attending  his  death  were  disgusting,  as  can  well  be 
imagined.  While  he  was  still  alive  the  soldiers  flung  him  into 
a  corner  to  die,  sang  mocking  songs  at  him  and  spat  on  him  and 
left  him  without  medical  attention  or  the  rites  of  the  Church. 
When  the  purgatives  which  he  had  taken  began  to  act  they 
dragged  him  on  to  the  roof,  and  there  in  public,  in  full  view  of 
the  Eternal  City,  the  poor  man  relieved  the  last  necessities  of 
nature. 

The  Englishman's  death  removed  the  last  hope  of  a  two- 
thirds  majority,  and  finally  all  agreed  to  choose  an  outsider. 
But  the  Senator  Orsini  would  have  none  of  him.  He  wanted 
to  parade  the  new  Pope  at  once  before  the  Roman  people.  He 
began  to  storm  and  rage,  and  threatened  if  the  choice  did  not 
fall  on  one  of  those  present  he  would  dig  up  Pope  Gregory's 
corpse  and  put  it  in  the  council  chamber  to  complete  the  misery 
of  the  half-dead  cardinals.  Further,  he  would  carry  the  Cross 
through  the  city  and  massacre  every  adherent  of  the  imperial 
party.  The  cardinals  after  what  they  had  already  gone  through 
had  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  was  prepared  to  put  these  threats 
into  execution,  so  at  last  after  two  months*  deliberation  they 
decided  in  favour  of  the  Milanese  Godfrey,  whom  the  Emperor 
also  had  supported.  He  ascended  the  papal  throne  as 
Celestin  IV. 

Whatever  hopes  centred  in  the  name  of  Celestin, "  whom  God 
himself  had  sent  down  from  his  table  in  Heaven, "  as  Frederick 
later  phrased  it,  the  Pope  himself  died  on  the  seventeenth  day 
of  his  pontificate,  before  he  had  even  been  consecrated.  He 
had  fallen  ill  at  the  conclave,  and  his  only  act  as  Pope  was  an 
unsuccessful  effort  to  excommunicate  Matthew  Orsini. 

A  new  conclave  was  necessary.  The  cardinals  did  not  wait. 
Terror  seized  them  at  the  thought  of  a  repetition  of  what  they 
had  suffered  and  still  were  suffering  from.  Some  of  them  fled 
the  town  and  took  refuge  in  AnagnL  The  three  anti-Kaiser 
cardinals  remained,  as  well  as  Cardinal  John  Colonna  whom  the 
Senator  had  captured  and  imprisoned  after  the  close  of  the 
conclave.  The  feud  between  Orsini  and  Colonna  continued 
thereafter  for  generations. 


THE  PRISONER-CARDINALS  577 

The  College  of  Cardinals  was  thus  dispersed.    Four  were  in 
Rome,  four  in  Anagni,  two  still  in  the  Emperor's  hands.    How 
could  a  new  Conclave  be  held  ?     It  was  not  possible  to  agree 
even  on  a  meeting  place.    Negotiations  on  this  point  dragged 
on  for  months  between  the  Anagni  and  the  Roman  group. 
Those  in  Anagni  refused  emphatically  to  return  to  Rome  and 
those  in  Rome  would  not,  or  could  not,  on  any  terms  leave  the 
city.     No  progress  was  made,  and  the  fault  lay  chiefly  at  the 
door  of  Senator  Orsini.    The  world  did  not  grasp  the  reason 
for  the  long  delay,  but  noted  only  the  fact  that  the  cardinals 
were  not  choosing  a  Pope.    Abuse  began  to  be  heard  on 
all  sides,  contemptuous  rhymes  suggested  that  the  fathers 
should  toss  for  the  tiara.    Another  suggested  Frederick  II  as 
Pope.    Frederick  was  reproaching  the  cardinals  for  not  con 
cluding  the  election.    In  the  summer  of  1 242  the  Emperor  even 
advanced  on  Rome  ostensibly  "  to  free  his  friends  the  car 
dinals,"  for  since  two  of  the  pro-Kaiser  cardinals  had  died  it 
was  important  to  Frederick  at  least  to  set  John  Colonna  at 
liberty  again.    This  demonstration  against  Rome  was  without 
result,  however,  and  a  year  later  the  position  was  still  unchanged. 
In  these  circumstances  the  Emperor's  two  prisoner-cardiiials 
assumed  great  importance.    The  College  of  Cardinals  was  not 
only  scattered  but  sorely  depleted,  especially  as  yet  another 
cardinal,  one  of  the  war  party,  Romanus  of  Porto,  died  of  the 
consequences  of  the  Conclave  of  Terror.    The  two  groups  of 
cardinals  in  Rome  and  Anagni  joined  the  prisoners  in  de 
manding  their  release  so  that  the  election  might  proceed.    The 
moment  had  come  for  Frederick  to  turn  his  valuable  hostages 
to  the  best  account,  with  practical  wisdom  and  slow  deliberation. 
One  of  the  captive  cardinals,  Jacob  of  Palestrina,  was  a  bitter 
enemy.    The  other,  Otto  of  St.  Nicholas,  had  begun  by  being 
hostile,  but  Frederick  had  been  so  successful  in  casting  his  spell 
upon  him  that  Otto  became,  like  Cardinal  Colonna,  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  Emperor.    Negotiations  for  the  release  of  the 
cardinals  appear  to  have  begun  at  the  time  of  the  first  conclave, 
and  Frederick  was  probably  willing  enough  to  release  Otto  of 
St.  Nicholas  on  the  condition,  it  is  true,  that  Otto  would  return 
if  not  himself  appointed  Pope.    These  negotiations  were  now 
re-opened,  with  the  result  that  Frederick  brought  himself  to 


578  SINIBALDO  FIESCO  vm 

set  Cardinal  Otto  free,  the  more  readily  that  Colonna's  im 
prisonment  had  left  the  pro-Kaiser  party  without  a  leader. 
Otto  was  now  to  go  and  use  in  the  Emperor's  favour  his  in 
fluence  on  the  College  of  Cardinals  ;  he  quitted  his  prison 
richly  laden  with  gifts. 

No  conclave  followed.  All  through  the  winter  of  1242-3  the 
negotiations  dragged  on.  In  the  spring  the  Emperor  again 
undertook  a  campaign  against  Rome  to  waken  up  the  cardinals 
there,  but  abandoned  it  with  speed  when  they  complained  that 
the  imperial  troops  were  blocking  the  roads  and  preventing 
their  joining  their  colleagues  in  Anagni.  This  complaint  was 
wholly  baseless,  but  Frederick  withdrew  at  once  to  avoid  even 
the  appearance  of  interfering  with  the  papal  election.  From 
the  same  motive  he  ultimately  released  Palestrina  on  receiving 
certain  assurances  from  the  College. 

Matters  seemed  now  beyond  measure  favourable  for  the 
Emperor.  In  return  for  the  release  of  the  cardinals—"  and 
that  without  ransom  "  as  a  chronicler  admiringly  records — 
Frederick  was  promised  the  immediate  withdrawal  of  the 
Lombard  legate  Gregory  of  Montelongo  whom  he  hated. 
They  had  probably  also  agreed  on  their  choice  of  a  Pope,  while 
Frederick  on  his  part  had  promised  to  restore  the  Patrimonium 
and  release  the  remaining  prisoners  if  a  persona  grata  were 
elected.  Frederick  could  anticipate  the  result  of  the  election 
with  equanimity.  He  had,  it  seemed,  played  his  cards  to  the 
very  best  advantage.  He  was,  therefore,  not  at  all  surprised 
to  learn  that  at  a  brief  Conclave  at  Anagni  on  June  25th,  1243, 
the  Genoese  Sinibaldo  Fiesco,  Count  of  Lavagna,  had  been 
unanimously  elected. 

Joyfully  the  Emperor  announced  a  few  days  later  that  now 
the  general  peace  of  the  Christian  world  was  assured,  the  welfare 
of  the  Empire  and  the  friendship  between  father  and  son  were 
guaranteed,  since  the  chosen  Pope  was  one  "  of  the  noble  sons 
of  the  Empire,  and  has  ever  been  well-disposed  towards  us 
in  word  and  deed."  Frederick  ordered  thanksgiving  services 
throughout  his  Sicilian  kingdom  and  wrote  in  the  same  vein 
his  congratulations  to  the  new  Pope,  who  assumed  the  name  of 
Innocent  IV  :  he  was  a  noble  scion  of  the  Empire  and  was  now 
chosen  as  a  new  father  to  his  old  friend,  and  his  god^inspired 


i243  INNOCENT  IV  579 

name  of  Innocent  was  a  pledge  of  the  protection  he  would  accord 
to  innocence.  The  noblest  representatives  of  Frederick's 
Court,  the  new  German  Grand  Master,  Gerard  of  Malperg,  the 
imperial  Admiral  Ansaldus  de  Mari,  Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  and 
Piero  della  Vigna  were  despatched  as  imperial  ambassadors  to 
convey  Frederick's  congratulations  in  person  to  the  new  Pope. 

One  of  the  nobler  sons  of  the  Empire  !  That  the  new  Pope 
was,  though  the  Ficschi  could  hardly  be  reckoned  among  the 
pro-imperialist  families  of  Genoa.  But  Sinibaldo  Fiesco  who 
long  ago,  after  studying  and  teaching  in  Bologna,  had  spent  his 
early  prebendary  years  in  Parma,  was  intimately  related  to  the 
best  known  partisans  of  Frederick  II.  Parma  itself  was  always 
an  imperialist  town  of  which  the  Emperor  himself  was  podesta. 
Bernard  Orlando  di  Rossi  of  Parma,  a  brother-in-law  of  Pope 
Innocent  IV,  was  even  a  godfather  of  Frederick's,  and  might 
be  accounted  a  leader  of  the  Ghibelline  party.  And  Sinibaldo 
Fiesco's  favourite  nephew,  Hugo  Boterius,  the  son  of  a  sister 
who  was  married  in  Parma,  was  devoted  to  the  Emperor  in 
genuine  affection  and  admiration,  till  his  death  and  after. 
Frederick  attached  at  all  times  great  importance  to  blood- 
related  hostages,  so  that  the  new  Pope's  Ghibelline  relations 
carried  great  weight  with  him. 

At  last  Frederick  saw  a  Pope  with  Ghibelline  propensities  in 
Peter's  Chair,  and  might  with  some  justice  consider  this  man, 
whom  he  himself  had  chosen ,  as  a  personal  friend  or  at  least  no 
enemy.  Though  not  like  the  Roman  Colonna  a  passionate 
partisan  of  Frederick's,  this  polished  Genoese  with  his  urbane 
manners  and  non-committal  courtesy  might  certainly  be 
reckoned  as  one  of  the  friendly  cardinals.  Warm  partisanship 
would  have  been  out  of  character  in  this  citizen  of  a  seaboard 
trading  town,  who  weighed  in  the  balance  the  things  of  this 
world,  shrewdly,  with  heart  of  ice.  In  addition,  he  was  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  jurists  of  the  day,  extremely  cultured  and 
the  author  of  a  famous  commentary  on  the  decretals.  In 
Frederick's  eyes  all  this  was  ;n  his  favour.  The  Emperor  saw 
with  relief  at  last  a  completely  unbigoted  priest,  a  man  who  saw 
things  naked,  as  they  are,  without  mysticism  or  exaggeration, 
a  man  entirely  free  from  passion,  ecstasy  or  fanaticism,  a  man 
the  absolute  antithesis  of  Gregory  IX,  who  was  fire  and  passion 


58o  CONTRAST  WITH  GREGORY  Viu 

personified.  True,  Fiesco  lacked  also  the  regal  bearing  and 
gesture,  the  commanding  majesty  of  Gregory  ;  he  lacked  the 
dauntless  personal  courage  of  that  indomitable  greybeard.  He 
was  in  his  own  way  daring  and  unscrupulous  enough,  as  a 
physical  coward  often  is  when  he  knows  his  own  skin  is  safe. 
The  motto  of  the  wily  Genoese  was  eminently  expressive  : 
sedens  ago. 


It  is  easy  to  understand  that  after  a  struggle  of  fourteen 
years  with  Gregory  IX,  Frederick  II  should  have  sought 
at  all  costs  to  avoid  the  election  of  another  wild  fanatic. 
The  courteous  Cardinal  Fiesco,  politician  rather  than  priest, 
with  his  worldly  interests  and  free-thinking  mind  seemed  by 
contrast  a  friend.  In  all  this  Frederick  was  right.  His  terrible 
mistake  lay  in  thinking  that  a  sober,  intellectual  Ghibelline  was 
less  dangerous  on  the  papal  throne  than  a  fanatic,  that  a  half- 
friend  was  preferable  to  a  whole-enemy.  When  he  recognised 
this,  too  late,  he  exclaimed  "  No  Pope  can  be  a  Ghibelline  !  " 
"  Woe  when  the  Pope  is  a  Ghibelline  !  "  would  have  been 
better,  for  the  Pope  now  wielded  the  same  weapons  as  Frederick 
himself.  The  Emperor  might  often  have  cried,  as  Napoleon 
did  of  Blucher  "  He  has  learnt !  "  It  might  in  a  sense  be  true 
to  say  that  Innocent  IV  was  Frederick's  most  remarkable  pupil. 
From  the  immensely  many-sided  achievement  of  Frederick,  the 
Pope  had  broken  off  merely  a  single  splinter,  had  copied  one 
only  of  the  methods  of  his  master's  genius,  but  this  with  clear 
intent  he  practised  and  perfected  and  turned  deliberately 
against  the  Hohenstaufen  :  the  concentration  of  all  forces  to 
one  end,  unhampered  by  pity  or  piety  or  scruple.  Whereas  the 
Emperor's  lack  of  scruple  was  wedded  to  the  passion  of  a  creator 
building  anew  world,  Innocent  IV's  was  a  practical  "  method," 
coolly  devoted  to  the  annihilation  of  one  man,  whose  existence 
threatened  to  shatter  the  foundations  of  an  age-old  institution. 

The  one-sided  efficiency  of  the  Genoese  speedily  brought  a 
kind  of  anti-climax  to  the  mighty  struggle  which  had  raged 
between  Frederick  and  Gregory.  The  fight  against  the  poli 
tician  Innocent  was  of  a  wholly  different  quality  from  that 
against  the  priest,  and  lacked  all  fruitful  mutually-stimulating 


A  NEW  PHASE  581 

elements.  The  struggle  was  now  wholly  a  mundane  one.  All 
spiritual  tension  between  Emperor  and  Pope  gradually  died 
out :  though  some  survived  between  the  Emperor  and  his 
adherents.  A  consequence  was  that  the  previous  methods  of 
attack  failed  Frederick.  Other  symptoms  also  indicated  that 
the  quarrel  had  entered  its  last  phase  :  Frederick  was  suddenly 
driven  into  the  defensive.  His  passages  of  arms  with  Pope 
Gregory  had  often  enough  been  forced  on  him,  but  they  always 
were  fights  in  a  cause  where  he  was  willing  to  fight.  His  finest 
achievements  were  the  product  of  this  duel  which  brought  his 
gifts  to  their  full  fruition.  Now,  however,  the  Emperor  found 
himself  continually  in  check  to  his  opponent,  and  driven  to 
fight  a  battle  which  he  had  not  foreseen  and  did  not  want.  lie 
lost  enthusiasm  and  the  fighting  lost  its  meaning*  lie  was  no 
longer  the  champion  of  a  given  world-order  willed  by  God,  but 
was  spending  his  strength  merely  in  self-defence.  The  one 
thing  he  craved  was  peace  ;  and  peace  was  the  one  thing  denied* 

Frederick's  delicate  web  of  diplomacy  had  accomplished  the 
forbidden  thing  and  influenced  the  papal  election.  He  now 
saw  on  the  papal  throne  the  cardinal  he  wanted,  whose 
Ghibelline  relations  stood  in  some  measure  surety  for  him.  It 
does  not  appear  to  have  struck  him  just  at  first  that  if  the  Pope 
were  able  to  effect  a  change  of  atmosphere  in  Parma  these 
hostages  might  prove  a  Nemesis.  Frederick  had  blunted  his 
favourite  weapons,  the  intellectual.  For  the  resources  of  an 
individual  are  more  quickly  exhausted  than  those  of  a  system 
such  as  the  Papacy.  His  fantastic  faith  in  himself  as  Caesar, 
in  his  unchangeably  victorious  star,  in  his  divine  mission,  is 
now  fraught  with  doom.  His  faith  does  not  lose  its  strength, 
even  though  the  mission  is  fulfilled,  even  though— to  quote 
Goethe — "  Every  remarkable  man  has  a  certain  mission  to 
fulfil.  When  it  is  accomplished  he  has  outlived  his  usefulness 
on  earth  .  .  .  and  the  Fates  lay  for  him  snare  after  snare.  So 
with  Napoleon  and  with  many  another/' 

The  name  chosen  by  the  new  Pope  might  have  given 
Frederick  more  than  a  hint  of  the  line  that  Innocent  IV  was 
likely  to  pursue,  but  it  was  long  before  he  allowed  himself  to 
be  convinced  that  Innocent  was  not  the  whole-hearted  friend 
whom  he  had  hoped  at  all  costs  to  find.  Frederick's  chief 


VIII 


582  GAINED  AN  ENEMY 

weapon  had  broken  in  his  hands  :  he  had  not  been  fighting 
against  Church  or  Papacy  but  against  "  the  unworthiness  of  the 
present  Bishop  of  Rome/'  He  had  perhaps  succeeded  during 
his  duel  with  Gregory  IX  in  convincing  the  world  that  this  was 
so  ;  he  could  not  hope  a  second  time  to  distinguish  the  office 
from  the  office-bearer.  If  the  Pope  was  not  to  be  the  personal 
enemy  then  he  must  be  the  personal  friend  of  the* Emperor. 
Frederick  II  flung  himself  into  an  imaginary  friendship  of  long 
standing  with  Sinibaldo  Fiesco  and  enthusiastically  proclaimed 
it  to  all  the  world,  hoping  thus  to  call  a  friendship  into  being. 
He  wanted  to  be  friends  with  the  new  Pope  and  by  sheer  force 
of  will  to  compel  him  to  goodwill,  and  doggedly  he  clung  to 
the  belief  that  this  Genoese  would  free  him  from  the  ban  and 
give  him  peace.  Even  when  appearances  looked  black  against 
Fiesco  the  Emperor  held  to  his  optimism,  and  sought  the  cause 
of  unsuccessful  negotiations  everywhere  else  rather  than  in  lack 
of  goodwill  on  the  part  of  this  Pope  whose  election  he  had 
secured.  Later,  when  he  realised  the  full  irony  of  the  situation, 
he  turned  against  himself  the  bitter  wit  that  he  loved,  and 
penetratingly  remarked  that  in  the  Cardinal  he  had  lost  a  friend 
but  thereby  gained  an  enemy  in  the  Pope.  Without  an  enemy 
a  man  like  Frederick  II  would  have  ceased  to  be. 


It  seems  probable  that  Pope  Innocent  at  first  genuinely 
wanted  peace.  For,  as  recent  events  had  testified,  the  war 
which  had  so  heavily  taxed  the  Emperor's  resources  had  pressed 
even  more  severely  on  the  Church.  A  certain  amount  of  pre 
liminary  negotiation  with  the  cardinals  had  preceded  the  papal 
election,  and  discussion  was  resumed  immediately  after  the 
Pope's  enthronement.  We  need  only  pick  out  the  essential 
facts  from  these  wearisome  and  complicated  negotiations. 

The  first  thing  to  note  is  the  conciliatory  spirit  of  the  Em 
peror.  He  made  one  concession  after  another  to  shake  off  at 
last  the  burden  of  the  ban.  It  was  soon  manifest  that  an 
amicable  solution  would  not  be  easy  to  find,  and  the  Pope 
embarked  on  a  double  game.  He  did  not  abandon  the  serious 
negotiations,  he  fought  every  point  with  Frederick's  envoys, 
but  at  the  same  time  he  endeavoured  to  evade  the  peace  question 


NEGOTIATIONS  583 

altogether.  Frederick  had  sent  to  the  Pope  as  his  represen 
tatives  Piero  della  Vigna  and  Thaddeus  of  Sftessa,  by  far  the 
most  experienced  diplomats  of  his  court  and  skilled  in  every 
variety  of  subterfuge.  With  them  was  associated  the  indefati 
gable  and  ever-faithful  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo  to  hold 
a  watching  brief  for  the  ecclesiastical  issues.  These  three 
imperial  envoys  were  released  from  the  ban  in  order  that  they 
might  treat  with  the  Pope,  Innocent  had  rejected  Frederick's 
proposal  that  the  negotiations  should  be  conducted  at  the  im 
perial  court ;  he  knew  too  well,  and  feared,  the  Emperor's 
eloquence  and  his  power  over  men. 

A  great  deal  of  the  business  was  quickly  and  easily  disposed 
of.  The  Emperor  had  always  recognised  the  papal  authority 
in  spiritual  affairs  and  acquiesced  unconditionally  therein.  He 
declared  himself  prepared  to  render  any  satisfaction  to  any 
degree  that  the  Church  might  demand  :  alms,  pious  founda 
tions,  even  the  penance  of  fasting.  When  he  had  received 
absolution  he  was  prepared  to  restore  the  Church's  Patrimony 
on  condition  of  himself  being  the  Advocate,  in  exchange  for 
which  privilege  he  was  ready  either  to  pay  interest  far  exceeding 
the  actual  revenue  or  to  undertake  the  re-conquest  of  the  Holy 
Land  at  his  own  expense.  This  would,  however,  have  been  a 
new  victory  for  Frederick,  and  Innocent  refused  to  entertain 
the  suggestion.  In  this,  as  in  every  agreement  between 
Emperor  and  Pope,  the  most  difficult  question  of  all  was  that 
of  Lombardy.  Frederick  took  his  stand  on  the  indisputable 
fact  that  his  excommunication  by  Gregory  IX  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  Lombard  question  and  that  his  absolution  should 
not  depend  on  it.  Innocent  was  perfectly  aware  that  the 
Emperor's  legal  position  was  unassailable  and  that  in  any  legal 
discusssion  the  Papacy  would  be  the  loser.  On  the  other  hand 
neither  he  nor  any  other  Pope  could  afford  to  sacrifice  the 
Lombard  alliance.  Moreover,  the  Milanese  were  nervous  about 
a  hasty  peace,  which  was  sure  to  be  unfavourable  to  them,  and 
Innocent  had  reassured  them  by  a  promise  not  to  negotiate 
without  them. 

Innocent's  hands  were,  in  fact,  tied  by  Gregory's  agreement 
with  Venice,  Genoa,  Piacenza  and  Milan,  that  none  of  the  con 
tracting  parties  should  conclude  a  separate  peace.  The  Pope, 


584  CARDINAL  RAINER  vm 

therefore,  demanded  that  the  Emperor  should  accord  peace 
to  the  whole  Christian  world,  not  only  to  a  part.  The  Emperor 
was  prepared  for  this,  and  after  some  hesitation  announced  that 
he  was  anxious  not  to  let  all  the  negotiations  be  shipwrecked 
on  this  one  reef,  and  that  as  regarded  the  Lombards  he  would 
be  willing  to  revert  to  the  situation  as  it  had  been  at  the  moment 
of  his  excommunication  in  1239.  Just  as  t"1^s  concession 
seemed  about  to  secure  an  agreement  an  event  occurred  which, 
for  the  moment,  interrupted  all  discussions.  The  loyal  town 
of  Viterbo  suddenly  yielded  to  papal  machinations  and 
deserted  the  Emperor, 


It  is  quite  possible  that  the  defection  of  Viterbo  at  this  par 
ticular  moment  was  not  wholly  welcome  to  the  Pope.  He  had 
not  himself  directly  brought  it  about,  though  he  knew  what  was 
going  on.  The  anti-Kaiser  cardinals  had  good  reason  to  dis 
trust  a  peace.  Their  leader  was  the  fanatic  Rainer  of  Viterbo, 
a  man  of  the  school  of  Innocent  III  and  Gregory  IX,  who  hated 
Frederick  with  all  the  fire  and  passion  of  the  dead  Pope.  He 
was  a  soldier  by  instinct  and  one  of  the  first  cardinals  of  Rome 
to  win  glory  and  honour  in  the  field  as  warrior  and  general. 
The  one  thing  he  dreaded  was  peace.  He,  therefore,  made  it 
his  business  so  to  widen  the  breach  that  in  future  any  com 
promise  with  this  hated  Emperor  (whom  at  one  time  he  had 
revered  and  even  loved)  should  be  impossible.  He  devoted 
himself  to  this  task  with  singleness  of  heart.  Cardinal  Rainer 
of  Viterbo  was  the  cause  of  all  the  most  grievous  breaches  of 
faith  of  which  the  Church  was  guilty,  the  author  of  the  most 
venomous  and  malicious  pamphlets  to  which  this  quarrel  gave 
birth.  He  had  his  way. 

With  the  assistance  of  some  friends  he  had  long  intended  to 
organise  a  rising  of  his  native  town  of  Viterbo  against  the 
Emperor,  though  he  was  by  no  means  unpopular  there.  Pope 
Innocent  was  not  in  favour  of  this  scheme,  but  gave  the  car 
dinal  ambiguous  powers  to  work  in  the  Tuscan  Patrimonium 
for  the  advantage  of  the  Church.  The  Pope  was  thus  covered 
and  yet  had  avoided  a  breach  with  the  cardinals,  who  had  grown 
somewhat  too  independent  during  the  papal  vacancy.  If  the 


1243  DEFECTION  OF  VITERBO  585 

enterprise  were  successful  it  might  always  be  turned  to  advan 
tage.  The  revolt  was  successful.  The  imperial  garrison  had, 
perhaps  too  precipitately,  retreated  into  the  citadel  of  Viterbo, 
where  they  could  hold  out  for  several  weeks.  The  populace 
in  general  looked  on  indifferently.  Those  citizens  who  were 
imperial  partisans  were  overcome  after  heavy  fighting. 

Frederick  was  in  Melfi  when  he  got  the  news  of  the  loss  of 
Viterbo.     "  He  leapt  like  a  lioness  robbed  of  her  young  or  a 
she-bear  bereft  of  her  cubs.    Clothed  in  the  fire  of  his  wrath 
he  rushed  like  a  midnight  tornado  to  punish  the  town  ;  like  a 
courier  for  speed  he  rode,  and  with  no  royal  pomp.    Mounted 
on  a  red  horse  he  came  to  snatch  peace  from  the  earth."    Thus 
Rainer  describes  the  Emperor's  coming.    He  hastily  gathered 
an  army  of  Apulians  and  of  his  ever-ready  Saracens  and  dashed 
to  Viterbo.    At  the  same  time  he  sent  the  alarm  to  the  Vicars 
General  of  the  surrounding  provinces  to  bring  their  town 
infantry  to  his  help  without  delay.    He  thus  got  together  a  fair 
army  in  a  short  time,  but  the  interval  was  sufficient  to  give  the 
people  of  Viterbo,  egged  on  by  Rainer,  opportunity  to  throw 
up  strong  entrenchments.    On  a  certain  Sunday  the  imperial 
forces  mustered  for  the  attack.    The  ever-resourceful  Piero 
della  Vigna  helped  to  organise  the  troops.    The  Emperor  in 
person  led  one  wing  against  the  entrenchments,  the  second  was 
commanded  by  the  young  Count  of  Caserta.    In  spite  of  spirited 
attacks  however — the  Emperor  leaped  from  his  horse  and  seiz 
ing  a  square  shield  wrathfully  led  the  charge — the  strong  town 
was  not  to  be  taken  by  storm.     Siege  machinery  had  to  be 
fetched.     Some  weeks  later  the  attack  was  renewed  at  dawn. 
In  an  attempt  to  employ  Greek  fire  against  the  fortifications 
one  of  the  attacking  towers  caught  fire.    The  wind,  which  at 
first  had  been  blowing  the  flames  against  the  town,  suddenly 
veered,  so  that  the  other  attacking  towers  caught  fire  and  were 
finally  burnt  to  ashes.    This  second  attempt  was,  therefore, 
unsuccessful. 

The  Pope  chose  this  moment  to  resume  the  negotiations. 
He  was  impelled  to  this  because  friends  of  the  Emperor's,  the 
Count  of  Toulouse  and  the  Emperor  Baldwin  of  Constantinople, 
were  working  at  the  papal  court  for  peace,  and  the  Viterbo 
question  was  causing  Innocent  uneasiness,  for  it  wore  an  air 


586  MASSACRE  OF  VITERBO  vm 

of  illegality.  He,  therefore,  despatched  Cardinal  Otto  of  St. 
Nicholas,  the  Emperor's  new  and  trusty  adherent,  to  Frederick 
to  come  to  terms  about  Viterbo.  He  was  possibly  empowered 
to  offer  the  Emperor  absolution  on  more  favourable  terms 
if  he  would  abandon  his  attacks  on  the  town.  Frederick  had 
no  wish  to  embark  on  a  second  prolonged  siege  like  Faenza. 
Moreover,  since  Viterbo  was  situated  in  papal  territory,  he 
would  have  to  give  it  up  again  as  soon  as  he  was  released  from 
the  ban,  and  peace  now  seemed  at  hand.  He  quickly  came  to 
terms  with  his  friend  Cardinal  Otto  and  agreed  to  withdraw 
into  Apulia,  stipulating  that  the  half-starved  imperial  garrison 
should  be  allowed  to  go  free.  This  agreement  was  ratified  also 
by  the  people  of  Viterbo  on  oath.  Then  the  unforgivable 
occurred.  Cardinal  Rainer,  haunted  by  visions  of  the  hated 
peace,  hounded  the  citizens  of  Viterbo  against  the  exhausted 
garrison,  and  as  the  imperialists  sought  to  leave  the  city  they 
were  cut  down  almost  to  a  man,  though  Cardinal  Otto  sought 
to  control  the  mob  and  with  his  own  body  strove  to  stay  the 
slaughter. 

Frederick  II  knew  perfectly  that  Rainer  of  Viterbo  was  the 
sole  culprit.  This  flagrant  breach  of  the  cardinal  Js  oath  shocked 
him  profoundly :  it  undermined  his  faith  in  all  human 
statutes.  It  was  not,  he  wrote  to  Otto,  the  massacre  of  his 
people  nor  the  injury  to  himself  that  so  deeply  moved  him  ;  he 
must  beg  to  know  "  What  expectations  can  we  have  of  success 
if  human  good  faith  is  so  despised,  if  all  shame  is  cast  aside,  if 
conscience  is  powerless,  if  no  respect  is  paid  to  the  honour  of 
spiritual  fathers  !  What  bond  will  hold  amongst  men  ?  To 
whom  can  we  look  for  reconciliation  in  so  serious  a  quarrel,  in 
which  almost  the  whole  world  is  involved,  if  the  promise  of  a 
holy  legate,  nay,  of  a  cardinal — a  name  which  should  be  vener 
able  amongst  the  peoples — is  suddenly  violated  ?  "  The  catas 
trophe  was  monstrous.  Frederick  at  first  could  scarcely  realise 
it.  It  was  a  foretaste  of  what  was  yet  to  come.  His  wrath 
against  Rainer  and  the  people  of  Viterbo  was  unbounded. 
Ten  years  before  he  had  enquired  of  Michael  Scot  whether  hate 
would  not  suffice  to  give  the  soul  power  to  return  after  death. 
He  is  said  now  to  have  prayed  that  his  bones  might  arise  from 
the  dead  to  destroy  Viterbo  ;  he  could  not  slake  his  thirst  for 


1244  PROVISIONAL  PEACE  587 

blood  unless  he  might  fire  the  town  with  his  own  hand,  and 
though  he  had  one  foot  in  Paradise  he  would  withdraw  it  to 
take  vengeance  on  Viterbo,  Only  for  the  sake  of  the  world- 
peace  which  was  now  at  stake  he  would  turn  the  key  on  righteous 
wrath  and  lock  his  just  grievances  in  his  heart.  Thus  he  wrote 
to  Cardinal  Otto,  freely  exonerating  both  him  and  the  Pope. 

The  events  in  Viterbo  appeared  to  cause  the  Pope  great  pain. 
He  exacted  a  fine  from  the  town,  and  to  ensure  its  collection 
he  entrusted  the  execution  of  the  sentence  to  :  Cardinal  Rainer. 
He  also  commanded  the  release  of  the  surviving  ill-treated 
imperialists.  With  the  Cardinal's  connivance  the  order  was 
disobeyed,  and  Innocent  blandly  apologised:  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  put  the  matter  right,  but  he  did  not  want  to  risk 
the  loss  of  the  town  that  had  so  recently  been  (so  treacherously) 
recovered.  In  face  of  such  effrontery  did  Frederick  still  fancy 
Innocent  his  friend  ?  Apparently  he  did.  He  still  relied  on 
the  Pope's  fair  dealing  and  wrote  that  he  hoped  through  him 
to  arrive  at  peace  and  compass  his  own  release  from  the  ban. 


King  Louis  of  France  was  now  directly  interesting  himself 
in  the  peace  negotiations,  which  set  them  moving  again.  On 
both  sides  an  effort  was  made  to  settle  knotty  points  in  order 
that  when  Maundy  Thursday  came  again  the  Emperor 's  name 
might  no  longer  appear  on  the  Pope's  list  as  an  outcast  son 
of  the  Church.  An  elaborate  formula  with  detailed  clauses  of 
reservation  had  been  evolved  to  meet  the  Lombard  difficulties  : 
the  Pope  was  to  appoint  the  satisfactions  to  be  rendered,  but 
without  prejudice  to  the  imperial  rights  in  Lombardy.  On 
Maundy  Thursday  1244  a  provisional  peace  was  sworn,  the 
final  form  of  which  was  still  held  over.  The  ceremony  was 
public  and  was  performed  by  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  Piero 
delta  Vigna  and  Thaddeus  of  Suessa  in  presence  of  the  Car 
dinals,  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  the  Senator  and  the 
people  of  Rome.  The  Pope  on  his  part  named  the  Emperor 
in  a  public  sermon  as  "  a  devoted  son  of  the  Church  and  a 
believing  Prince/'  Both  sides  were  thus  committed,  and 
Frederick  II  joyfully  acclaimed  the  event  in  addressing  his 
son  Conrad.  He  also  informed  the  German  princes  and 


588  BREAKDOWN  vm 

invited  them  to  a  Diet  at  Verona  for  a  date  to  be  determined 
later. 

Everything  now  seemed  in  equilibrium,  but  Pope  Innocent 
had  still  the  task  of  expounding  the  arrangement  to  the  Lom 
bards.  Their  envoys  arrived  in  Rome,  saw  the  draft  treaty  and 
rejected  it.  They  demanded  that  the  Pope  and  the  Pope  alone, 
should  have  unconditional  and  unlimited  power  to  settle  their 
differences  with  the  Emperor.  Frederick  II  refused  to  go  back 
on  the  conditions  already  sworn.  Innocent  thereupon  made 
arbitrary  alterations  in  the  fair  copy  of  the  treaty  intended  for 
ratification  ;  Frederick  refused  to  accept  them.  Hesitations 
on  the  Pope's  part  followed.  Suddenly  the  wind  veered.  It 
was  no  longer  a  question  of  the  Lombards.  The  Emperor  was 
to  restore  the  territories  of  the  Church  before  his  absolution. 
With  all  his  complaisance  the  Emperor  could  not  concede  this 
point.  Who  would  be  his  surety  that  he  would  be  absolved  ? 
The  Pope  had  no  need  of  sureties,  for  he  could  again  excom 
municate  the  Emperor  if  he  failed  to  restore  the  Patrimonium 
according  to  treaty,  and  the  status  quo  ante  would  be  restored. 
It  would  have  been  madness  for  the  Emperor  to  throw  away 
his  weightiest  security— especially  after  the  Viterbo  experience. 
This  phase  of  the  negotiations  is  important,  for  the  Pope  now 
accused  Frederick  of  perjury  for  refusing  to  evacuate  the  papal 
territories  before  receiving  absolution.  No  time  had  been 
specified  for  the  evacuation,  simply  because  it  was  self-evident 
that  it  was  to  follow  the  Emperor's  release  from  the  ban, 

Frederick  II  now  requested  a  personal  interview  with  the 
Pope  and  suggested  their  meeting  in  the  Campagna.  He  would 
forthwith  surrender  this  section  of  the  Patrimonium.  Inno 
cent  suspected  treachery.  He  feared  that  the  Emperor  intended 
to  get  possession  of  his  person.  He  first  refused,  then  suddenly 
accepted,  but  preferred  to  meet  at  Narni  rather  than  in  the 
Campagna.  The  Emperor,  therefore,  moved  to  Terni,  while 
Innocent  with  his  court  quitted  Rome  and  halted  first  in  Civita 
Castellana,  sending  Cardinal  Otto  to  the  Emperor.  The  sub 
sequent  negotiations  were  a  pure  mockery  on  the  Pope's  part. 
He  agreed  to  Frederick's  wish  that  he  should  repair  to  the 
Campagna.  Frederick  II  had  probably  received  some  dis 
quieting  information  and  wanted  to  have  the  Pope  near  at  hand. 


I244  FLIGHT  OF  POPE  589 

He  was  building  everything  on  a  personal  interview.    Before 
this  took  place  the  difficulties  solved  themselves  in  another  way. 

Since  Innocent  had  recognised  that  no  negotiations  could 
end  in  a  manner  wholly  satisfactory  to  the  Curia  he  had  planned 
his  flight.    He  did  not  love  the  clash  of  weapons.    Suppose 
that  the  negotiations  finally  broke  down,  suppose  that  war 
broke  out  again,  suppose  that  he  were  still  in  Rome.  .  .  .    The 
events  of  Gregory's  clay  might  repeat  themselves  ;  the  capital 
might  be  besieged.    The  Genoese  was  taking  no  risks.    Though 
he  was  Pope  he  had  hidden  in  one  of  the  back  rooms  of  the 
Lateran  for  days  and  not  ventured  to  appear  at  meals,  because 
he  feared  the  faithful  in  some  matter  of  ^S000-    How  would 
he   have   borne   himself  at  the   approach   of  armed   men  ! 
Throughout  the  negotiations  with  the  Emperor,  Innocent  had 
been  only  playing  for  time  to  complete  his  preparations.  ^  As 
soon  as  he  was  apprised  that  all  was  in  order  he  fled  from  Civita 
Castcllana  to  Sutri ;  thence  by  night,  in  disguise,  accompanied 
only  by  a  few  followers,  to  Civita  Vecchia,  where  a  number  of 
Genoese  galleys  lay  at  anchor  ready  to  sail  as  arranged  by  him 
weeks  before.    While  the  Emperor  awaited  his  arrival  m  Narni 
he  put  out  to  sea  in  the  dawn  of  a  certain  morning.    The  story 
ran  that  imperial  horsemen  were  hunting  for  the  Pope.     On 
the  7th  of  July,  1244,  Innocent  landed  in  his  native  town  of 
Genoa,  where  he  was  enthusiastically  welcomed.    He  was 
seriously  ill  from  excitement  and  anxiety.    He  remained  some 
months  in  Genoa  to  recuperate,  but  he  did  not  there  feel  him 
self  safe  enough.    In  the  late  autumn  he  left  the  town ,  and  after 
a  severe  winter  journey  arrived  in  Lyons  in  the  beginning  of 
December.    This  town  nominally  belonged  to  the  Empire  but 
was  really  independent.    Here  Innocent  IV  remained  until  his 
opponent  was  dead.    It  was  the  lever  de  rideau  for  Avignon. 

"  I  was  playing  chess  with  the  Pope  and  was  about  to  mate 
him  or  at  least  to  take  a  castle  when  the  Genoese  burst  in, 
swept  their  hand  across  the  board  and  wrecked  the  game." 
In  these  words  Frederick  II  announced  to  the  Pisans  a  few 
weeks  later  what  had  occurred.  He  was  deeply  moved  by  his 
opponent's  flight.  He  was  normally  mistrustful  enough  ;  this 


590  TURKS  IN  JERUSALEM  vm 

time  he  had  trusted  too  long,  and  for  the  first  time  had  been 
deceived  and  beaten  on  his  own  field  of  diplomacy.  He  knew 
only  too  well  that  it  was  no  victory  for  him  to  have  driven  the 
Pope  to  quit  Rome  and  Italy.  With  one  manoeuvre  Innocent 
had  captured  a  whole  series  of  important  positions,  and  the 
consequences  of  this  flight— his  only  personal  exploit— would 
forthwith  be  felt  in  many  directions.  The  Pope  had  only  been 
able  to  escape  the  persecutions  of  a  savage  tyrant  by  speedy 
secret  flight :  such  was  the  interpretation  put  on  the  matter  by 
many.  Innocent  did  his  best  to  confirm  this  view  by  posing 
as  a  luckless  fugitive,  a  hapless  exile  whose  life  was  endangered 
by  a  crazy  Emperor.  He  was  surrounded  by  guards  to  protect 
him  against  imaginary  assassins.  In  contrast  to  the  Pope's 
later  procedure  Frederick  never  intended  to  employ  poison  or 
dagger.  The  Church  was  not  dependent  as  was  the  Empire 
on  the  life  of  one.  A  new  Pope  would  have  replaced  the 
murdered  one  and  the  Church  would  have  gained  a  martyr. 
"  Who  in  his  senses  would  imagine  that  we  would  seek  the 
death  of  one  whose  death  would  bring  undying  strife  on  us  and 
our  successors  !  "  Even  yet  the  Emperor  did  all  in  his  power 
to  end  the  quarrel,  but  it  was  far  more  difficult  to  exert 
pressure  on  the  Curia  when  the  Curia  was  not  in  Rome. 

The  flight  to  Lyons  had  not  only  rescued  the  Pope  from  the 
fruitless  fluctuations  of  the  negotiations  but  had  given  him 
personal  liberty.  He  was  practically  beyond  the  Emperor's 
reach.  Lyons,  instead  of  Rome,  became  the  focus  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  without  let  or  hindrance  the  Pope  could 
get  into  immediate  touch  with  all  the  world.  The  Emperor 
could  no  longer  cut  his  communications.  He  was  able  from 
Lyons  to  summon  the  Council  which  Frederick  had  prevented 
four  years  ago.  Within  a  few  weeks  of  his  arrival  the  Pope 
invited  the  princes  of  the  Church  and  the  ambassadors  of  the 
kings  for  the  Feast  of  St.  John  1245  to  a  Synod  to  arrange  for 
the  deposition  of  Kaiser  Frederick. 

A  possibility  of  peace  again  presented  itself.  Through  the 
folly  of  the  Christian  knights  in  the  Holy  Land  Jerusalem 
had  been  conquered  in  August  1244  by  a  Turkish  tribe,  the 
Khwarizmi,  and  for  ever  lost  to  Christendom,  This  misfor 
tune  demanded  co-operation  between  the  two  powers,  Empire 


PEACE  AT  ANY  PRICE  591 

and  Papacy,  and  the  Patriarch  Albert  of  Antioch,  supported  on 
all  sides,  undertook  the  difficult  task  of  bringing  about  a  recon 
ciliation.  Above  all  Frederick  wanted  peace.  The  terms  he 
now  offered  were  equivalent  to  a  complete  surrender  :  the  Pope 
should  arbitrate  unconditionally  on  the  Lombard  question, 
Frederick  would  evacuate  the  Patrimonium ;  he  would  depart 
for  three  years  to  the  Holy  Land  to  reconquer  it ;  he  would  not 
return  earlier  without  the  Pope's  express  permission  ;  he  would 
forfeit  all  his  territories  if  he  broke  his  vow  ;  he  would  appoint 
kings  and  princes  as  his  sureties.  King  Louis  of  France,  who 
had  also  taken  the  Cross,  supported  Frederick  by  refusing 
permission  to  the  Pope  to  reside  in  France.  Innocent  could 
hardly  hold  out  longer  without  himself  appearing  as  the  dis 
turber  of  the  peace.  On  the  6th  of  May,  1245,  ^e  commis 
sioned  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  who  was  with  the  Emperor, 
to  release  him  from  the  ban  if  the  conditions  were  fulfilled. 

It  is  not  completely  clear  why  Frederick  II  was  suddenly 
prepared  for  such  a  capitulation  ;  at  one  point  he  even  con 
templated  abdicating  in  King  Conrad's  favour  and  going  to  the 
East  for  good.  His  position  was  certainly  growing  more  and 
more  difficult ;  he  was  now  fifty  years  of  age  and  the  craving  for 
peace  must  have  become  overmastering.  The  phase  of  life  is 
clearly  visible  in  his  constant  toying  with  the  thought  of  going 
to  the  East  for  a  long  period  :  or  for  ever.  Besides,  for  his 
heirs'  sake  he  wanted  peace  lest  the  quarrel  should  become 
immortal  for  his  successors.  He  himself  could  defy  the  world  ; 
he  could  hardly  ask  his  successors  to  do  the  same.  The  fall  of 
the  Empire  seemed  to  lie  ahead  unless  an  end  could  be  put,  at 
whatever  sacrifice,  to  this  quarrel. 


Frederick  was  spared  this  humiliation.  Once  again  the  war 
like  manes  of  Gregory  IX  awoke.  Cardinal  Rainer  of  Viterbo, 
on  whom  had  fallen  the  mantle  of  Gregory's  hate,  succeeded 
in  dashing  to  the  ground  the  last  possibility  of  peace.  Pope 
Innocent  intended  to  hold  his  Council  in  Lyons  in  June.  It 
happened  that  Frederick  had  invited  the  German  princes  for 
the  same  date  to  a  diet  in  Verona.  In  April  1245,  while  the 
Patriarch  of  Antioch  was  still  wrestling  for  peace,  the  Emperor 


592  SAVAGE  PROPAGANDA  vm 

set  out  from  Apulia  with  his  whole  court  and  a  large  army  and 
marched  north.  His  route  lay  through  the  Papal  State,  close 
by  Viterbo.  He  could  not  refrain  from  laying  waste  at  least 
the  country  round  Viterbo  and  even  indulging  in  a  short  siege. 
On  the  representations  of  the  Patriarch  that  hostilities  would 
imperil  the  negotiations  that  were  in  train  he  at  last  consented 
to  move  on.  He  did  so  on  that  very  6th  of  May  which  Innocent 
had  appointed  for  his  absolution. 

Now  Cardinal  Rainer  had  been  left  behind  as  the  Pope's 
vicegerent  in  Italy.  He  had  followed  with  deep  vexation  the 
course  of  the  Patriarch's  overtures,  which  appeared  likely  to 
bear  fruit.  As  Frederick  II  devastated  the  Viterbo  domains 
it  happened  that  the  imperial  troops  here  and  there  crossed  into 
papal  territory.  This  gave  Rainer  of  Viterbo  a  pretext  for 
again  wrecking  the  threatening  peace  ;  he  made  a  report  to  the 
Pope,  and  under  his  pen  these  trifling  trespasses  became  a 
serious  breach  of  the  treaty.  At  the  same  time  he  despatched 
numerous  pamphlets  to  the  prelates  assembling  in  Lyons,  all 
of  which  bore  the  hall-mark  of  the  school  of  Gregory  IX, 

These  pamphlets  of  Rainer  of  Viterbo  were  destined  to  fix 
for  all  time  the  hostile  portrait  of  Frederick  II  as  the  della 
Vigna  letters  fix  the  contrasting  portrait  for  his  friends.  In  his 
decree  of  deposition  Pope  Innocent  only  reproduces  in  moder 
ated  terms  and  with  more  coherence  the  contents  of  Cardinal 
Rainer's  unbridled  and  hate-ridden  pamphlets.  Pope  Gregory's 
awe-inspiring  manifesto  of  excommunication  was,  in  com 
parison,  a  mild  and  harmless  document.  The  Pope  had  been 
the  first  to  treat  Frederick  II  as  an  apocalyptic  figure.  Rainer 
utilised  all  the  terrifying  imagery  of  the  Revelation  and  the 
Prophets  to  prove  that  Frederick  was,  in  fact,  the  forerunner  of 
Antichrist.  All  previous  accusations  are  raised  to  a  monstrous 
and  inhuman  power,  each  one  is  corroborated  by  the  phrases 
of  the  prophets  employed  with  savage  fury.  No  single  feature 
of  Antichrist  must  be  missing  ;  all  must  be  found  in  Frederick's 
life.  Rainer  rehearses  all  Frederick's  activities,  and  finds  in  all 
symbols  of  the  Antichrist :  his  friendship  with  the  Muhammadan 
princes,  from  whom  he  accepts  gifts  in  spite  of  their  slaughter  of 
the  Christians  ;  the  heretical  sayings  of  his  courtiers,  repeated 
as  his  own ;  the  existence  of  the  Saracen  colony ;  the  outrages 


HEROD  AND   NERO  593 

committed  by  these  warriors,  who  are  alleged  to  violate  Chris 
tian  women  and  girls  before  the  altar  of  their  God  ;  the  murder 
of  Pope  Gregory  and  of  his  own  imprisoned  son,  all  these 
crimes  are  laid  at  Frederick's  door.  Further,  it  is  recounted 
how  he  had  kept  his  three  consorts  (the  third  of  whom  had 
recently  died)  imprisoned  in  "  the  labyrinth  of  his  Gomorrah," 
and,  finally,  had  poisoned  them ;  how  he  and  his  warriors  spread 
death  and  destruction  throughout  the  world,  how  he  savagely 
pursued  even  the  prelates  with  his  ships.  *'  But  because  his 
accursed  raging  and  his  fearsome  stiff-necked  wrath  are  like 
unto  the  foaming  sea  that  cannot  rest  but  stirs  up  with  its 
waves  the  mud  and  slime  in  the  eyes  of  all  that  see ,  he  charged 
against  the  Lord  with  the  uplifted  neck  of  his  pride  and  with 
the  broad  shoulders  of  his  riches  and  his  power  he  destroyed 
the  cities,  ravaged  the  habitations  and  recked  so  little  of  men 
that  he  slew  them  like  lambs.  But  the  foe  and  the  pursuer  set 
his  hand  to  yet  worse  evil.  He  carried  the  war  further  against 
the  saints  and  constrained  them.  Lifting  himself  up  against 
Heaven  he  flung  down  from  the  firmament  and  from  the  stars 
the  holy  ones  of  the  Most  High  and  tore  them  in  pieces.  He 
hath  three  rows  of  teeth  in  his  jaws,  for  the  monks  and  the 
clerks  and  the  innocent  laity,  and  mighty  claws  of  iron  hath  he, 
and  some  he  hath  devoured,  consigning  them  to  death,  and 
others  he  hath  slain  with  other  torments,  and  the  remnant  he 
hath  trampled  in  his  dungeons  under  foot.  Hell-hound  shall 
he  be  called  like  Herod,  yet  Herod  thought  only  to  slay  the 
Christ,  while  this  man  blasphemes  the  body  of  the  Lord  and 
strives  to  overturn  the  law  of  God  and  hath  slaughtered  exalted 
members  of  the  clergy.  Crueller  than  Nero  shall  he  be  known, 
for  Nero  slew  the  Christians  because  they  sought  to  abolish  the 
worship  of  his  idols,  but  this  man  is  crueller  and  baser  than 
Julian  the  Apostate  who  seeketh  to  destroy  the  faith  he  doth 
himself  prof ess/ ' 

Every  deed  that  Frederick  had  wrought  marks  him  as  Anti 
christ  :  the  closure  of  Sicily  and  the  passport  regulations  are 
tokens  of  Satan,  and  now  this  glorification  of  his  own  person. 
"  And  thus  this  new  Nimrod,  a  raging  hunter  before  the  Lord, 
steeped  in  vice,  who  loveth  the  lying  word,  hath  as  his  servants 
abandoned  men  who  delight  the  king  with  their  wickedness, 


594  BLASPHEMER  vm 

and  with  lies  rejoice  their  prince.  ...  He  despises  the  ban  and 
gulps  down  his  punishments  like  water  from  a  brimming  gob 
let  and  misprises  the  power  of  the  Keys,  this  Prince  of  Tyranny, 
this  overthrower  of  the  Church's  faith  and  worship,  this  de 
stroyer  of  precept,  this  master  of  cruelty,  the  transformer  of  the 
times,  this  confounder  of  the  earth,  this  scourge  of  the  universe. 
He  is  like  unto  the  fallen  angels  who  would  fain  be  the  equals  of 
God  and  seat  themselves  on  the  mountains  of  the  Most  High. 
Like  Lucifer  he  essayed  to  scale  the  heavens  to  establish  his 
throne  above  the  stars  and  the  candlesticks  of  the  Bride,  and  his 
seat  over  against  midnight,  that  he  may  be  equal  to,  yea  higher 
than,  the  vicegerent  of  the  Most  High.  And  while  he  sits 
like  Very  God  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord  he  alloweth  priests  and 
bishops  to  kiss  his  very  feet,  and  while  he  commandeth  that 
they  shall  call  him  holy,  he  hath  all  them  beheaded  as  enemies 
of  the  State  and  as  blasphemers  who  dare  to  utter  truth  about 
his  manifest  untruths.  When  the  apostolic  chair  long  time 
stood  empty,  the  heart  of  this  evil  prince  became  uplifted  to 
the  destruction  of  the  Church,  and  like  the  Prince  of  Tyre  he 
would  fain  have  sat  upon  the  seat  of  God  as  if  he  were  God 
indeed,  and  he  sought  himself  to  choose  the  High  Priest  and 
to  fasten  his  yoke  upon  the  apostolic  chair,  and  had  in  mind  to 
break  the  right  divine  and  to  alter  the  eternal  precept  of  the 
Gospel.  Since  he  hath  in  his  forehead  the  horn  of  power  and 
a  mouth  that  bringeth  forth  monstrous  things,  he  thinketh  him 
self  enabled  to  transform  the  times  and  the  laws  and  to  lay 
truth  in  the  dust,  and  hence  he  blasphemed  against  the  Highest 
and  uttered  contumelies  against  Moses  and  against  God." 

The  aim  of  these  half-insane,  abusive  trumpetings  was  to 
cause  the  priests  assembled  in  Lyons  to  forget  the  very  pos 
sibility  of  peace  and  induce  them  to  agree  to  Frederick's 
deposition.  "  Sacred  vessels  and  holy  places  dedicated  to  God 
hath  he  put  to  shameful  uses,  as  of  old  Belshazzar  the  Baby 
lonian  defiled  the  vessels  of  the  temple  of  Jehovah  what  time 
the  prophetic  finger  wrote  on  the  wall  mene  tekel  upharsiny  who 
in  that  same  night  lost  his  Empire  and  his  life.  This  criminal 
deserves  no  less  to  lose  his  kingdom  of  the  Church."  Cardinal 
Rainer  quotes  dozens  of  biblical  parallels,  "The  men  of  Beth- 
shemesh  were  destroyed  because  they  looked  upon  the  ark  of 


DESTROY  THE  BABYLONIAN  595 

the  covenant ;  Uzzah  was  slain  because  with  unclean  hand  he 
sought  to  support  the  ark  of  the  Lord ;  Uzziah  the  king,  who 
sought  symbolically  to  burn  incense  on  the  altar  of  incense,  was 
marked  with  leprosy  on  his  forehead,  and  the  word  of  the  priest 
drave  him  from  his  throne  ;  Korah,  the  shameless,  with  his 
kindred  was  devoured  by  fire  because  he  sought  to  snatch  the 
privilege  of  the  priesthood.  Of  a  truth  whoever  could  be 
proven  to  have  transgressed  the  law  of  Moses  was  without 
mercy  condemned  to  death/'  How  much  more  does  Frederick 
deserve  such  a  fate  :  "  Have  therefore  no  pity  for  the  ruthless 
one  !  Cast  him  to  the  ground  before  the  face  of  the  kings  that 
they  may  see  and  fear  to  follow  in  his  footsteps  !  Cast  him 
forth  out  of  the  holy  place  of  God  that  he  may  rule  no  longer 
over  Christian  people  !  Destroy  the  name  and  fame,  the  seed 
and  sapling  of  this  Babylonian  !  Let  mercy  forget  him  !  " 

Cardinal  Rainer  knew  how  to  get  his  effects.  The  pamph 
lets  contain  nothing  doctrinal,  nothing  about  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pope  over  the  Emperor,  no  learned  hair-splittings.  In  the 
main  their  contents  consisted  in  rehearsing  the  Emperor's  well- 
known  behaviour  with  interpretations  which  turned  everything 
Caesarean  into  anti-Christian.  How  ripe  the  moment  was  for 
such  bogeys  needs  no  elaboration.  The  appearance  of  Anti 
christ  had  been  independently  and  confidently  predicted  for 
the  year  1260,  and  we  recall  how  the  dawn  of  this  year  of  terror 
brought  the  outbreak  of  the  Flagellants  throughout  Europe. 
Rainer  of  Viterbo  played  for  his  own  ends  on  the  unreasoning 
terror  which  this  event  inspired.  The  Emperor's  downfall  was 
the  goal  of  his  existence.  When  the  Council  met  in  Lyons  at 
the  end  of  June  men  lent  a  willing  ear  to  these  extravagant 
outbursts. 


Frederick  II  was  also  summoned  to  appear  in  Lyons,  though 
it  is  true  that  the  Pope  had  only  indirectly  invited  him  in  the 
course  of  a  sermon.  The  position  was  an  impossible  one  :  the 
Roman  Emperor  could  not  appear  as  the  accused  before  a 
council  consisting  almost  wholly  of  hostile  bishops.  If  he  had 
appeared  escorted  by  an  army  the  situation  would  have  become 
even  more  acute.  Frederick,  moreover,  knew  nothing  of  the 


596  DIET  OF  VERONA  vm 

altered  atmosphere  produced  by  Rainer's  reports  and  writings, 
and  still  imagined  that  his  position  was  favourable.    At  the  end 
of  May  1245  he  reached  Parma  on  his  march  to  Verona,  and 
from  thence  he  despatched  his  representative  and  advocate  to 
Lyons,  the  tried  and  trusty  Thaddeus  of  Suessa.    We  know 
frankly  nothing  about  this  renowned  jurist  and  orator.    He 
may  have  been  a  replica  on  a  smaller  scale  of  Piero  della  Vigna  ; 
his  name  indicates  that  he  was  a  native  of  the  Campagna.    He 
was  always  one  of  Frederick's  most  faithful  adherents  and  was 
killed  fighting  his  battles.    This  man  was  now  entrusted  with 
the  most  responsible  and  difficult  task  that  can  be  conceived — the 
hopeless  defence  of  his  master  before  a  court  of  hostile  priests. 
While  Thaddeus  journeyed  to  Lyons  Frederick  proceeded 
to  Verona.    Here,  after  many  years,  he  again  met  Eccelino,  and 
here  King  Conrad  with  the  nobles  of  Germany  awaited  his 
father.     The  most  important  business  before  the  Verona  Diet 
was  the  Austrian  situation.    Frederick  was  contemplating  a 
marriage  with  the  heiress  of  the  last  of  the  Babenbergs  and  was 
prepared  to  create  Austria  a  kingdom  in  return  for  his  bride. 
The  papal  Curia  had  other  plans  for  the  Duke's  daughter,  and 
apparently  succeeded  in  terrifying  Gertrude  of  Austria  at  the 
thought  of  marrying  the  excommunicated  Aoitichrist.     One  of 
Rainer's  pamphlets  represented  Frederick  as  a  Bluebeard  who 
had  already  murdered  three  wives,  and  some  legate  would 
appear  to  have  put  this  in  her  hands.     However  this  may  be, 
the  seventeen-year  old  girl  refused  at  the  last  moment  to  follow 
her  father  to  Verona.    So  this  Austrian  scheme  fell  through. 
When  the  Duke  died  in  the  next  year  1246  Austria  was  annexed 
as  a  vacant  imperial  fief  and  administered  by  a  Vicar  General. 
This  was  the  last  Diet  of  Frederick's  at  which  the  German 
princes  put  in  an  appearance,  and  there  were  already  serious 
gaps  in  the  ranks.     King  Conrad,  Frederick's  son  and  heir, 
remained  some  weeks  with  the  Emperor  ;  it  was  the  last  time 
his  father  saw  him.    The  boy  was  only  seventeen,  but  he  had 
matured  early  according  to  the  Hohenstaufen  habit ;  joyless 
years  of  inglorious  fighting  lay  before  him  in  which  in  spite  of 
his  ability  he  could  only  hold  his  own.    All  that  was  brilliant 
in  Frederick  seems  to  have  been  handed  on  to  his  bastard  sons, 
and  beside  Enzio,  Manfred,  Frederick  of  Antioch,  the  fate  of 


I245  COUNCIL  OF  LYONS  597 

the  legitimate  heirs  seems  drab  indeed.    Burdens  too  heavy  to 
be  borne  had  been  laid  on  their  young  shoulders. 

From  Verona  the  Emperor  sent  an  embassy  to  Lyons  to 
bring  the  new  peace  proposals.    An  arrangement  had  been 
made  with  Thaddeus  of  Suessa  that  the  Emperor  would  halt 
in  Turin  in  July  so  as  to  be  the  nearer  to  Lyons  in  case  of  a 
reconciliation  with  the  Pope  for  which  he  still  hoped.    When 
he  left  Verona  in  haste  on  the  8th  of  July,  later  than  had  been 
agreed  upon,  the  first  two  meetings  of  the  Council  were  over. 
The  Council  was  not  well  attended.    Innocent  Ill's  Lateran 
Council  had  rallied  405  ;    scarcely  150  prelates  attended  at 
Lyons.    The  German  and  Hungarian  bishops  were  absent 
almost  to  a  man,  so  were  the  Sicilians,  for  Berard  of  Palermo 
attended  only  in  his  capacity  of  Emperor's  representative  ;  very 
few  Italians  appeared.    There  remained  only  the  clergy  of 
England  and  of  France  to  be  the  Emperor's  judges,  and  the 
bishops  of  Spain,  who  since  the  sea-encounter  of  1241  nourished 
an  indescribable  fury  against  Frederick,  though  they  were  the 
only  victims  who  escaped.    After  their  arrival  in  Genoa  the 
Spaniards  had  at  once  written  to  the  Pope,  Gregory  IX,  to  take 
every  possible  step  against  Frederick  II,  for  he  is  setting  a  bad 
example  to  other  kings.    Nevertheless,  the  Council  styled  itself 
$  "  General  Council,"  though  Frederick  sturdily  disputed  its 
claim  to  the  title.    According  to  the  testimony  of  friend  and 
foe,  Thaddeus  of  Suessa's  defence  of  his  master  during  the 
sittings  of  the  first  two  days  was  brilliant.     Cardinal  Rainer 
had  summarised  the  various  accusations  under  the  incongruous 
title  of  "  lese  majesty."    His  reasoning  appears  to  have  been 
somewhat  on  these  lines  :    the  clergy  are  members  of  the 
Church,  hence  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ ;   the  majesty 
of  Christ  is  above  the  majesty  of  man ;  whoever,  therefore, 
injures  a  priest  is  guilty  of  lese  majesty.    We  need  not  pursue 
in  detail  the  defence  of  the  High  Court  Judge.     By  the  end  of 
the  second  day  the  most  important  thing  that  he  had  accom 
plished  was  the  adjournment  for  twelve  days  of  the  final  session. 
He  was  awaiting  plenary  powers,  or  even  the  Emperor's  per 
sonal  attendance,  for  Frederick  had  already  reached  Turin. 
Not  to  appear  intransigeant  Pope  Innocent  agreed  to  the  delay. 
He  did  not,  however,  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  envoys.    All 


598  DEPOSITION  vin 

that  was  necessary  had  been  arranged  in  secret  session  with  the 
prelates,  and  the  blow  was  timed  to  fall  on  the  iyth  of  July. 

The  concluding  session  of  the  Council  was  introduced  like 
the  earlier  ones  by  a  solemn  ceremonial.  The  Pope  sat  on  a 
raised  throne  in  the  choir  of  the  Cathedral  church  of  Lyons, 
the  nave  of  which  was  filled  with  archbishops  and  abbots.  A 
few  serious  complaints  of  the  English  prelates  against  the 
money-hunters  of  the  Curia,  a  topic  unwelcome  to  the  Pope, 
were  speedily  disposed  of.  The  refusal  of  Thaddeus  of  Suessa 
to  recognise  the  assembly  as  a  General  Council  was  "  humbly 
and  benevolently  "  waved  aside  by  the  Pope.  Protests  on 
Frederick's  behalf  by  envoys  of  the  French  and  English  kings 
received  no  hearing,  and  the  Patriarch  of  Aquileia,  venturing  to 
take  up  the  Emperor's  defence,  was  threatened  with  the  loss  of 
his  ring  if  he  broke  silence. 

Thereupon  the  Pope  read  the  decree  of  deposition.  Frede 
rick  had  been  proved  guilty  of  perjury,  breach  of  the  peace, 
sacrilege  and  heresy.  He  was  perjured  because  he  had  not 
fulfilled  the  treaty  sworn  in  Rome  ;  he  had  repeatedly  broken 
the  peace  with  the  Church ;  he  had  committed  sacrilege  in 
taking  prisoner  the  prelates ;  and,  finally,  he  was  a  heretic  who 
was  even  yet  bound  in  the  bonds  of  friendship  to  the  Saracen 
kings  ;  he  had  put  his  consorts  in  the  charge  of  eunuchs  ;  he 
had  permitted  Muhammad  to  be  proclaimed  in  the  Temple  of 
the  Lord  at  Jerusalem  ;  he  had  utilised  Saracens  as  warriors 
against  Christians  ;  he  had  entered  into  marriage  relations  with 
the  schismatic  Emperor,  John  Vatatzes  ;  he  had  cleared  princes 
from  his  path  by  assassins  ;  he  had  caused  the  sacred  mysteries 
to  be  celebrated  in  his  presence  when  he  was  excommunicate. 
Apart  from  the  irregularities  of  his  harem  he  despised  the 
morals  and  manners  of  a  Catholic  prince,  and  took  no  pains  to 
secure  his  good  repute  or  the  salvation  of  his  soul  by  pious 
deeds ;  he  gave  no  alms  ;  he  was  ready  enough  to  destroy 
churches  and  oppress  the  clergy,  but  he  had  built  neither  church 
nor  cloister,  neither  hospital  nor  any  other  pious  building.  In 
virtue,  therefore,  of  his  papal  power  to  bind  and  to  loose,  the 
Pope  declared  this  Emperor,  so  sunk  in  sin,  deposed — and  his 
territories  released  from  their  allegiance.  A  new  Emperor  must 
be  chosen.  Whereupon  Pope  and  Prelates  extinguished  the 


1245  FINAL  METAMORPHOSIS  599 

torches  which  they  bore,  and  while  Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  weep 
ing  and  beating  his  breast,  left  the  cathedral  with  the  other 
supporters  of  the  Emperor,  Pope  and  Prelates  intoned  the 
Te  Deum. 

With  pain  and  wrath  and  scorn  Frederick  received  the  news. 
How  could  the  Roman  Emperor,  the  Lord  of  all  majesty,  be 
accused  of  lese-majesty  and  deposed  !  Sternly  he  bade  them 
bring  his  royal  treasure.  Choosing  amongst  his  many  crowns 
he  selected  one  and  himself  placed  it  on  his  head  and  grimly 
remarked  :  he  had  not  yet  lost  his  crowns  and  would  not  let 
papal  baseness  nor  council's  decree  rob  him  of  them  without 
most  bloody  battle.  His  position  now,  he  said,  was  better  than 
before.  Previously  he  had  to  obey  the  Pope,  now  he  was  free  ; 
without  obligations. 

Pope  Innocent  himself  had  saved  Frederick  from  a  second 
Canossa,  from  a  humiliating  peace  and  a  decline  from  the 
heights  of  Empire.  The  pamphlets  had  unwittingly  pointed 
the  way  which  the  last  Emperor  of  the  Roman  Empire  no  longer 
hesitated  to  tread.  In  Lyons  they  had  called  him  "  Proteus," 
who  was  not  to  be  caught  because  he  constantly  changed  his 
form.  He  was  now  ready  for  the  final  metamorphosis  thrust 
on  him.  Something  of  that  northern  defiance  and  northern 
horror  which  formed  part  of  his  make-up  now  found  vent,  when 
Frederick  II,  whom  men  had  called  Antichrist  and  Scourge  of 
the  World,  turned  to  his  followers  with  a  new  saying  :  c<  I  have 
been  anvil  long  enough  .  .  .  now  I  shall  play  the  hammer  !  " 


IX.  ANTICHRIST 

Dual  interpretation  of  Frederick's  life Frederick's  pos 
terity Satellite    giants :    Eccelino,    Guido    of    Sessa, 

Hubert  Pallavicini "  Labour  of  Love  "  :  to  purge  the 

Church Reform  manifestos Pope's  counter-activi 
ties Increasing  savagery  of  Frederick Lure  of  the 

East Conspiracy   of   intimates,   1246 Distrust    of 

subordinates Punishment    of    conspirators Com 
plicity    of    Pope Henry    Raspe Italy   partitioned 

amongst    the    Hohenstaufen March    on    Germany ; 

threat     to     Lyons Defection     of     Parma "  The 

Cardinal  " Siege    of    Parma Saracens   as    execu 
tioners Victoria Defeat    before   Parma Money 

shortage German  knights  in  Italy German  influ 
ence  on  Renaissance  art Renewed  threat  to  Lyons 

Fall   of  Piero   della   Vigna Attempt   to    poison 

Frederick Piero  della  Vigna's  suicide Enzio  taken 

prisoner Manfred's  rise  and  fall Death  of  Enzio 

Conradin's  coronation Tagliacozzo  ;    Conradin's 

execution Curse     on     the     Hohenstaufen Parma 

avenged Death  of  Frederick,  December  13,  1250 

Burial  at  Palermo The  Frederick  myth 


IX.  ANTICHRIST 

"  Nemo  contra  Deum  nisi  Deus  ipse." 

"  Now  I  shall  be  hammer  !  "  This  was  the  characteristic  cry 
which  led  Nietzsche  to  hail  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen  as  "  one 
of  my  nearest  kin."  Nietzsche,  the  first  German  to  breathe 
the  same  air  as  Frederick,  took  up  the  cry  and  echoed  it. 
Frederick  had  struck  a  new  note,  and  passed  into  a  super 
natural  world  in  which  no  law  was  valid  save  his  own  need. 
He  had  long  realised  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  loose 
terrible  and  savage  forces  ;  he  shrank  from  it  and  had  sought 
to  avert  it  by  the  humblest  offers  of  peace,  even  by  complete 
submission  to  the  Pope ;  nay,  by  actual  abdication.  He  did  not 
seek  the  role  of  the  Scourge  of  God,  compelled  to  lay  the 
recalcitrant  "  between  hammer  and  anvil  and  to  smite  their 
obstinacy  with  blows  so  thick  that  they  shall  bow  their  necks 
to  the  yoke  of  commandment,  and  whatever  their  thoughts  may 
be,  shall  recognise  their  true  master." 

Innocent  IV  had  not  recognised  that  a  man  like  Frederick  II 
could  be  bound  only  by  fetters  of  his  own  forging  and  would 
take  on  him  the  yoke  only  of  his  own  choosing.  Innocent 
trusted  to  his  papal  power  of  binding  and  loosing,  to  excom 
munication  and  deposition,  and  had  thus  released  from  bondage 
the  Antichrist,  whom  the  Lord  himself  had  held  in  fetters  for 
a  thousand  years.  The  chains  had  worn  thin  ;  they  had  grown 
rusty ;  the  Pope  had  subjected  them  to  a  strain  too  great.  The 
"  Lord  of  the  World  "  might  polish  them  till  they  shone  like 
gold,  and  voluntarily  adorn  himself  therewith,  but  they  could 
not  bind  him  against  his  will.  He  laughed  them  to  scorn. 

Since  Antichrist  it  had  to  be,  Frederick  accepted  his  fate. 
All  that  had  gone  before  now  wore  an  air  of  preparation  and 
seemed  to  indicate  a  readiness  to  welcome  the  inevitable  with 
open  eye.  Though  he  had  been  (Frederick  wrote)  unalterably 
convinced  that  this  Pope,  like  all  others,  would  be  opposed  to 
him,  yet  he  had  worked  to  compass  the  elevation  of  Innocent. 

603 


604  HATE  ix 

Why  ?  "  Solely  in  order  that  our  hand  might  hold  him  whom 
we  should  overcome  or — if  the  fates  had  been  kinder — him 
whom  we  should  love  ?  " 

That  is  to  say  with  open  eyes  to  co-operate  with  mysterious 
fate,  to  create  his  own  foe  since  fate  so  willed.  This  is  the 
clearsighted  fatalism  of  the  man  of  action  :  a  survival  of  the 
heroic  age.  A  thousand  years  of  Christianity  lend  it  a  Christian 
colouring  :  almost  to  the  point  of  self-immolation  Frederick 
had  hoped  that  he  might  love  his  enemy.  But  the  Norns  which 
ruled  the  career  of  this  Hohenstaufen  recognised  no  such 
solution.  Love  was  barred  ;  he  must  fulfil  himself  through 
hate.  If  he  might  not  as  a  Saviour-Emperor  join  hands  with 
an  Angel-Pope  to  draw  the  peoples  under  the  gentle  yoke  of  an 
Emperor  of  the  End,  he  was  ready  with  scourge  and  sword, 
with  axe  and  halter,  to  compel  the  recreants  to  bow  under  the 
yoke.  "  Because  they  above  all  others  have  cut  us  to  the  HEART, 
therefore  shall  we  pursue  after  them  with  greater  zeal  and  fury, 
we  shall  the  more  mightily  deploy  our  powers  to  compass  their 
destruction,  we  shall  wield  the  sword  of  vengeance  the  more 
cruelly  against  them  .  .  .  and  the  HATE  that  consumes  us  will 
be  slaked  only  by  their  utter  annihilation." 

At  every  stage  of  his  career  it  was  clear  that  Frederick  was 
full  of  primeval  hate  for  any  disturber  of  his  sacred  order. 
Hatred  and  revenge — virtues  both  in  Frederick's  eyes — are 
characteristics  of  the  priest,  who  asks  quite  other  reparation 
from  the  desecrator  of  his  Holy  of  Holies  than  that  which  the 
warrior  exacts  from  his  enemy.  Hatred  and  revenge  are  quali 
ties  of  the  Justitia  and  of  the  judge  of  whom  it  is  said  "  the 
righteous  is  as  a  glowing  coal."  Frederick  II  was  the  sacred 
judge  in  a  degree  undreamt  of  by  Emperors  before  or  after  him, 
hence  gratitude,  tolerance,  kindness,  magnanimity,  had  no 
more  right  than  their  opposites  to  a  place  amongst  his  qualities. 
Gentleness  and  mercy  he  recognised  as  forces  at  the  disposal 
of  Justitia,  in  the  same  way  as  revenge  and  hate,  but  hence 
forward  he  displays  almost  exclusively  the  avenging  power  of 
the  state-founding  Justitia.  Hatred  becomes  to  him  the  breath 
of  life.  In  proportion  as  the  foe  no  longer  seeks  to  overthrow 
the  Emperor's  order,  but  aims  solely  at  his  person,  this  hate 
becomes  a  personal  imperative.  As  the  Scourge  of  God  he 


HAMMER  NOT  ANVIL  605 

recognises  no  law,  divine  or  human,  save  his  own  advantage 
and  his  own  caprice.  None  knew,  none  guessed  what  he  was 
fighting  for,  what  he  still  hoped  to  gain — perhaps  he  knew 
himself — except  the  assertion  of  his  own  personality.  He 
became  the  battle-cry  of  the  West ;  bloodier  and  more  savage 
than  before  the  strife  raged  through  the  Christian  world  round 
his  person  alone.  Never  before  in  Christian  times  had  one 
single  individual  achieved  such  personal  importance — Frederick 
the  man,  not  Frederick  the  Emperor.  Times  had  changed. 
Those  lofty  ideals  for  which  Frederick  had  fought  of  old  :  the 
rebirth  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  reign  ofjustitiay  the  mission 
of  World  Peace — at  most  their  distant  echoes  faintly  sounded, 
as  "  revolution  "  and  "  enlightenment  "  echoed  faintly  round 
Napoleon  in  his  last  years.  They  no  longer  supplied  the  driving 
force.  The  person  of  the  Emperor  was  now  the  World-Idea. 
If  Frederick  had  been  unable  thus  to  exalt  himself  the  Curia 
would  still  have  given  the  struggle  its  oecumenical  importance. 
With  magnificent  single-minded  concentration  the  Church  laid 
aside  all  other  tasks  and  devoted  her  entire  world-organisation 
to  the  destruction  of  one  man.  The  Church  magnified  the 
Hohenstaufen  into  a  giant.  The  Papacy,  with  all  the  forces  of 
all  the  countries  of  Europe,  was  now  fighting  not  the  Emperor 
nor  the  Empire,  but  one  demon  in  whom  all  the  evil  of  the 
world  was  incarnate,  one  Hohenstaufen,  by  name  Frederick. 
Only  once  again  has  the  world  seen  such  a  fight  against  a  single 
man  in  which,  perhaps,  greater  numbers  were  involved,  but 
scarcely  greater  forces,  the  final  death-grapple  with  Napoleon. 
This  was  the  atmosphere  in  which  Frederick  let  his  new  note 
be  heard.  The  air  of  Attila  was  round  him  which  he  alone 
could  breathe.  Attila's  mission  was  his,  which  none  but  he 
could  comprehend.  Instinctively  his  contemporaries  bestowed 
on  him  the  cognomens  that  Attila  had  borne,  "  Scourge  of  the 
Peoples,"  "  Hammer  of  the  World."  With  hushed  voices  his 
own  followers  styled  him  no  longer  merely  "  him  who  ruleth 
over  earth  and  sea  "  or  "  him  who  maketh  the  winds  of  heaven 
to  rejoice,"  but  "  him  whose  might  tramples  the  mountains 
and  bends  them."  All  Europe  suffered  terribly  under  him, 
friend  and  foe  alike,  Italy  and  Germany  more  particularly. 
Except  for  those  who  worshipped  and  followed  him3  Frederick 


606  ANTICHRIST   INDEED  K 

now  became  in  very  deed  the  incarnation  of  evil.     He  possessed, 
indeed,  a  capacity  for  evil  rare  in  a  ruler  of  his  greatness.    Nor 
has  any  man  ever  felt  a  greater  joy  in  ill-doing  than  Frederick 
in  the  role  the  hostile  Church  had  thrust  upon  him.    Where 
the  State  was  at  stake  Frederick  had  always  been  capable  of 
every  meanness  and  cunning,  of  every  violence  and  severity,  of 
every  deceit  and  ruse,  of  every  malice  and  of  every  scorn.    "  I 
never  reared  a  pig  but  I  was  prepared  to  eat  his  bacon  "  is  one 
of  his  sayings.    Hitherto  whatever  evil  he  had  done  had  been 
done  for  the  sake  of  the  State.     The  world  was  now  at  war 
over  the  body  of  the  Hohenstaufen.     State  necessity  had  of  old 
constituted  right :  now  his  personal  exigencies.    Law  was  bent 
to  his  will  not  to  serve  the  state  or  the  world  at  large  but  at  the 
apparent  bidding  of  imperial  caprice.     Theoretically  he  had 
often  proclaimed  that  the  welfare  of  the  Empire,  of  the  other 
peoples,  of  the  kings,  of  those  who  believed,  hung  upon  his 
private  weal  or  woe.    Every  act  of  his  now  appeared  more 
tyrannical,  more  monstrous,  and  was,  in  fact,  more  ruthless  since 
it  seemed  to  serve  the  preservation  of  one  single  individual. 
Just  because  Frederick  II  had  so  nearly  been  the  Saviour  (and 
indeed  in  the  eyes  of  the  faithful  still  was)  he  had  the  oppor 
tunity  to  be  the  very  Antichrist.     Since  as  a  priest  he  knew  all 
mysteries  no  mystery  was  safe  from  his  fearless  mocking  attack. 
No  spirit  among  all  the  thousand  demons  of  the  world  was  a 
stranger  to  his  cosmopolitan  mind.    All  the  supernatural  magic 
of  the  East  was  at  his  command  and  the  elusive  jinns,  and  all 
the  satanic  poisons  of  Italy  and  the  immeasurable  daring  of  the 
German  Mephistopheles,  who  crosses  the  Alps  "  and  believes 
that  all  is  his.' *    The  great  saying  of  Luther  might  well  have 
been  applied  to  him  :    "An  Italianised  German  is  the  devil 
incarnate  !  " 


It  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention  that  ecclesiastical  principles, 
excommunication  and  dethronement  decreed  by  a  Council, 
broke  powerlessly  against  this  genius  and  ruler  of  the 
Opposition-world  :  "  The  stones  hurled  by  the  papal  catapults 
were  changed  to  straw."  The  blasphemies  with  which  he  was 
credited  are  without  number ;  whether  authentic  or  not,  they 


BLASPHEMIES  607 

were  believed.  The  Church  in  her  own  defence  circulated  the 
wildest  exaggerations  and  the  most  fatuous  lies,  and  spread  them, 
more  widely  than  Frederick  in  speech  with  his  friends  could 
possibly  have  done.  Not  only  the  speech  about  the  three 
deceivers,  but  mockeries  about  the  sacraments  were  ascribed 
to  Frederick  as  to  every  heretic.  At  the  sight  of  a  cornfield  he 
is  said  to  have  remarked  with  jesting  reference  to  the  Eucharist : 
"  What  a  lot  of  gods  are  ripening  here  !  "  And  another  time, 
"  even  if  God  had  been  bigger  than  the  biggest  mountain  the 
priests  would  surely  have  devoured  him  before  now."  And 
when  he  saw  a  priest  bearing  in  haste  the  viaticum  to  a  dying 
man  :  "  how  long  will  this  humbug  continue  ?  "  It  is  known 
that  he  made  merry  over  the  virgin  birth  as  contrary  to  nature, 
and  that  he  denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Cardinal 
Rainer  was,  therefore,  not  without  some  justification  when  in 
his  pamphlets  he  asked :  What  was  to  restrain  the  Emperor  from 
the  most  devilish  infamy  since  he  had  no  craving  for  eternal 
bliss,  which  he  was  prepared  to  sacrifice  to  slake  his  thirst  for 
vengeance  in  the  blood  of  the  people  of  Viterbo,  and  since  he 
had  no  fear  of  helL  For  he  had  taught  his  courtiers  to  believe 
that  "  the  soul  passes  away  like  a  breath  and  is  consumed  like 
an  apple  plucked  from  off  the  tree,  man  and  apple  composed 
alike  of  the  four  juices." 

What  recked  he  of  the  Church's  means  of  grace — confession, 
penance,  absolution — since  he  and  his  astrologers  believed  in 
fate  determined  by  the  stars,  and  such  a  belief  in  fate  precluded 
remorse !  How  was  a  man  to  be  bridled  who  counted  human 
blood  as  naught,  who  could,  with  impunity,  hang  or  behead, 
drown  or  imprison  bishop,  monk  or  priest,  whom  men  re 
proached  for  pulling  down  churches  to  build  privies  in  their 
place  and  using  the  stones  for  fortresses  for  his  beloved 
Saracens  ! 

Councils  and  popes  could  certainly  now  erect  no  barriers 
that  Frederick  would  have  hesitated  to  break  down.  The  only 
limits  he  could  recognise  were  those  he  set  himself.  He  had 
taken  on  himself  a  new  mission,  the  office  of  Hammer  of  the 
World  and  Scourge  of  God  :  not  without  the  demonic  joy  of 
creative  genius  in  being  free  to  destroy  :  not  without  the  pain 
and  sorrow  of  preserving  genius  in  being  forced  to  destroy. 


608  SELF-RESTRAINT  ix 

Pope  Gregory  had  once  said  that  Frederick  loved  to  hear  him 
self  called  Antichrist ;  but  Frederick  had  endured  to  the  last 
limit  of  endurance  before  becoming  Antichrist  indeed.  He  was 
capable  of  any  sacrilege,  of  any  blasphemy,  of  any  depravity, 
but  whatever  rage  or  revenge  he  might  indulge  was  never 
wanton,  it  was  always  necessary  for  his  self-preservation,  and 
with  it  all  he  preserved  always  unimpaired  the  proud  gesture 
of  a  Caesar,  the  noble  bearing,  the  exalted  dignity  which  stooped 
to  nothing  mean,  the  self-control,  the  poise  that  became  a 
Christian  Caesar.  Woe  to  the  heretic  who  dared  to  draw  near 
him  as  a  "  fellow  heretic  !  "  He  remained  to  the  last  the 
Christian  Emperor  in  style  and  bearing,  without  prejudice  to 
his  personal  system  of  dogma.  "  Even  dogmatic  orthodoxy  is 
false  if  the  correct  bearing  is  lacking,"  he  once  wrote.  The 
phenomenon  was  remarkable  :  however  violently  his  terrible 
and  primitive  force  broke  forth  it  was  always  controlled  by 
the  restraint  of  a  Roman  Augustus,  who  might  tolerate  vice  but 
not  indiscipline.  He  once  described  his  own  ambition :  "  to 
repress  even  the  most  righteous  impulses  of  the  spirit,  and  in 
virtuous  self-discipline  to  preserve  a  Caesar's  calm."  Thus 
we  too  must  picture  him.  A  Scourge  of  God  not  in  the  aber 
rations  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  not  sunk  in  sinister  and  brooding 
gloom,  but  in  a  more  eerie  windless  calm,  the  detached  aloofness 
of  a  timeless  God,  Thus  under  the  figure  of  Caesar  Augustus, 
Kaiser  Frederick  is  reflected  two-fold  in  a  double  mirror  as 
Antichrist  and  as  the  Messianic  Judge. 

Caesar,  Messiah,  Antichrist :  these  are  the  three  fundamen 
tally  identical  manifestations  of  Frederick  II  since  Cortenuova, 
since  the  beginning  of  his  World  Rule.  He  remained  un 
changed  ;  only  the  fluctuations  of  circumstance  show  us  his 
form  lit  with  a  different  glow.  The  more  he  genuinely  approxi 
mated  to  a  Roman  Augustus  from  whom  salvation  was  to 
come  the  more  he  resembled  the  very  antithesis.  A  genuine 
Roman  Emperor  reincarnate  who  erected  statues  to  himself, 
inevitably  appeared  as  Nero  or  as  Antichrist  beside  the 
Galilean. 

The  whole  life  of  Frederick  II  could  be  interpreted  either 
in  the  Messianic  or  the  Anti-Christian  spirit.  The  Antichrist 
begotten  in  sin  shall  be  surrounded  by  astrologers  and  augurs, 


DUAL  INTERPRETATION  609 

wizards  and  magicians,  shall  re-introduce  demon  worship,  shall 
seek  personal  fame  and  call  himself  God  Almighty.  He  shall 
come  to  Jerusalem  and  set  up  his  throne  in  the  Temple.  He 
shall  restore  the  temple  of  Solomon,  and  shall  lie,  and  call 
himself  the  son  of  the  Almighty.  He  shall  convert  the  kings 
and  princes  and  through  them  the  peoples.  He  shall  send  his 
messengers  and  preachers  over  the  whole  earth,  and  his  message 
shall  reach  from  sea  to  sea,  from  East  to  West  and  from  South 
to  North.  With  him  the  Empire  of  Rome  shall  end.  He  shall 
accomplish  signs  and  wonders  and  unheard-of  deeds,  but  con 
fusion  shall  reign  upon  earth  the  like  of  which  was  not  before. 
When  men  shall  see  his  deeds  then  even  the  perfect  and  the 
chosen  of  God  shall  be  in  doubt,  whether  he  be  Christ  who 
shall  come  again  at  the  End  of  the  World  according  to  the 
scriptures  or  whether  he  be  Antichrist.  For  both  must  be 
like  and  equal. 

Frederick's  manners  and  methods  were  always  open  to  two 
interpretations.  His  menagerie  and  exotic  pomp  made  some 
to  think  of  a  world-king  who  ruled  over  all  beasts  and  kindreds 
and  tongues,  of  the  Messiah  under  whose  sceptre  all  the  animals 
of  earth  should  lie  together  in  peace  ;  while  some  saw  in  this 
train  of  owls  and  pards  and  dark-skinned  corybantes,  sweep 
ing  through  the  towns  of  Italy,  the  hosts  of  the  Apocalypse. 
Frederick  could  not  mount  a  horse  but  some  symbolic  meaning 
was  forthwith  attached  thereto  :  if  he  rode  a  white  horse  he 
was  aping  the  Saviour  and  was  accused  of  blasphemy  ;  if  a 
chestnut,  he  became  "  the  rider  on  a  red  horse  "  who  bringeth 
strife  ;  if  he  chose  a  dun,  he  was  death  :  and  if  he  was  mounted 
on  a  black  horse  men  trembled  before  the  judge  with  his 
balance.  Frederick  probably  aggravated  things  himself  by 
calling  his  favourite  horse  "  Dragon."  When  Cardinal  Rainer 
spoke  of  the  "  horn  of  power  in  his  forehead/'  and  when  the 
Cistercians,  after  his  deposition,  dated  their  writings  according 
to  the  years  of  the  reign  of  "  Fridericus  Cornutus,"  the  horn  is 
thought  of  as  the  sign  of  Satan.  But  two  horns  are  the  token 
of  the  Messiah,  symbols  not  of  evil  but  of  power  as  Moses 
shows  and  Alexander.  Frederick  was  reputed  invulnerable  ; 
in  later  days  this  was  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  of  a  pact 
with  the  Devil ;  but  others  believed  that  only  God  could  sum- 


6io  SATANIC   OR  DIVINE?  ix 

mon  back  his  own.  Some  called  Frederick  the  fallen  angel 
whose  countenance  had  once  been  likest  God's  ;  others  thought 
of  the  God-likeness  of  the  Messiah,  and  Piero  della  Vigna 
celebrates  his  master  as  "  like  unto  God."  Riches  marked  the 
Antichrist,  but  again  Christ  was  lord  over  all  the  treasures  of 
the  earth,  Frederick's  knowledge  of  tongues,  so  that  "  he  was 
wont  to  speak  in  many  languages  of  many  kinds,"  was  also 
satanic  :  or  divine.  Points  in  which  Frederick  quite  unques 
tionably  appeared  as  the  Christian  ruler  caused  most  discussion 
of  all :  for  deceit  and  disguise  were  the  chief  characteristics  of 
Antichrist.  Frederick  was  then  more  dangerous  than  ever. 
There  is  irony  in  the  fact  that  this  temperate  man,  who  pre 
served  his  health  by  a  regime  of  one  meal  a  day  (so  that  he  was 
even  accused  of  stultifying  the  penance  of  fasting),  should  have 
volunteered  to  win  absolution  by  fasting. 


Frederick's  life  was  a  consistent  unity,  though  capable  of  a 
dual  interpretation ;  yet  some  have  sought  to  find  a  "  conflict " 
in  it  and  to  trace  this  throughout  his  life  :  the  freethinker 
persecutes  heretics  ;  the  friend  of  Saracens  goes  a-crusading  ; 
the  man  whose  very  atmosphere  generated  freedom  must  nip 
freedom  in  the  bud  as  he  fights  the  freedom-loving  towns  ;  the 
man  born  to  rule  the  world  must  confine  himself  to  Italy  ;  the 
man  who  poured  scorn  on  the  priesthood  must  call  himself 
a  priest;  the  Christian  Emperor  must  needs  by  penetrating 
query  undermine  the  Christian  faith ;  and ,  finally,  he  who  would 
fain  be  like  the  Messiah  was  yet  prepared  to  play  the  Scourge 
of  God  and  Hammer  of  the  World.  It  is  depreciating  genius 
to  expect  it  to  be  transparently  simple  to  construe. 

The  conception  of  a  Roman- Christian  Caesar  implied  the 
fusion  of  two  worlds  ;  the  tension  of  two  extreme  forces.  Each 
perpetually  denied  the  other,  each  owed  the  other  the  fullness 
of  its  vitality.  A  smaller  man  than  Frederick  II  would  have 
succumbed  under  the  strain,  but  at  such  altitudes  the  same 
miracle  is  ever  renewed  and  ever  challenges  man's  admiration : 
"  the  glaciers  shone  on  by  the  fiercest  sun  become  not  warm, 
neither  do  they  melt,  the  sunlight  lends  them  brilliance  only." 
Frederick  summed  up  the  situation  in  his  fundamental  dogma 


THE  EAGLES  AND   THE  CROSS  611 

of  the  secular  State  :  true  freedom  exists  only  under  the  yoke 
of  the  Imperium. 

For  once  these  antitheses  could  co-exist  in  one  form  and 
shape  without  thus  losing  firmness  of  texture  or  of  outline : 
Emperor  and  Galilean  ;  Pagan  and  Christian  ;  Saviour  and 
Antichrist.  For  the  Christ  whom  Frederick  the  Hohenstaufen 
represented,  who  was  for  the  last  time  incarnate  in  this  German 
Emperor,  was  the  almost  pagan  Christ  of  the  Old  Saxon  Heliand, 
the  lesus  Rex  of  the  royal  house  of  David,  who  wore  the  diadem 
of  the  Roman  Emperors  and  ruled  the  Germanic  year  with  fame 
and  glory  ;  who  founded  the  new  Christian  Imperium  which 
ended  with  him.  This  Saviour,  blent  of  Germanic,  Greek,  and 
Christian  elements,  wearing  a  crown  of  light,  holding  in  his 
hand  the  orb,  the  lance,  the  book,  enthroned  in  the  aloofness 
of  the  mandorla  that  knows  not  time  nor  space  :  this  was  the 
Saviour  whom  Frederick  in  actual  fact  released,  fulfilled  and 
lived,  lending  him  bodily  existence  in  his  own  flesh.  Christ 
once  more  had  become  man  :  God  was  again  to  die.  St. 
Francis  had  vouchsafed  a  new  glimpse  of  the  same  God  :  a 
picture  of  a  gentle  not  a  jealous  God,  a  sufferer  with  wounds 
and  crown  of  thorns,  beside  whom  the  stern  judge  and  un 
approachable,  the  fame-crowned  king,  inevitably  appeared  as 
Antichrist.  For  yesterday's  God  is  ever  the  Satan  of  to-day. 

For  nearly  three  hundred  years — the  era  of  the  Renaissance 
— the  strife  of  the  one  yet  dual  God  was  the  spur  of  mankind. 
Dante  was  the  first  to  fight  it  to  the  end  and  overcome.  Dante 
who  reconciled  the  Eagles  and  the  Cross,  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  and  the  next,  ended  the  opposition  which  had  begun  with 
Vergil,  and  growing  ever  stronger  had  lasted  for  a  thousand 
years.  The  tension  between  the  Empire  of  Caesar  and  the 
Empire  of  Christ  was  symbolised  in  the  two  contemporaries, 
Francis  and  Frederick,  preceding  the  great  singer  with  whom 
the  Empire  closed.  Another  great  singer  Vergil,  whom  Dante 
claimed  as  master,  had  heralded  the  era  of  tension  and  cleavage, 
the  age  of  the  dual  Saviour,  Christus- Augustus. 


Frederick's  influence  partook  of  this  dual  character.    His 
legacy  was  most  potent  in  Italy,  and  the  reverberations  of  his 


612  SATELLITE   GIANTS  ix 

career  were  felt  there  for  three  hundred  years.  New  giants 
grew  up  around  him.  Through  his  son-in-law  Eccelino  of 
Romano,  the  Devil  of  Treviso,  he  became  the  ancestor  of 
Sigismondo  Malatesta  and  of  Cesare  Borgia.  Eccelino,  the 
admirer  and  the  creature  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  was  one  of  the 
many  who  seized  on  one  trait  only  of  the  Emperor's  many-sided 
character  and  exaggerated  it  into  a  colossal  caricature.  The 
ruthless  assertion  of  personality,  the  unbridled  lust  for  power, 
became  with  Eccelino  an  end  in  themselves  and  therefore  evil. 
After  the  death  of  the  Emperor  had  removed  all  restraint,  this 
tyrant  developed  his  vices  to  their  uttermost.  The  two  men 
were  of  the  same  age,  but  Eccelino  survived  Frederick  for  nine 
years.  Long  before  the  end  Romano  was  the  most  feared  and 
most  hated  man  in  the  East  of  Northern  Italy,  which,  in  the 
Emperor's  name,  he  had  subjected  to  his  power.  Eccelino  had 
ripened  in  the  party  quarrellings  of  the  towns,  had  at  an  oppor 
tune  moment  rallied  to  the  Hohenstaufen  banner,  and  been 
given  a  free  hand  in  those  regions  without  any  definite  imperial 
office.  Basing  his  operations  on  Padua,  Verona  and  Vicenza, 
Eccelino  had  built  up  a  self-contained  despotism.  He  added 
town  after  town  to  his  possessions,  raised  taxes  on  his  own 
authority,  promulgated  new  laws,  appointed  his  own  relations 
to  office,  at  times  against  the  Emperor's  wishes,  and  even 
enlarged  his  territories  at  the  Emperor's  expense.  His  power 
was  based  wholly  on  terror.  From  pure  self-seeking  he  re 
mained  faithful  to  Frederick,  and,  as  he  was  a  trustworthy 
guardian  of  the  Brenner,  Frederick  left  him  unmolested. 
Eccelino,  in  spite  of  the  Emperor's  backing,  was  the  first  of  a 
new  type  of  ruler,  a  type  which  Manfred  later  dignified  by 
referring  to  the  precedent  of  Caesar  :  the  illegitimate  prince 
who  founds  his  throne  on  power  and  cunning,  and  maintains 
it  with  severity,  cruelty  and  fear,  relying  on  his  personality 
alone. 

Dante  represents  the  tyrant  Eccelino  expiating  his  sins  in  a 
stream  of  boiling  blood  :  "  that  brow  whereon  the  hair  so  jetty 
clustering  hangs."  He  is  said  to  have  been  covered  all  over 
with  black  hair  like  an  animal's  coat.  His  outward  appearance 
was  sinister,  his  bearing  assured.  He  was  only  of  middle 
height,  but  the  sight  of  him  inspired  terror.  He  always  ap- 


A  TYRANT'S  END  613 

peared  to  be  trembling  with  wrath  and  arrogance.  Though  for 
political  reasons  he  had  frequently  been  married,  he  held  aloof 
from  women.  He  despised  them  and  rarely  approached  one. 
Yet  he  poniarded  on  the  instant  a  German  soldier  whom  he 
caught  raping  a  woman  at  the  storming  of  Vicenza.  He  liked 
to  call  himself  a  "  scourge  sent  for  the  punishment  of  sinners," 
seeking  the  sinners  rather  among  the  aristocracy  than  amongst 
the  common  people,  whom  he  kept  sternly  under  his  heel. 
Eccelino  believed  that  his  fate  was  linked  with  the  stars  and 
relied  on  the  learned  Guido  Bonatti  and  the  long-bearded 
Saracen,  Paul  of  Baghdad,  to  read  his  fortunes  in  the  sky.  He 
loved  magnificence,  but  his  Padua  court  displayed  only  the 
oppressive  pomp  of  the  tyrant,  and  his  Saracen  bodyguards 
served  more  for  awe  than  for  grandeur.  "  This  state  must  be 
kept  pure  "  was  the  motto  of  the  despot,  who  grew  more  and 
more  stony  as  the  years  went  on.  The  faintest  breath  of 
suspicion  spelt  rack  or  stake,  castration  or  the  dungeon.  He 
is  said  to  have  sacrificed  50,000  men  by  murder,  torture  or 
execution  to  maintain  his  power.  He  acted,  no  doubt,  on  the 
principle  of  his  brother-in-law,  Salinguerra  :  "  The  whole 
heavens  are  the  Lord's  .  .  .  but  the  earth  hath  he  given  to  the 
children  of  men."  He  died  faithful  to  his  principles.  He  was 
sixty-five  when  uncounted  enemies  suddenly  surrounded  him, 
and  brave  though  he  was  and  tried  in  battle,,he  was  stunned  by 
the  blow  of  a  club  and  taken  prisoner.  He  refused  food  and 
doctors  and  died  within  a  few  days.  He  repudiated  confession 
and  the  last  sacrament,  jesting  that  he  had  but  one  crime  of  which 
he  repented,  having  let  himself  be  overpowered  and  being  un 
able  to  take  vengeance.  Whereupon  he  dismissed  the  priest. 
His  voluntary  death  may  well  have  saved  him  from  an  end  as 
gruesome  as  his  brother's .  Alberigo  of  Romano  had  at  first  been 
hostile  to  Eccelino,  but  later  became  his  ally.  He  was  quite  as 
cruel,  and  lustful  to  boot.  They  made  him  creep  on  all  fours 
to  the  place  of  execution  with  a  bit  in  his  mouth,  serving  as  a 
mount  for  the  mob.  He  was  made  to  witness  the  tortures  of 
his  family,  then  the  flesh  was  torn  from  his  body  with  pincers, 
and  while  still  living  he  was  tied  to  a  horse  and  dragged  to  death. 
Eccelino  was  by  no  means  the  only  giant  in  Frederick's  circle. 
Another  was  Guido  of  Sessa,  who  cynically  refused  the  last 


614  HUBERT  PALLAVICINI  ix 

rites  to  some  condemned  papalists,  assuring  them  that  as  friends 
of  the  Pope  they  were  sure  of  immediate  access  to  Paradise. 
Taking  flight,  one  night,  he  and  his  horse  plunged  into  the 
lepers'  cloaca  and  perished  in  the  filth.  Yet  another  was  the 
one-eyed  Margrave  Hubert  Pallavicini,  who  began  as  Eccelino's 
friend  but  betrayed  his  rival  and  took  him  prisoner.  He 
rivalled  Eccelino  in  vice  and  practised  the  same  unscrupulous 
violence  to  maintain  his  rule.  He  had  less  demonic  fanaticism 
and  remained  always  a  sly  calculator  without  a  conscience. 
His  whole  appearance  was  uncanny.  While  he  was  still  in  the 
cradle  a  cock  had  picked  out  one  eye,  but  the  remaining  one 
glittered  "  like  a  black  coal  "  from  a  face  framed  with  blackest 
hair  and  beard.  He  also  was  of  middle  height,  but  immensely 
powerful  and  tough.  Like  all  the  Emperor's  intimates  he 
made  merry  over  the  Church  and  her  dogmas.  He  looked  on 
the  Roman  Church  purely  as  a  political  power  and  the  Pope  as 
a  ridiculously  petty  Italian  landowner,  scarcely  on  a  par  with 
a  Pallavicini.  This  materialist  point  of  view  was  usual  amongst 
men  of  his  type  in  Renaissance  times.  The  Emperor  had 
entrusted  him  with  the  Vicariate- General  of  Cremona  and  had 
made  him  a  gift  of  numerous  places  in  these,  his  native  terri 
tories.  After  Frederick's  death  the  Margrave  continued  the 
war  against  the  Papacy  and  the  Guelf .  Like  Eccelino  he  fought 
nominally  for  the  Empire,  but  with  the  parts  of  Lombardy 
which  he  conquered  he  swelled  his  growing  Seignory  and  styled 
himself  "  Vicar  General  in  Lombardy  and  permanent  lord  of 
Cremona,  Pavia,  Piacenza  and  Vercelli."  Crema  and  Milan, 
Alessandria,  Tortona  and  Parma  also  obeyed  the  despot,  whose 
immense  domain  ultimately  fell  to  pieces  as  rapidly  as  it  had 
been  thrown  together.  When  he  died  at  seventy  (also,  so  the 
legend  runs,  refusing  the  ministrations  of  the  Church)  the 
Margrave  Hubert  Pallavicini  possessed  nothing  but  the  single 
castle  Busseto  near  Parma  from  which  he  had  been  wont  to 
sway  the  destinies  of  Lombardy. 


These  comrades  of  Frederick  II  were  large-scale  criminals, 
men  who  made  mock  alike  of  the  bliss  of  heaven  and  the  pains 
of  hell.  And  each  of  them  showed  features  of  the  Hohen- 


LABOUR  OF  LOVE  615 

staufen  Emperor  distorted  into  caricature.  Frederick  was  the 
only  one  of  them  who  bore  God  in  his  breast  as  well  as 
the  Devil.  His  immense  potentialities  are  seen  in  the  way 
in  which  he  developed  as  Hammer  of  the  World  and  Scourge 
of  the  Peoples,  and  yet  might  worthily  have  stood  beside 
Francis  of  Assisi  and  with  him  fought  the  common  foe,  the 
degenerate  Church.  Frederick  took  care  at  first  not  to  attack 
the  Church  ;  he  sought  to  confine  his  quarrels  to  the  individual 
Pope.  When  this  became  impossible  he  changed  weapons 
with  lightning  adaptability  and  began  to  emulate  the  wrath  of 
Elijah,  who  "jealous  for  the  Law  slew  the  greedy  priests  of 
Baal  in  the  storm  of  the  spirit  "  and  embarked  on  a  campaign 
against  the  worldliness  of  the  clergy.  His  great  Reform  Mani 
festo  followed  hard  on  the  Council  of  Lyons:  "It  was  ever 
our  intention  and  our  will  to  induce  the  priesthood  of  every 
rank,  not  least  the  highest,  to  endure  '  to  the  end  '  as  they  were 
of  old  in  the  early  church :  leading  an  apostolic  life  and 
emulating  their  Master's  humility.  For  such  are  the  men  who 
see  visions  and  work  miracles,  who  heal  the  sick  and  wake  the 
dead,  who  not  by  force  of  arms  but  by  their  holiness  make 
kings  and  princes  to  serve  them.  Our  priests  on  the  other 
hand  are  slaves  to  the  world,  drunken  with  self-indulgence,  who 
put  God  in  the  second  place  :  the  increasing  stream  of  their 
wealth  has  stifled  their  piety.  To  take  from  them  these 
treacherous  treasures  which  are  their  burden  and  their  curse  : 
THIS  is  A  LABOUR  OF  LOVE."  Thus  Frederick  wrote  to  the 
kings  of  Europe  and  exhorted  them  to  relieve  the  servants  of 
God  of  all  superfluity.  In  this  Frederick  was  in  accord  with 
the  mood  of  his  time.  This  was  the  doctrine  which  well-nigh 
caused  Francis  of  Assisi  to  be  condemned  as  a  heretic  :  the 
doctrine  of  return  to  the  simplicity  of  apostolic  times,  the 
Church's  re-marriage  to  her  long-forgotten  spouse,  poverty. 
The  moment  seemed  opportune,  for  the  end  should  be  like  the 
beginning,  as  Frederick  expressly  emphasised. 

The  Emperor  pressed  his  demand  further  :  "  Whence  have 
our  priests  learned  to  bear  arms  against  the  Christians  ?  To 
don  their  coats  of  mail  instead  of  sacred  garments,  instead  of  a 
shepherd's  crook  to  wield  a  lance,  to  carry  the  bow  and  arrows 
of  bitterness  instead  of  their  writing  reed,  to  think  lightly  of 


616  A  PENNILESS  PETER  ix 

the  weapons  of  salvation  ?  What  assembly  of  God-fearing  men 
has  commanded  this  and  sealed  it  with  its  seal  ?  If  anyone 
doubts  us  let  him  behold  the  holy  cardinals  and  archpriests  who 
brandish  warlike  weapons  in  the  land  where  we  bear  sway  ! 
The  one  styles  himself  a  duke,  a  margrave  another,  yet  a  third 
a  count,  according  to  the  province  where  he  rules.  Did  the 
first  disciples  of  Christ  so  arrange  it  ?  O  foolish  multitude  ! 
Ye  attribute  holiness  unto  them,  ye  create  saints  unto  your 
selves  as  imaginary  as  the  giants  of  myth  !  " 

Frederick  in  this  document  demanded  nothing  less  than  the 
abandonment  by  the  Roman  Church  of  all  her  worldly  pro 
perty  and  of  all  her  worldly  dignities  :    duchies,  margravates 
and  counties.    The  French  Revolution  first  brought  these 
demands  to  general  fruition,  though  in  Sicily  Frederick  had 
succeeded  in  establishing  the  desired  state  of  affairs.    For  in 
his  own  kingdom  most  of  the  Church  treasures  had  been  con 
fiscated  and  Frederick  had  long  since  ceased  to  bestow  official 
rank  on  his  Sicilian  clergy.    It  is  obvious  that  Frederick  was 
not  preaching  the  poverty  of  the  Church  from  the  motives  of 
urgent  faith  and  piety  that  inspired  St.  Francis.     It  has  been 
the  fashion  to  make  it  a  reproach  that  Frederick  wanted  the 
Church  to  be  poor,  not  because  of  his  zeal  for  God  but  because 
he  was  a  bad  Catholic.    The  Emperor  certainly  did  not  espouse 
the  cause  of  Church  reform  for  its  own  sake,  yet  reform  was 
part  of  his  office,  and  in  pursuing  it  Frederick  was  boldly  ahead 
of  his  time.     St.  Francis  and  the  reforming  Emperor  are  sud 
denly  near  akin.    Whoever  sought  to  bring  again  the  Augustan 
age  had  need  of  a  church  as  it  had  been  in  the  days  of  the  early 
Empire.     The  Saint  demanded  the  return  of  the  primitive 
Church,  and  his  Order  yet  more  imperatively  demanded  it 
(for  that  they  hoped  "  as  a  new  breed  of  men  "  to  oust  from 
office  the  degenerate  clergy),  and  in  so  doing  they  unwittingly 
conjured  up  the  Augustan  as  well  as  the  Apostolic  age.     St. 
Francis,  intent  only  on  the  Church's  weal,  had  no  thought  for 
such  logic.     Frederick  II,  however,  with  wider  vision,  saw  that 
his  empire  could  absorb  the  greatest  movement  of  the  time, 
saw  indeed  that  the  Empire  of  Rome  could  co-exist  only  with 
a  Franciscan  type  of  pope.     Frederick  here  anticipated  the 
vision  of  Dante  :   a  penniless  Peter  as  pope,  side  by  side  with 


REFORM  MANIFESTOS  617 

him,  an  emperor  of  boundless  possessions,  both  immediately 
appointed  of  God.  To  such  a  pope,  who  by  his  holiness  made 
kings  and  princes  to  serve  him,  Frederick  was  prepared  to 
render — as  Dante  demanded — "  that  reverence  which  a  first 
born  son  must  show  his  father,  that  in  the  light  of  his  father's 
grace  he  may  be  more  powerfully  resplendent  throughout  the 
world " 


We  must  draw  attention  to  a  remarkable  turn  of  phrase  in 
one  of  the  reform  manifestos.  "  Our  conscience  is  pure  and 
therefore  God  is  with  us/'  Frederick  announced  to  the  Euro 
pean  kings.  This  is  a  kind  of  spiritual  communion  with  God 
different  from  that  of  St.  Francis.  A  communion  in  virtue  of 
conscience,  which  is  based  on  the  imperial  doctrine  that  the 
Emperor  is  responsible  for  his  action  to  God  alone.  This  is 
the  layman's  claim  to  immediacy  of  intercourse  with  God, 
which  not  without  good  reason  was  first  formulated  by  the  last 
Emperor  of  the  Middle  Ages.  This  doctrine  preludes  the 
later  notes  of  the  Reformation.  Yet  there  could  hardly  be  a 
greater  contrast  than  lies  between  the  two  points  of  view.  The 
appeal  to  purity  of  conscience  which,  when  taken  up  by  the 
many,  served  to  obliterate  all  ranks  and  grades,  was  here  a 
privilege  of  the  all-responsible  Emperor  who  claimed  it  for  him 
self  in  full  consciousness  of  his  own  uniqueness  and  accorded 
it  otherwise  to  none.  In  judging  others  Frederick  held  their 
actions  only  of  account.  But  the  imperial  attitude  was  chal 
lenging  ;  how  challenging  we  see  from  the  gloss  on  this  passage 
by  an  astonished  monk :  "  Believe  in  deeds  !  " 

Frederick  had  described  his  campaign  against  the  Church  as 
a  "  labour  of  love,"  and  we  need  feel  no  surprise  that  the 
mendicant  orders  hailed  his  tribunal  as  just,  and  hoped  that  the 
final  era  of  peace  and  repose  was  now  about  to  dawn.  The 
growing  hostility  between  the  regular  clergy  and  the  orders 
became  Frederick's  ally,  and  many,  both  Franciscans  and 
Dominicans,  supported  him  against  the  clergy.  In  opposition 
to  the  prevailing  belief  that  Antichrist  would  come  from  with 
out  to  attack  the  Church,  many  saw  the  destroyer  within  the 
bosom  of  the  Church  herself. 


618  HERETIC  POPE  ix 

One  of  the  mendicants,  Brother  Arnold,  demonstrated  in  a 
document  bearing  the  title  "  Innocent  IV,  Antichrist,"  that  the 
words  "  Innocentius  Papa  "  yielded  the  number  666,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  Pope  was  Antichrist.  In  another  highly  emotional 
pamphlet  the  same  writer  espoused  the  Emperor's  cause.  He 
asserted  that  God  had  revealed  to  him  in  a  vision  that  it  was 
the  divine  intention  to  renew  Holy  Church  and  to  lead  her  back 
to  her  original  purity.  Thus  instructed,  Brother  Arnold  had, 
he  reported,  betaken  himself  to  Kaiser  Frederick,  who  had 
investigated  the  vision  with  the  advice  of  wise  and  learned  men, 
and  being  himself  a  Catholic  free  from  all  unfaith,  the  Emperor 
had  approved  the  reformation  of  the  Church  as  a  most  pious 
work.  After  forty  days  of  mystic  rapture  Christ  himself 
vouchsafed  a  vision  to  the  monk,  and  revealed  to  him  that  the 
Pope  and  the  papalists  were  the  real  enemies  of  God  and  the 
destroyers  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  the  Lord  had  expelled  them 
from  the  community  of  the  faithful. 


Many  shared  Brother  Arnold's  belief,  and  the  cry  "  Heretic 
Pope  "  was  heard  unceasingly  till  the  Reformation.  It  was 
particularly  loud  in  Germany.  In  Hall  in  Swabia  and  in  other 
places  wandering  preachers  announced  to  thronging  listeners : 
"  the  Pope  is  a  heretic  ;  the  prelates  are  simonists  ;  the  priests 
are  unworthy  to  bind  or  to  loose  ;  papal  indulgences  are  value 
less  and  the  Pope  leads  a  perverted  life  and  sets  an  example  of 
evil."  "  Pray  therefore,"  the  preachers  concluded,  "  for  the 
Lord,  Kaiser  Frederick  and  for  Conrad  his  son,  for  they  are 
perfect  and  they  are  just." 

The  Emperor's  reform  manifestos  were  particularly  popular 
in  Germany.  Wild  abusive  pamphlets  attacked  the  clergy, 
"  spouses  of  luxury  who  shirk  marriage  "  ;  one  in  its  wrath 
struck  the  very  note  of  imperial  utterances :  "  0  the  blind 
unenlightened  simplicity  of  you  Christian  people !  Why  be 
ye  deceived  by  such  trickery  !  Arise,  arise,  ye  monarchs  of  the 
earth.  Arise,  ye  princes  !  Arise,  ye  peoples,  open  your  eyes 
and  see  !  Endure  no  longer  the  disgrace  of  such  enmity. 
Root  out  this  diseased  multitude  from  the  earth  who  bring 
confusion  and  contamination  !  Reform  Holy  Church  dis- 


CHURCH  REFORM  619 

figured  by  such  crimes  !  And  when  the  evil  leaven  of  crime 
and  wickedness  is  swept  away  may  a  new  yeast  begin  to  work 
in  purity  and  truth  and  faith  !  " 

Such  voices  could  not  alter  the  outcome  of  the  strife  and  no 
rising  of  the  masses  was  at  that  period  to  be  hoped  for.  But 
it  is  idle  to  pretend,  as  some  have  done,  that  Frederick  was 
"  misunderstood  "  by  his  contemporaries.  Frederick  must 
have  been  perfectly  aware  that  his  reforming  manifestos  could 
not  shatter  the  Papacy ;  he  probably  did  not  even  wish  that 
they  should,  for  without  a  World  Church  the  World  Empire 
would  cease.  But  he  pushed  the  campaign  to  the  uttermost, 
and  the  seed  he  sowed  took  root  even  in  his  own  day.  With 
his  instinct  for  a  living  force  Frederick  seized  on  these  ideas 
and  flung  them  into  the  conflict  between  mind  and  might,  to 
germinate  for  centuries.  The  hopes  of  earnest  men  in  Ger 
many  who  sought  reform  were  for  all  time  linked  with  the  name 
of  Frederick  II  Hohenstaufen.  Men  dreamt  that  he  would 
some  day  return,  in  all  his  glory,  to  reform  the  corruption  of 
the  Church,  and  would  pursue  the  Roman  hierarchy  so  savagely 
that  they  would  hide  their  tonsures  with  cow  dung  if  they 
could  find  no  other  covering. 


Perhaps  it  was  especially  to  make  impression  on  the  Germans 
that  Frederick  let  loose  the  terrors  of  the  Angel  of  Death  and 
of  Antichrist.  Germany  is  quicker  to  recognise  the  good  than 
the  beautiful ;  perhaps  it  would  not  otherwise  have  recognised 
the  Emperor  as  Saviour.  The  Pope's  procedure  gave  new  food 
for  such  reflections.  Germany  was  drawn  into  the  strife  to  a 
greater  degree  than  before  and  suffered  bitterly  under  the 
Curia's  persecutions. 

Up  till  the  Council  of  Lyons  Germany  had  felt  relatively 
little  of  the  great  strife  between  Papacy  and  Empire.  The 
church  agitation  had  exercised  little  influence,  although  in  1239, 
just  before  the  Emperor's  excommunication,  the  papal  legate, 
Albert  of  Bohemia,  had  succeeded  in  organising  an  opposi 
tion  amongst  the  princes :  Bohemia,  Bavaria  and  Austria  had 
formed  the  Confederation  of  Passau  against  Frederick.  But  it 
broke  up  within  a  few  months.  Bohemia  and  Austria  came  to 


620  BISHOPS  OF  THE   RHINE  ix 

terms  with  the  Emperor,  and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  was  left  alone. 
Not  even  the  Bavarian  clergy  had  gone  over  to  the  Pope, 
doubtless  because  the  bishops  were  hostile  to  the  Duke  and 
therefore  remained  imperialist.  The  bishop  of  Ratisbon  openly 
defied  the  Pope's  legate  ;  the  bishop  of  Brixen  barricaded  the 
street  against  the  papal  messenger  ;  the  bishop  of  Freising 
denied  the  Pope  any  jurisdiction  whatever  in  Germany,  and 
the  archbishop  of  Salzburg  trampled  a  papal  letter  under  foot. 
Princes  and  towns  sent  auxiliaries  and  money  to  the  Emperor 
in  Italy.  Finally,  even  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  abandoned  his 
hostility,  for  the  Mongol  peril  which  threatened  his  neighbours 
Bohemia,  Hungary  and  Austria,  diverted  his  attention.  The 
propaganda  of  the  Curia  seemed  to  have  been  in  vain. 

A  slight  weakening  might,  however,  have  been  observed  in 
quite  another  quarter  :  on  the  Rhine.  The  great  archbishop 
of  Cologne,  Conrad  of  Hochstaden,  is  famous  as  the  founder 
and  builder  of  the  great  cathedral,  whose  foundation-stone  he 
laid  in  1248.  In  those  days  he  was  no  less  famous  as  a  warrior, 
a  wild  quarrelsome  fellow  who,  like  all  the  German  princes, 
bent  his  whole  mind  to  his  territorial  policy  and  lived  in 
perpetual  conflict  with  his  neighbours  on  the  lower  Rhine. 
Through  these  quarrels  he  presently  fell  foul  of  the  imperial 
government,  which  lent  an  ear  to  the  complaints  of  the  princes, 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  was  declared  an  enemy  of  the 
Empire.  Finding  himself  single-handed  Conrad  of  Hoch 
staden  ultimately  found  an  ally  in  the  scarcely  less  powerful 
Sigfrid,  archbishop  of  Mainz,  whom  Frederick  had  appointed 
Regent  in  Germany.  The  archbishop  of  Mainz  had  long  been 
at  odds  with  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  about  the  Abbey  of  Lorsch, 
which  Mainz  had  hopes  of  retaining  as  long  as  Bavaria  was 
hostile  to  the  Emperor.  When,  however,  the  Duke  of  Bavaria 
began  veering  towards  friendship  with  the  Emperor  the  arch 
bishop  of  Mainz  saw  his  Abbey  of  Lorsch  imperilled.  Weighed 
against  this  he  recked  little  of  the  regency.  He  and  Cologne 
could  both  be  certain  of  papal  support  if  they  deserted  the 
Emperor,  and  so  the  two  formed  an  alliance.  Henceforth  they 
both  proclaimed  the  ban  against  Frederick  and  invaded  the 
Hohenstaufen  territory  of  Wetterau  with  fire  and  sword.  Thus 
Innocent  IV  found  a  German  group  hostile  to  Frederick  among 


POPE  AND   GERMAN  CHURCH  621 

the  Rhine  archbishops  and  their  suffragans.  It  was  now  one 
of  the  chief  aims  of  papal  politics  to  increase  their  adherents. 
Innocent  systematically  began  trying  to  seduce  the  German 
Church  in  every  rank  from  its  loyalty  to  the  Hohenstaufen. 
The  papal  methods  were  forceful.  The  imperialist  bishops 
were  deposed  where  possible,  and  in  the  cathedrals  the 
imperialist  canons  degraded.  After  the  Council  of  Lyons  the 
following  dignitaries  were  involved  in  deposition  proceedings  : 
the  archbishops  of  Salzburg  and  Bremen  ;  the  bishops  of 
Passau,  Freising,  Brixen,  Utrecht,  Prague,  Worms,  Constance, 
Augsburg,  Paderborn  and  Hildesheim  ;  the  abbots  of  St.  Gall, 
Ellwangen,  Reichenau,  Kempten  and  Weissenburg.  Further 
proceedings  were  pending  against  the  bishops  of  Magdeburg, 
Chur  and  Trent,  and  against  innumerable  priests.  Many,  like 
the  bishops  of  Olmutz  and  Passau,  were  deposed,  and  many 
voluntarily  resigned  so  as  not  to  turn  traitor.  Their  places 
were  filled  by  creatures  of  the  Pope.  Others  went  over  to 
Innocent  and  were  duly  rewarded.  The  German  clergy  speedily 
became  wholly  dependent  on  the  Curia,  as  the  great  Innocent 
had  once  intended.  Any  free  election  by  convent  or  chapter 
was  expressly  forbidden,  and  the  bishops  were  nominated  by 
the  Pope  just  as  were  Vicars  General  and  podestas  by  Frederick. 
The  Emperor  exercised  his  right  of  appointment  down  to  the 
lowest  ranks,  and  now  Innocent  also  supervised  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  meanest  clergy.  Even  before  a  benefice  was  vacant 
its  next  incumbent  was  frequently  designated. 


These  reversions  to  posts  in  the  Church  were  often  granted 
in  exchange  for  payment  of  a  tax,  a  procedure  not  far  removed 
from  simony.  Other  measures  again  led  to  the  infamous  traffic 
in  indulgences.  Masses  of  mendicant  monks  were  carefully 
instructed  and  despatched  to  spread  the  news  of  the  excom 
munication  and  deposition  far  and  wide,  for  which  purpose  they 
were  to  make  use  of  every  convenient  opportunity  :  processions, 
fairs,  markets  and  the  like.  They  were  to  follow  each  sermon 
by  a  summons  to  all  to  take  the  cross  against  Frederick.  In 
order  not  to  stultify  the  crusade  against  Frederick  and  his  sons 
Pope  Innocent  most  strictly  but  secretly  enjoined  on  them  not 


622  INDULGENCES  ix 

by  any  chance  to  preach  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land  :  and  this 
at  the  very  juncture  when  Louis  of  France  was  preparing  to 
set  out  on  the  sixth  Crusade.  An  indulgence  of  forty  to  fifty 
days  was  earned  by  merely  listening  to  a  crusading  sermon 
against  Frederick,  and  those  who  took  the  cross  received  the 
same  indulgences  as  those  who  fought  the  Saracens.  If  they 
later  chose  to  redeem  their  vow  by  a  money  payment  the  in 
dulgence  for  sin  still  held  good,  and  many  took  the  cross  solely 
with  the  intention  of  acquiring  the  indulgence  and  then  re 
purchasing  their  freedom.  This  procedure  was  not  an  entirely 
novel  device.  It  had  long  been  possible  to  purchase  absolution 
from  a  crusading  vow.  Hitherto,  however,  the  moneys  thus 
amassed  had  been  devoted  to  the  prosecution  of  the  crusade, 
whereas  now  they  simply  spelt  a  new  source  of  revenue  for  the 
Church  and  a  new  weapon  against  the  Emperor.  The  moment 
the  fiction  of  a  crusade  was  at  an  end,  and  indulgences  were 
simply  bartered  for  money,  that  traffic  was  in  full  swing  which 
ultimately  gave  the  impetus  to  the  great  schism  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Reformation. 

The  Pope's  activities  extended  far  beyond  Germany.  He 
had  at  his  command  the  highly-ramified  organisation  of  the 
Roman  Church  extending  through  the  whole  Christian  world, 
and,  between  promises  for  this  world  and  threatenings  for  the 
next,  all  kinds  of  hitherto  unexploited  sources  of  supply  could 
be  tapped  and  new  partisans  be  won.  There  was  no  command 
in  the  Canon  from  which  Innocent  would  not  grant  dispensa 
tion,  no  Church  law  which  could  not  be  circumvented,  no 
ecclesiastical  crime  which  could  not  be  condoned  if  it  seemed 
profitable  for  the  campaign  against  the  Hohenstaufen  brood. 
To  procure  adherents  the  Pope  began  to  distribute  the  property 
of  the  church  as  a  feudal  prince  his  fiefs  :  whoever  performed 
a  service  for  him  received  a  "  promissory  note  "  so  to  speak  on 
the  next  vacant  benefice  or  see  wherever  situate.  Spaniards 
might  thus  acquire  a  church  in  England  or  Germany,  or  the 
revenues  thereof.  Needless  to  say  most  of  these  foreign  bene 
fices  fell  to  Italians  whom  the  Pope  himself  required  for  the 
immediate  war  against  the  Emperor.  These  Italians  frequently 
never  even  saw  their  cures,  they  were  concerned  only  to  collect 
the  revenues,  and  the  multiplication  of  benefices,  which  was 


CHURCH  PATRONAGE  623 

an  ancient  abuse  sternly  condemned  by  canon  law,  became  a 
favourite  device  of  the  Pope's  to  attract  new  or  to  fortify  old 
loyalties.  The  fifths,  tenths  and  twentieths  which  the  Pope 
issued  were  endless.  These  creatures  of  the  Pope  were 
strangers  and  entirely  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  the  flocks 
allotted  to  them  ;  they  found  no  fault  with  the  principle.  They 
acquiesced  readily  enough  in  the  demands  made  on  them  for 
money,  for  by  such  levies  they  could  reap  advantage  for 
themselves. 

These  interferences  of  the  Pope  aroused  acute  bitterness  in 
England  and  in  France.  Innocent,  however,  had  not  so  free 
a  hand  in  those  countries  as  in  Germany,  where  the  spiritual 
princes  were  "  pillars  of  the  State  "  to  a  degree  unknown  else 
where  in  Christendom,  and  where,  therefore,  systematic  resis 
tance  was  scarcely  conceivable.  In  Germany,  therefore,  the 
papal  rod  was  severely  felt.  In  dioceses  whose  incumbent  was 
not  a  papalist,  all  divine  service  ceased  for  years  together,  and 
no  baptism,  no  marriage,  no  confirmation  and  no  burial  service 
could  take  place.  No  member  of  an  imperialist  family  could 
take  holy  orders,  and  all  supporters  of  the  Hohenstaufen  were 
cut  off  from  Church  fiefs  and  leases.  In  such  circumstances 
everything  fell  far  more  seriously  into  decay  in  Germany  than 
in  Italy,  where  interdicts  were  frequently  in  force  for  years, 
but  where  people  took  a  more  commonsense  view  of  religious 
matters.  Similar  conditions  produced,  therefore,  very  different 
consequences  north  and  south  of  the  Alps. 


All  these  arrangements  were  made  on  a  uniform  system  by 
the  Curia  from  the  base  of  Lyons,  which  was  now  the  centre 
of  the  ecclesiastical  web,  whose  threads  Pope  Innocent  mani 
pulated  with  consummate  mastery.  The  Pope,  indeed,  showed 
himself  an  expert ;  he  also  was  a  transformer  of  energies,  skilled 
in  utilising  intangible  forces,  in  translating  spiritual  into  tem 
poral  advantage  :  into  political,  military  and  financial  power. 
One  thing  was  needful :  an  unscrupulous  readiness  to  turn 
every  available  force  to  account.  If  we  conceive  the  Church 
as  a  purely  political  power  which  was-  face  to  face  with  unpre 
cedented  political  and  military  tasks,  we  must  reckon  the 


624  PAPAL  CYNICISM  ix 

Genoese  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  politicians  who  ever 
occupied  the  papal  throne.  Without  a  shadow  of  misgiving  he 
put  out  his  spiritual  talent  to  usury  and  opened  for  the  moment 
innumerable  and  unexhausted  sources  of  revenue.  There  is 
something  truly  great  in  the  way  Pope  Innocent  silenced  every 
scruple,  stifled  every  sentimental  qualm  in  pursuit  of  his  one 
goal :  the  annihilation  of  the  Hohenstaufen.  He  was  no  hypo 
crite  ;  he  did  not  even  seek  to  keep  up  appearances  ;  he  did 
not  even  trouble  to  mask  his  features,  which  expressed  frank 
scorn  for  every  rule  of  canon  law.  He  broke  or  evaded  or 
altered  every  canon  at  will,  introducing  into  the  Papacy  a 
"  macchiavellian  "  trait  which  placed  immediate  expediency 
before  all  law,  human  or  divine.  This  was  a  new  type  of  pope, 
who  had  little  in  common  with  his  warlike  Caesar  predecessors. 
The  various  reactions  of  the  world  at  large  to  this  new  tendency 
are  characteristic.  In  Germany  this  betrayal  of  ideals  awakened 
bitterness,  sorrow,  detestation.  The  materialisation  of  the 
Church  provoked  by  contrast  the  more  intensive  spiritualisation 
of  religion  and  led  ultimately  to  the  Reformation  and  the  renewal 
of  Christendom.  Whereas  in  Italy  this  conduct  of  the  Popes 
gave  birth  to  an  unfathomable  cynicism  which  brought  with  it 
the  rebirth  of  paganism :  the  Renaissance. 


Meanwhile  the  main  theatre  of  war  was  Italy,  where  after 
the  Pope's  flight  the  mighty  figure  of  the  Emperor  Frederick 
held  the  field  and  fought  the  fight  for  life  and  empire.  North 
of  the  Alps  Pope  Innocent's  efforts  aimed  at  undermining  the 
Emperor's  sovereignty,  south  of  the  Alps  his  covert  attacks 
were  directed  against  the  Emperor's  person.  In  Italy  the  papal 
machinations  were  secret  and  difficult  to  counter,  and  the  per 
sonal  danger  necessitated  the  most  terrible  severity.  It  was 
hard  enough  at  any  time  to  impose  internal  order  on  Italian 
party  strife,  and  the  Pope's  myrmidons  had  no  difficult  task 
to  stir  up  opposition.  All  the  forces  of  disorder  which  had  at 
such  cost  been  calmed  and  quelled  were  released  again  by  the 
papal  agitators.  Every  political,  social,  religious,  economic  dis 
content  was  fostered  and  exploited  by  the  Church,  which 
distributed  gold  and  promises  without  stint.  In  these  circum- 


RUTHLESSNESS  625 

stances  the  Emperor  could  keep  up  any  semblance  of  control 
in  the  State  only  by  extreme  harshness  and  even  cruelty. 
Discipline  became  more  and  more  difficult  to  maintain ; 
treachery  and  defection  were  rife,  and  murder  instigated  by 
the  Pope  threatened  the  Emperor's  life. 

All  the  communes  with  few  exceptions  were  untrustworthy. 
Even  in  the  Ghibelline  towns  the  opposition  party  was  strong, 
and  if  the  Guelfs  gained  the  upper  hand  in  one  town  a  whole 
series  of  friendly  and  related  towns  forthwith  fell  away  also. 
Conversely,  of  course,  the  accession  of  an  important  town  to  the 
Emperor's  cause  exercised  widespread  influence.  Yet  when 
one  town  was  with  difficulty  reduced  to  allegiance,  rebellion 
fanned  by  the  Pope  flamed  up  in  three  others,  and  no  sooner  had 
the  Emperor  gathered  a  stronger  force  than  usual  for  some  big 
undertaking  than  an  unforeseen  revolt  broke  out  in  another 
quarter,  and  his  efforts  were  frittered  in  fruitless  fighting.  He 
made  oath  "  never  shall  we  sheathe  the  sword  we  have  un- 
scabbarded  till  the  hydra  of  rebellion  whose  reborn  heads  are 
charged  with  overflowing  ruin,  challenging  the  very  existence 
of  the  Imperium,  shall  have  been  visited  with  mighty  punish 
ment  .  .  .",  but  nevertheless  he  could  not  alter  the  fact  that  for 
long  periods  whole  provinces  like  the  Romagna  or  the  Marches 
were  lost  to  him.  At  moments  during  the  last  five  years  the 
general  situation  in  Italy  seemed  more  favourable  to  the 
Emperor  than  ever  before.  But  such  conjunctions  of  the  stars 
were  dearly  bought ! 

The  repressive  measures  of  the  Emperor  grew  severer  year 
by  year.  The  mistrust  of  a  naturally  mistrustful  monarch  was 
nourished  by  one  ugly  occurrence  after  another.  Any  town 
that  he  entered  had  immediately  to  give  hostages,  and  these 
were  carried  off  to  Apulian  prisons  to  be  slaughtered  at  the 
first  symptom  of  revolt.  Anyone  who  showed  letters  from  the 
Pope  lost  hands  and  feet.  The  Emperor  recognised  rebels  only, 
not  enemies  ;  hence  every  non-imperialist  found  armed  was 
hanged.  Places  that  were  suspect  might  expect  any  fate. 
Occasional  miscarriage  of  justice  was  not  unknown  :  a  pair  of 
knights  from  the  March  were  caught  and  hanged — they  had 
been  on  their  way  to  join  the  Emperor's  army.  It  is  said  that 
a  tiny  mark  was  sometimes  put  on  a  suspect's  back  without  his 


626  SAVAGERY  ix 

knowledge  so  that  the  imperial  spies  might  keep  their  eye  on 
him.  One  nobleman  fell  under  suspicion  because  when  his 
native  town  went  over  to  the  enemy  his  tower  was  left  standing. 
Frederick  sardonically  opined  that  both  he  and  the  tower- 
owner  must  be  much  beloved  since  the  imperial  palace  was  also 
spared.  The  noble  smiled  a  forced  smile  but  disregarded  his 
friends'  warnings,  and  on  the  next  breath  of  suspicion  found 
himself  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  with  a  millstone  round  his  neck. 
Even  the  good  faith  of  loyal  towns  like  Pisa  and  Lucca  had  to 
be  purchased.  The  Emperor  handed  over  to  them  the  terri 
tories  of  the  Lunigiana  and  Garfagnana  which  King  Enzio  had 
promised  them.  He  even  promised  the  Cremonese  to  make 
their  town  the  capital  of  Italy  in  place  of  Rome.  His  treatment 
of  prisoners  was  ruthless.  In  his  manifestos  he  boasted,  for 
instance,  that  he  had  had  three  hundred  Mantuans  hanged  along 
the  banks  of  the  Po,  or  again  that  he  had  prevented  the  defec 
tion  of  Reggio  by  publicly  beheading  a  hundred  revolutionaries. 
Before  the  end  the  word  "  mercy  "  had  been  deleted  from  his 
vocabulary.  Some  noble  Florentine  Guelfs  defended  them 
selves  in  the  Tuscan  fortress  of  Capraio  and  surrendered  after 
a  short  siege.  Some  were  hanged  on  the  spot;  some  were 
taken  in  chains  to  Naples,  blinded,  mutilated  and  flung  into  the 
sea.  Only  one  of  the  most  distinguished  was  blinded  and 
released  and  sent  to  the  barren  island  of  Monte  Christo  to  end 
his  days  as  a  monk. 

Frederick  thus  sought  to  defend  himself  by  terror  against  the 
host  of  minor  foes.  Since  the  Pope's  flight  he  had  no  "  big 
enemy  "  in  Italy  and  the  struggle  had  changed  its  character. 
He  was  no  longer  fighting  as  in  the  days  of  Gregory  IX  as 
Emperor  against  the  Pope  in  person.  Frederick  II  and  the 
House  of  Hohenstaufen  were  now  fighting  with  tangible 
weapons  against  intangible  opponents  :  Papacy  and  Church. 
Formerly  the  Italian  continent  had  been  too  narrow  for  the  two 
world  powers,  now  Frederick  II  filled  the  space  alone,  while 
Innocent  had  vacated  the  scene  of  battle  and  from  Lyons  was 
driving  his  subterranean  tunnels,  mining  the  very  ground 
beneath  the  Emperor's  feet,  instead  of  meeting  him  in  the  open 
field.  Frederick  lacked  a  visible  enemy  and  a  definite  point 
of  attack.  He  could  no  longer  cross  swords  with  the  Pope ; 


CALL  OF  THE  EAST  627 

the  fight  now  raged  to  and  fro  between  the  Emperor  and  his 
own  subjects  whom  the  Pope  seduced.  Whenever  Frederick 
attempted  a  march  towards  Lyons  or  into  Germany,  so  as  to 
be  again  face  to  face  with  the  foe  and  to  escape  the  almost 
intolerable  tension — "  would  that  our  hand  had  someone  to 
conquer !  " — some  insurrection  or  another  drew  him  back  into 
the  vortex  of  Italian  strife.  He  remained  for  ever  chained  to 
the  Apennines.  Never  again  was  he  able  to  try  his  strength 
in  the  more  distant  spaces  of  the  Empire.  Whether  or  not  he 
groaned  "  O  felix  Asia !  "  the  worm  gnawed  remorselessly  at 
his  vitals. 


Under  this  strain,  in  the  hampering  conditions  of  this  ignoble 
struggle  against  the  plots  and  intrigues  of  rebels  and  priests,  a 
craving  suddenly  flashed  out  to  bid  the  west  good-bye  and  to 
seek  again  the  alluring  spaces  of  the  east.  The  later  Napoleon 
felt  it  too  :  "  I  should  have  been  wiser  to  have  stayed  in  Egypt. 
By  now  I  should  have  been  Emperor  of  the  whole  East/5  he 
exclaimed  at  the  sight  of  St.  Helena.  In  a  letter  to  the  Nicaean 
Emperor  Vatatzes,  after  various  complaints  against  revolu 
tionaries  and  deceitful  priests  who  dared  to  depose  a  king, 
Frederick  wrote :  "  But  such  things  happen  more  easily  in  our 
western  lands  !  O  happy  Asia !  O  happy  rulers  of  the  Orient ! 
who  fear  neither  the  dagger  of  the  rebel  nor  the  superstitions 
invented  by  the  priest !  "  Such  an  outburst  of  personal  feeling 
was  rare  in  Frederick's  state  correspondence.  It  tallies  with 
the  legend  that  he  had  contemplated  abdication  and  dreamt 
of  betaking  himself  for  ever  to  the  east,  promising  to  conquer 
the  whole  of  Syria.  A  new  Empire  in  the  Orient,  now  that  he 
had  exhausted  what  the  narrow  west  could  offer ;  intercourse 
with  Muslim  friends ;  subjects  whose  only  thought  was  blind 
obedience  even  unto  death — these  were  the  Emperor's  castles 
in  the  air.  Such  a  journey  to  the  east  as  he  desired  was  not 
to  be.  In  another  fashion,  more  bitter  than  the  resignation  of 
a  throne,  than  a  gradual  retreat  towards  the  east,  he  was  to  be 
gradually  weaned  from  the  men  and  things  and  states  of  this 
world. 

Within  a  few  weeks  of  the  Council  of  Lyons  Frederick  saw 


628  ORLANDO   DI   ROSSI  ix 

in  what  quarter  the  danger-clouds  were  gathering.  Treacherous 
documents,  including  plans  for  the  assassination  of  the  Emperor 
and  of  King  Enzio,  were  discovered  in  the  monastery  of  Fonte- 
vivo  near  Parma.  Parma  was  implicated,  and  when  Frederick 
hastily  repaired  thither  to  prevent  the  defection  of  this  impor 
tant  town  he  made  the  further  discovery  that  Bernardo  Orlando 
di  Rossi,  the  Pope's  brother-in-law,  with  a  number  of  Guelf 
knights  had  fled  from  Parma  in  the  direction  of  Piacenza  and 
Milan. 

Orlando  di  Rossi  had  been  hitherto  one  of  the  professed 
supporters  of  Frederick  II.  He  was  an  important  personality, 
well  known  throughout  upper  Italy,  for  he  had  frequently  held 
the  office  of  podesta  in  imperial  towns.  His  countryman,  Fra 
Salimbene,  the  mendicant  of  Parma,  describes  him  thus  :  "  I 
never  saw  a  man  who  looked  so  perfectly  the  part  of  an  illus 
trious  prince."  Orlando  had  a  most  impressive  exterior  which 
his  courage  did  not  belie.  When  he  appeared,  armed,  in  the 
battle,  and  laid  about  him  right  and  left,  felling  the  foe  with  a 
heavy  iron  club,  men  fled  as  from  the  devil  incarnate,  and  Fra 
Salimbene  was  fain  to  recall  the  exploits  of  Charles  the  Great  : 
"  according  to  what  is  recorded  of  Charlemagne  and  what  I 
with  mine  own  eyes  saw  of  Orlando.''  Orlando  di  Rossi  be 
longed  to  the  cultured  men  of  his  time.  As  podesta  of  Siena 
he  instituted  a  sort  of  town  history  in  which  he  proposed  to 
record  :  "  the  victories  and  triumphs  for  undying  memory," 
as  the  Scipios  had  painted  the  deeds  of  their  forefathers  upon 
their  doorposts  to  be  inspired  thereby  to  the  conquest  of  the 
earth.  Orlando  has  taken  this  anecdote  with  misunderstand 
ings  from  Sallust.  With  such  style  and  bearing  and  mentality 
it  was  natural  that  Orlando  should  be  one  of  Frederick's  more 
intimate  circle — they  were,  moreover,  related — and  it  was  one 
of  the  contributory  considerations  influencing  the  choice  of 
Sinibaldo  Fiesco  as  Pope  that  Orlando  di  Rossi  was  his  brother- 
in-law.  Soon  after  the  papal  flight  a  breath  of  distrust  towards 
the  Pope's  friends  in  Parma  must  have  crept  over  Frederick. 
He  certainly  despatched  Piero  della  Vigna  to  Parma  at  the 
time  to  ensure  the  town's  allegiance.  But  in  spite  of  mis 
givings  Frederick  acquiesced  in  the  choice  of  Orlando  di 
Rossi  as  podesta  of  Florence  for  1244.  It  could  only  produce 


FREDERICK  AND   HIS  VICARS  629 

a  reassuring  impression  during  the  progress  of  the  peace 
negotiations  if  the  Pope's  brother-in-law  was  holding  office  in 
one  of  the  most  important  of  the  imperial  towns.  But  this 
time  the  game  went  wrong.  Instead  of  Orlando's  winning  the 
Pope  over  to  the  Emperor's  side  the  Pope  converted  his 
brother-in-law  to  the  Guelfs.  Orlando  di  Rossi  openly  betrayed 
the  Emperor.  Frederick  felt  the  blow  severely,  but  this  was 
only  the  prelude  to  the  great  conspiracy  amongst  his  intimates 
which  followed  a  few  months  later. 


There  is  no  doubt  that  service  under  a  ruler  like  Frederick  II 
was  anything  but  a  sinecure.  All  private  life  came  to  a  stand 
still  for  the  imperial  vicars  as  it  did  for  the  marshals  of  Napoleon. 
Their  life  was  consecrated  wholly  to  the  service  of  the  State 
and  of  the  Emperor,  and  that  service  was  wearing,  difficult  and 
dangerous.  The  relationship  of  vicar  to  Emperor  was  one  of 
extreme  delicacy.  On  the  one  hand  the  vicar  had  the  fullest 
responsibility  and  almost  unlimited  powers,  on  the  other 
Frederick  never  abandoned  towards  any  man  a  certain  sus 
picion,  all  officials  were  watched,  and  the  Emperor  would 
intervene  at  any  moment  in  the  administration.  Considering 
the  great  independence  of  the  officials  and  the  precariousness 
of  Frederick's  exalted  position  this  was  most  natural,  but 
friction  was  inevitable.  Sometimes  the  Emperor  was  over 
vigorous  ;  sometimes  the  official  was  unduly  sensitive.  Most 
of  the  vicars  had  known  their  master  from  their  youth  up  ;  they 
knew  his  distrust,  they  knew  his  watchfulness,  and  on  their  side 
they  brought  suspicion  to  bear,  often  most  unfairly,  on  every 
utterance  of  the  Emperor's.  The  nagging  and  the  eternal 
discontent  of  the  Napoleonic  marshals  offer  a  parallel.  The 
sensitiveness  and  querulousness  of  his  trusty  intimates  indulged 
even  at  critical  moments  aroused  at  times  Frederick's  impatient 
wrath.  In  a  letter  referring  to  some  question  of  accounts  the 
Emperor  wrote  to  Piero  della  Vigna  the  innocent  words  "  be 
diligent  and  attentive  in  the  matter  as  is  thy  wont."  Della  Vigna 
was  deeply  hurt  by  the  phrase  and  wrote  back  that  all  the  praise 
contained  in  the  imperial  letter  amounted  to  the  exact  opposite. 
Frederick  would  seem  to  consider  him  lazy  and  careless,  which 


630  A  ROYAL  APOLOGY  ix 

must  be  based  on  slander.  .  .  .  Whereupon  Frederick  only 
threatened  his  friend  with  his  serious  anger  for  daring  to  bring 
such  ridiculous  accusations  against  his  Emperor. 

It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the  Emperor  was  at  times 
really  unjust  tp  one  or  another,  especially  in  those  years  of 
strain  and  stress.    This  was  only  to  be  expected,  but  there 
often  reigned  at  Court  a  dangerous  atmosphere,  and  visitors 
used  with  foresight  to  inform  themselves  about  the  current 
temperature.    Frederick  was  neither  obstinate  nor  petty.    He 
never  clung  to  a  mistake,  and  there  is  something  deeply  moving 
in  the  words  he  writes  at  a  time  of  terrible  anxiety  to  a  well- 
beloved   Captain   of    Sicily,   Andrew   Cicala,   soothing   and 
encouraging  him,  acknowledging  a  blunder  and  apologising 
for  it  unreservedly  and  with  gracious  dignity  :   "  The  unfor 
tunate  words  which  caused  you  pain  and  so  suddenly  upset  the 
calm  of  your  firm  mind,  sprang  from  a  mood  of  wrath  and 
irritation.    We  are  all  the  more  rejoiced  that  thy  well-tried 
uprightness  and  good-faith  remained  unshaken  by  such  idle 
words.    The  more  strongly  thou  feelest  such  unjust  phrases 
the  more  steadfast  and  sure  is  thy  constancy,  one  of  the  bastions 
of  thy  incorruptible  loyalty,  the  proof  whereof  lies  with  thine 
own  memorable  deeds  and  with  our  pure  and  constant  trust — 
more  solemn  testimony  than  any  outside  witness  !    Need  we 
say  more  .  .  .  canst  thou  still  find  room  to  doubt  .  .  .  apart 
from  the  subtle  signs  of  affection  which  the  eyes  cannot  see, 
thou  must  be  conscious  of  our  trust  since  we  leave  our  cares  in 
thy  hands  and  rely  on  thee  as  on  a  second  self.    If  aught  of  thy 
vexation  still  remain  banish  the  last  remnants  thereof,  and  when 
the  rust  of  doubt  has  been  polished  away,  believe  in  the  con 
stancy  of  our  unaltered  regard.    As  we  on  our  side  trust  that 
thy  good  faith  to  us  is  immutable,  thou  for  thy  part  must  not 
doubt  that  our  favour  and  our  grace  are  thine  unchangeably." 
The  distrust  of  his  officials  1    The  fact  that  distrust  was 
possible  !    In  this  Frederick  saw  the  greatest  menace  of  all. 
Nothing  is  recorded  of  the  Emperor's  grief  at  the  petty  irrita 
bility  of  his  friends,  the  deeper  underlying  causes  of  which  he 
did  not  fail  to  fathom  ;  we  are  not  told  how  often  he  comforted 
them  by  a  letter  like  the  foregoing,  or  oftener  yet  by  a  talk, 
many  a  time  by  a  mere  glance,  and  once  again  renewed  the 


1245-6  FREDERICK  OF  ANTIOCH  631 

spell  that  bound  them  to  him,  the  charm  by  which  he  first  had 
won  them.  It  is  one  of  the  fateful  penalties  of  greatness  that 
the  magic  of  a  personality  by  becoming  a  daily  commonplace 
loses  its  power  most  readily  over  the  nearest  intimates.  The 
spell  that  still  can  bind  the  stranger  plays  false  at  home.  No 
great  monarch  but  has  been  the  victim  of  a  friend's  treachery. 
Such  treachery  springs  not  from  hostility  and  hate  but  from 
weakness  and  cowardice.  The  traitor  too  incompetent  to 
sustain  for  long  the  demands  of  office ;  too  weak  to  bear  the 
continuous  presence  of  the  great  man ;  too  cowardly  to  avow 
weakness  and  incompetence  ;  and,  again,  too  vain  and  self- 
seeking  to  resign  the  service,  not  lacking  withal  in  genuine  love, 
admiration,  reverence  for  the  Master — the  intolerable  burden 
of  such  a  conflict  drives  sometimes  the  nearest  to  deceit  and 
treachery.  One  renegade  who  at  a  critical  moment  thus 
throws  scruple  to  the  winds  easily  becomes  the  seducer  of  the 
wavering.  Such  was  Orlando  di  Rossi's  role. 


From  Parma  Frederick  II  had  taken  steps  to  avert  the 
threatening  defection  of  Reggio.  He  had  then  embarked  on  a 
campaign  of  devastation  against  Milan,  but  he  did  not  succeed 
in  coming  to  grips  with  the  Milanese  army,  and  during  the 
winter  of  1245-46  he  made  Grosseto  on  the  coast  of  Tuscany 
his  headquarters  for  several  months.  The  district  of  the 
Maremma  promised  good  hawking,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Emperor  could  supervise  Tuscany  more  closely.  Various 
irregularities  had  appeared  in  the  administration,  and  the 
venality  of  several  authorities  had  come  to  light.  Frederick 
was  obliged  first  to  recall  the  Apulian  Pandulf  of  Fasanella,  who 
for  many  years  had  been  Vicar  General  of  the  difficult  province 
of  Tuscany,  and  to  replace  him  by  the  imperial  bastard  Frede 
rick  of  Antioch,  whom  people  soon  styled  King  of  Tuscany. 
Frederick  of  Antioch  must  have  then  been  a  youth  of  about 
twenty :  competent,  energetic,  cautious,  equal  to  the  delicate 
conditions  in  Tuscany,  a  courageous  warrior,  a  poet  who  could 
write  tender  canzones,  a  man  of  such  gracious  and  charming 
personality  that  people  forgot  that  he  was  lame.  Men  liked  to 
believe  that  his  mother  had  been  the  sister  of  al  Kamil,  a  lady 


632  CONSPIRACY  OF  INTIMATES  ix 

whom  the  Emperor  had  met  on  his  first  Crusade,  but  who  had 
refused  his  advances  until  Frederick  arranged  for  a  black-sailed 
ship  to  sail  into  the  Syrian  harbour  bearing  news  of  the 
Empress's  death.  .  .  .  This  was  pure  fiction.  Nothing  was 
known  of  Frederick  of  Antioch's  mother. 

The  following  events  stand  in  intimate  relation  to  the 
removal  of  Pandulf.  The  preceding  year  he  and  Orlando  di 
Rossi,  who  was  thtnpodesta  of  Florence,  had  worked  together 
in  Tuscany.  It  was  the  custom  that  the  higher  officials  when 
temporarily  unemployed  should  take  up  their  quarters  at 
Frederick's  court  and  place  themselves  at  the  Emperor's  dis 
posal.  Pandulf,  therefore,  betook  himself  to  court  after  his 
recall.  Some  weeks  passed.  In  March  1246  a  boat  arrived 
in  Grosseto,  sent  in  haste  by  Count  Richard  of  Caserta,  the 
Emperor's  son-in-law.  It  brought  word  of  a  widespread  con 
spiracy  against  the  life  of  Frederick  and  King  Enzio.  It 
arrived  at  the  eleventh  hour.  The  crime  was  scheduled  for 
the  morrow.  Natural  phenomena  were  already  foretelling  some 
monstrous  catastrophe,  which  the  astrologer  Guido  Bonatti 
claimed  also  to  have  foreseen.  Sun  and  moon  disappeared, 
the  stars  turned  pale,  the  heavens  rained  blood,  the  earth  was 
enveloped  in  thick  darkness  amidst  lightning  and  thunder,  the 
sea  ran  mountains  high.  Terror  seized  those  of  the  conspirators 
who  were  at  court.  Before  the  Emperor  could  institute  in 
vestigations  they  fled  to  Rome,  having  been  warned  in  time. 
Amongst  them  were  two  of  the  most  distinguished  leaders, 
Pandulf  of  Fasanella  and  Jacob  of  Morra.  The  latter  was  one 
of  Frederick's  most  trusted  intimates,  Vicar  General  of  the 
March,  a  son  of  the  recently  deceased  Chief  Justice,  Henry 
of  Morra. 

The  flight  of  the  two  conspirators  confirmed  Count  Caserta's 
warning.  The  Emperor  learnt  at  the  same  time  that  the  con 
spiracy  had  spread  through  much  wider  circles.  The  prime 
mover  in  the  plot  was  Orlando  di  Rossi.  He  had  not  only 
enlisted  Pandulf  of  Fasanella  beforehand  in  Florence,  but  had 
induced  the  imperial  podesta  of  Parma,  Tebaldo  Francisco,  to 
join  them.  Francisco,  who  had  been  for  years  Vicar  General 
of  the  March  of  Treviso,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  Frederick's 
officials  and  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends,  was  generally 


PARRICIDES  633 

considered  to  be  the  head  of  the  conspirators.  When  Tebaldo 
got  news  that  the  Grosseto  scheme  had  failed  he  fled  to  Sicily, 
being  in  secret  correspondence  with  Andrew  of  Cicala,  Captain 
of  Sicily.  Apparently  Roger  de  Amicis,  Captain  of  the  Island, 
was  also  in  league  with  the  conspirators.  Like  Jacob  of  Morra 
he  was  famous  as  one  of  the  first  poets  in  the  Sicilian  vernacular. 
The  conspirators  were  thus  one  and  all  men  who  had  for  years 
discharged  the  highest  offices  in  the  State,  and  ruled  the  most 
important  provinces,  men  who  on  the  human  side  stood  nearest 
to  the  Emperor  and  enjoyed  his  fullest  confidence.  A  few  were 
subordinate  officials,  relations  for  the  most  part  of  the  bigger 
men  :  Richard  and  Robert  of  Fasanella,  William  Franciscus, 
Godfrey  of  Morra.  In  Sicily  itself  some  non-officials  had 
joined  the  plot  from  personal  motives  :  the  Counts  of  San 
Severino  ;  they  had  unquestionably  always  been  badly  treated 
by  the  Emperor. 

The  discovery  that  his  nearest  friends  had  been  seeking  his 
life  had,  naturally,  a  profound  effect  on  Frederick.  It  made 
him  shudder,  he  wrote,  to  think  that  these  men  were  actually 
plotting  the  deed  of  shame  at  the  very  moment  that  they  were 
dining  at  the  same  table  with  him  and  conversing  amiably  with 
him  in  his  rooms  at  court.  With  a  father's  pride  he  had  watched 
them  grow  up,  he  had  exalted  them  from  the  lowliest  stations 
to  the  highest  posts  of  honour  at  Caesar's  court,  he  had  treated 
them  with  so  much  affection  that  he  kept  no  secrets  from  them, 
he  trusted  them  as  fully  as  he  trusted  the  sons  of  his  body,  he 
had  even  chosen  them  to  be  his  bodyguard,  and  many  a  time 
had  laid  his  head  in  their  lap.  "  Parricides  "  he  called  the 
recreants,  stepsons,  not  sons.  .  .  .  They  were  men  recognising 
no  human  tie,  miscreants  who  criminally  plotted  the  death  of 
their  benefactor.  With  them  a  new  human  type  had  come  to 
birth  :  a  human  form  with  animal  instincts  only. 


Faced  with  danger  the  Emperor  showed  himself  possessed 
of  all  his  old  vigour  and  power  :  as  he  had  need  to  be.  The 
plan  had  wide  ramifications.  Frederick  and  Enzio  and  Ecce- 
lino  were  to  have  been  murdered  at  a  banquet ;  Parma  was  to 
have  gone  over  to  the  enemy.  Already  the  Emperor's  old  foe, 


634  VENGEANCE  ix 

Rainer  of  Viterbo,  called  in  by  one  of  the  traitors,  had  invaded 
the  imperial  territories  at  the  head  of  a  papal  army.  He  was, 
completely  defeated  with  heavy  losses  at  Spello  by  Marinus  of 
Eboli,  Vicar  General  of  Spoleto,  who  had  remained  faithful. 
The  worst  was,  however,  that  the  traitors  had  stirred  up  an 
insurrection  and  produced  general  confusion  throughout  Sicily 
by  the  news  which  they  spread  broadcast  that  the  Emperor 
was  dead.  They  had  got  possession  of  the  fortresses  of  Sala 
and  Capaccio  and  the  town  of  Altavilla.  Thus  the  centre  of 
the  revolt  was  in  the  heart  of  Frederick's  hereditary  kingdom 
in  southern  Campania  between  Paestum  and  Salerno. 

Frederick  immediately  hastened  southward  from  Tuscany  : 
"  the  apple  of  his  eye  must  not  suffer  harm  !  "    The  loyal 
Sicilians,  even  before  their  master's  arrival,  had  independently 
cut  off  the  two  fortresses,  so  that  Sala  surrendered  to  the 
Emperor  after  a  few  days.    Altavilla  was  taken  by  storm  and 
razed  to  the  ground,  and  anyone  related  even  remotely  to  the 
conspirators  was  blinded  and  burnt  alive.     The  Emperor's 
arrival  in  person  immediately  quelled  what  remained  of  the 
revolt.     Only  the  citadel  of  Capaccio,  which  the  ringleaders 
were  defending,  still  held  out,  although  the  town  was  in  the 
Emperor's  hands.     The  heat  of  July  was  extreme,  water  sup 
plies  gave  out,  and  the  besiegers'  catapults  began  to  do  greater 
and  greater  execution.    The  citadel  could  not  be  saved  ;  the 
garrison  surrendered.     To  his  amazement  Frederick  found 
amongst  the  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  the  leaders  of  the  con 
spiracy  themselves,  especially  Tebaldo  Francisco.    Frederick 
seems  to  have  expected  that  they  would  have  fallen  on  their 
own  swords  or  leapt  from  the  crags,  preferring  self-chosen 
death  to  the  vengeance  of  their  outraged  master.     Since  they 
did  not,  he  felt  them  at  his  mercy. 

Their  punishment  fitted  their  crime.  They  were  blinded 
with  red-hot  irons  that  they  might  not  see  their  lord,  and 
mutilated  in  noses,  hands  and  legs,  and  thus  the  sometime 
friends  were  brought  before  their  ruthless  judge.  According 
to  the  Lex  Pompeia  Frederick  had  them  condemned  for  murder 
and  treated  them  as  parricides.  They  had  committed  a  crime 
"  against  nature  "  and  therefore  were  put  to  death  by  all  four 
elements.  Some  were  dragged  to  death  by  horses  over  stony 


INSTIGATOR  OF  ASSASSINS  635 

ground,  others  burnt  alive,  others  were  hanged,  the  rest  sewn 
up  in  leather  sacks  and  thrown  out  into  the  sea,  following  the 
Roman  treatment  of  parracides.  Frederick  added  a  symbolical 
refinement  by  having  poisonous  snakes  sewn  up  in  the  sacks 
with  them. 

Frederick  made  an  exception  of  Tebaldo  Francisco,  the  arch- 
villain  of  the  piece.  He  and  five  others  were  to  be  blinded  and 
mutilated  and  dragged  through  all  the  countries  of  the  earth 
from  town  to  town  to  all  kings  and  princes  so  that  the  earth 
might  see  the  monster.  "  Let  the  punishment  of  this  accursed 
criminal  instruct  your  minds  and  spirits  by  the  sight  of  the  eye 
which  makes  more  impression  than  what  is  heard  by  the  ear. 
Let  no  forgetfulness  obliterate  what  ye  have  seen,  let  the 
memory  of  a  just  judgment  be  remembered."  A  papal  bull 
was  tied  to  the  traitor's  forehead  so  that  all  the  world  might 
know  the  instigator  of  the  murderous  plot :  Innocent  IV. 


Frederick  had  long  had  no  doubts  left  in  his  mind  that  the 
High  Priest  was  the  ultimate  assassin.  The  threads  of  the 
conspiracy  were  spun  in  Lyons.  "  We  would  fain,"  he  wrote, 
"  have  kept  silence  about  the  name  and  title  of  our  foe,  but 
transparent  facts  make  the  accusation,  and  public  opinion  lays 
it  bare  and  declares  the  name  our  silence  is  shielding,  and  the 
cloak  of  our  words  excusing."  The  Emperor  was  able  to 
announce  that  the  first  prisoners,  not  under  torture  but  volun 
tarily  in  making  their  last  confession,  had  admitted  that  they 
had  taken  the  cross  against  Frederick  from  the  hands  of  men 
dicant  monks,  and  that  they  had  been  authorised  to  act  as  they 
did  by  letters  from  the  Pope. 

The  Emperor  further  made  known  that  his  enemy  the  Bishop 
of  Bamberg,  coming  from  the  Pope  at  Lyons,  had  openly 
declared  in  Germany  that  Frederick  II  was  about  to  die  a 
shameful  death  at  the  hands  of  his  friends  and  intimates. 
Other  indications  :  Orlando  di  Rossi's  leading  part ;  the  par 
ticipation  of  the  podesta  of  Parma,  the  instantaneous  invasion 
of  Cardinal  Rainer,  and  many  another  thing  pointed  clearly  to 
the  papal  Curia's  being  implicated.  The  extant  documents  of 
the  cardinals  leave  no  doubt  alive  to-day  that  Innocent  IV,  who 


636  HENRY  RASPE  ix 

had  been  inviting  everyone  "  to  wash  his  hands  in  the  blood  of 
this  sinner,"  had  at  the  very  least  minute  knowledge  of  the 
plan.  No  one  else  could  so  promptly  profit  by  the  Emperor's 
death. 

It  is  unprecedented  in  medieval  history  that  a  pope  should 
actually  set  out  to  have  an  Emperor  murdered.  Within  the 
framework  of  Innocent's  total  policy  this  attempt  on  Frederick's 
life  is  only  one  ingredient  in  a  great  scheme.  The  spring  of 
1246  was  to  mark  the  opening  of  a  general  papal  offensive 
destined  to  smash  the  Hohenstaufen  influence  simultaneously 
in  every  country  of  the  Empire :  in  Sicily,  in  Germany,  in 
Italy.  With  the  battle-cry  "to  free  the  oppressed"  papal 
legates  with  troops  furnished  by  the  citizens  of  Rome  were  to 
invade  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  immediately  on  Frederick's  death 
— an  easy  matter  since  the  Vicars  General  and  the  highest 
officials  were  among  the  conspirators.  Parma  was  the  centre 
for  Italy,  where  Tebaldo  Francisco  was  the  faithless  imperial 
podesta.  He  had  been  promised  the  rule  of  Sicily,  ostensibly 
in  the  Pope's  name.  The  inclusion  of  Enzio  and  Eccelino  in 
the  plan  shows  that  the  fall  of  the  Hohenstaufen  rule  was  the 
real  goal.  The  murder  of  the  Emperor  himself  was  the  task 
allotted  to  the  nobles  remaining  at  court.  In  Germany  the 
establishment  of  a  rival  king  was  expected  to  produce  the  fall 
of  Conrad.  No  one  seems  to  have  reckoned  with  a  possible 
miscarriage  of  the  plot. 

The  Pope's  whole  elaborate  plan  was  wrecked  by  the  timely 
discovery  of  the  conspiracy,  at  least  as  far  as  Sicily  and  Italy 
was  concerned.  In  Germany  the  Pope  had  a  momentary  suc 
cess.  Gregory  IX's  efforts  to  set  up  a  rival  king  had  all  fallen 
to  the  ground.  Innocent  IV  had  now  set  the  election  to  work. 
He  had  closed  the  decree  of  deposition  with  the  request  that 
the  electors  should  forthwith  proceed  to  choose  another  prince 
to  fill  the  place  of  the  deposed  Emperor.  Pope  Innocent  even 
found  an  aspirant :  the  Thuringian  Landgrave  Henry  Raspe, 
whom  the  Emperor  had  appointed  a  few  years  before  to  succeed 
the  Archbishop  Sigfrid  of  Mainz  as  Regent  of  the  Empire. 
Raspe  at  first  protested,  but  Innocent  appears  to  have  over 
come  his  reluctance  by  the  news  of  the  impending  murder  of 
Frederick.  The  Landgrave  ultimately  consented  to  his  eleva- 


REX  CLERICORUM  637 

tion,  and  in  May  1246,  while  the  Emperor  was  still  fighting  in 
Campania  against  the  conspirators,  Henry  Raspe  was  elected 
in  Veitschochheim,  near  Wlirzburg,  King  of  the  Romans,  or 
Rex  Clericorum  as  the  people  mockingly  said,  for  no  single 
secular  elector  was  present,  and  only  a  small  number  of  spiritual 
princes. 

The  Landgrave  was  never  either  anointed  or  crowned.  For 
his  acceptance  of  the  crown  the  rival  king  had  received  from 
the  Pope  the  not  inconsiderable  sum  of  25,000  silver  marks. 
The  number  of  his  supporters  was  negligible,  but  with  further 
subsidies  from  the  Curia  he  contrived  to  achieve  a  Surprising 
though  short-lived  success.  A  few  months  after  his  elevation 
the  "  Battle  of  the  Kings  "  took  place  near  Frankfurt.  The 
Thuringian  king,  Henry  Raspe,  and  the  Hohenstaufen  king, 
Conrad  IV,  strove  for  victory.  King  Conrad's  army  was 
superior  in  numbers.  But  immediately  before  the  onslaught 
two-thirds  of  the  Hohenstaufen  forces,  led  by  a  Swabian  noble, 
went  over  to  the  enemy.  The  Pope  had  bought  them  for  6000 
marks  and  promised  them  the  Dukedom  of  Swabia,  as  he  also 
promised  Sicily  to  the  unhappy  Tebaldo  Francisco.  The  Land 
grave  won  the  battle  of  Frankfurt,  and  forthwith  a  victory 
proclamation  on  the  imperial  model  went  forth  to  "  our  faithful 
Milan,"  prophesying  a  speedy  victory  over  King  Conrad's 
father.  It  concluded  with  a  familiar  turn  of  phrase  "  we  shall 
triumph  as  the  Emperors  of  Rome  are  wont  to  do."  Even  the 
puppet  king  had  "  learnt." 

The  victory  decided  nothing.  The  Landgrave's  recognition 
was  strictly  limited,  and  a  few  months  later,  in  February  1247, 
Henry  Raspe  died,  to  the  great  inconvenience  of  the  Church. 
It  is  unlikely  that  he  would  have  accomplished  anything  of  real 
value.  King  Conrad  at  this  point  married  Elizabeth  of  Bavaria, 
to  put  an  end  once  and  for  all  to  the  Bavarian-Hohenstaufen 
friction,  and  in  this  same  year  the  Duke  of  Austria  died  and  the 
Emperor  resumed  his  territories.  The  route  to  Italy  was  thus 
barred  by  an  unbroken  Hohenstaufen  barrier  from  Alsace  to 
Austria.  Yet  there  was  no  peace  for  King  Conrad.  The 
German  situation  grew  yearly  more  difficult,  and  in  the  endless 
fighting  almost  the  only  allies  on  whom  the  young  king  could 
count  were  the  towns  who  were  the  natural  enemies  of  secular 


638  WILLIAM  OF  HOLLAND  ix 

and  spiritual  nobles.  That  internal  battle  which  the  Italian 
communes  had  already  fought  out  still  lay  before  the  towns  of 
Germany  which  were  still  seeking  support  from  the  Empire, 
were  even  eager  to  become  "imperial  towns"  and  hoped  by 
this  means  to  achieve  their  independence.  King  Conrad  sorely 
needed  help.  In  October  1247  a  new  rival  king  had  been  set 
up,  again  a  protege  of  the  great  archbishop  Sigfrid  of  Mainz. 
Sigfrid's  mighty  tombstone  represents  two  miserable  little 
dwarfs  of  kings,  one  on  each  side,  while  in  the  centre  the 
haughty  prince  of  the  Church  almost  unheedingly  places  with 
his  finger  tips  a  tiny  crownlet  on  the  head  of  each.  This 
corresponds  exactly  to  reality.  The  new  King  of  the  Romans 
was  Count  William  of  Holland — the  first  mere  count,  who  was 
not  even  one  of  the  princes  of  the  Empire,  to  bear  rule  in 
Germany.  William  lacked  neither  courage  nor  chivalrous 
qualities,  but  his  power  never  extended  beyond  the  Rhine 
country,  the  sphere  of  the  great  archbishops.  Still,  he  con 
trived  from  there  to  keep  King  Conrad  amply  occupied.  The 
world  in  general,  however,  had  no  use  for  a  nineteen-year-old 
Count  William  of  Holland  as  substitute  for  the  mighty  figure 
of  Frederick  II ! 


The  danger  of  the  conspiracy  being  overcome,  Frederick's 
position  south  of  the  Alps  was  almost  stronger  than  before, 
and  his  reputation  of  invulnerability  against  human  assassins 
was  finally  established.  The  confusion  of  a  few  weeks  died 
down  in  Sicily,  and  the  skill  with  which  Frederick  had  countered 
the  papal  machinations  had  not  failed  to  impress  Italy,  where 
the  episode  was  considered  a  triumph  for  the  Emperor.  Even  the 
Musulmans  showed  the  warmest  interest  in  the  latest  events 
in  Tuscany  and  Campania.  In  Northern  Italy  the  Emperor's 
power  was  growing.  The  Venetians  had  long  since  begun  to 
lean  towards  him.  They  had  little  to  hope  from  a  Genoese 
pope.  Several  important  nobles  in  Western  Lombardy  and  in 
Piedmont  allied  themselves  to  Frederick,  and  he  now  controlled 
a  large  unbroken  block  of  territory  stretching  almost  as  far  as 
Lyons.  The  importance  of  these  regions  to  Frederick  was  very 
great,  and  so  he  hastened  to  attach  the  nobles  more  firmly  to 


PARTITION  OF  ITALY  639 

his  person  and  his  cause  by  establishing  family  relations  with 
them.  He  married  one  of  his  natural  daughters  to  the  Genoese 
Margrave  of  Caretto,  and  Manfred,  the  son  of  his  well-beloved 
Bianca  Lancia,  he  married  to  the  daughter  of  Count  Amadeus 
of  Savoy,  thus  establishing  relationship  with  Thomas  of  Savoy, 
to  whom  he  afterwards  entrusted  a  Vicariate  General. 

Circumstances  were  also  favourable  in  central  Italy.  Tus 
cany  was  firmly  held,  and  Frederick  of  Antioch  ruled  like  a 
Signore  in  Florence  after  displacing  the  captains  of  the  popular 
party.  Finally,  Viterbo  voluntarily  submitted.  The  people  of 
Viterbo  had  always  liked  Frederick's  rule  ;  they  now  timidly 
sought  Frederick  of  Antioch Js  mediation.  In  response  to  his 
son's  request  the  Emperor  again  accorded  his  favour  to  this 
once-hated  town,  opining  that  its  treachery  had  been  the  work 
of  Cardinal  Rainer.  To  forestall  any  recurrence  of  earlier 
events  he  sent  his  nine-year-old  son,  whom  Isabella  of  England 
had  borne  him,  to  reside  in  Viterbo,  as  "  King  "  they  said. 

This  precaution  is  noteworthy  because  it  formed  part  of  a 
general  reorganisation  of  the  whole  Italian  administration, 
which  was  the  immediate  consequence  of  the  great  conspiracy 
to  which  it  finally  put  an  end.  The  principle  became  estab 
lished  that  the  Vicars  General  should  be,  as  far  as  possible, 
relations  of  the  Emperor.  The  constitution  henceforth  de 
pended  on  primary  personal  relationships,  and  it  was  abnormal 
for  any  post  of  eminence  to  be  held  by  anyone  outside  the 
imperial  house.  Hubert  Pallavicini  was  one  of  the  rare  ex 
ceptions.  During  the  years  following,  Italy  became  simply  a 
family  possession  of  the  Hohenstaufens.  Imperial  Italy  was 
thereafter  partitioned  more  or  less  as  follows  :  the  north-east 
is  held  by  Eccelino,  central  Lombardy  by  King  Enzio,  followed 
later  by  Pallavicini,  who  at  first  administered  the  coastal  pro 
vince  of  Liguria ;  west  Lombardy  by  Thomas  of  Savoy,  whose 
unmanageably  large  domain  was  later  divided  between  the 
Margraves  Lancia  and  Caretto  ;  Tuscany  by  Frederick  of 
Antioch  ;  Spoleto,  the  Romagna  and  the  March  (a  region  which 
later  shrank  considerably  in  size)  by  Richard  of  Theate,  a 
natural  son  of  the  Emperor,  and  Viterbo  by  the  nine-year-old 
Henry. 

A  thoroughly  experienced  administrator  was  essential  for 


640  HOHENSTAUFEN  KINGS  ix 

Sicily,  and  Walter  of  Manupello  was  appointed.  No  official 
was  now  so  tried  that  Frederick  would  trust  him  with  complete 
independence,  so  the  new  Vicar  was  given  as  "  Counsellors  " 
the  two  juvenile  sons-in-law,  Thomas  of  Aquino,  the  younger, 
and  Count  Richard  of  Caserta,  to  whom  Frederick  wrote  on 
one  occasion  that "  as  a  blood  relation  of  the  Emperor  you  must 
be  wholly  faithful/'  Thomas  of  Aquino  was  later  employed 
as  Vicar  of  the  Romagna  and  Spoleto.  Now  that  the  Vicars 
General  were  for  the  most  part  members  of  the  imperial  house 
their  independence  was  robbed  of  its  danger.  This  system 
held  good  till  the  Emperor's  death. 

Other  alterations  were  effected  at  the  same  time  :  Richard 
of  Montenero  was  appointed  Lord  Chief  Justice  and  Piero  della 
Vigna  Logothetes  of  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily.  The  Emperor 
seems  to  have  been  working  out  another  unified  scheme  ;  to 
equip  each  of  his  sons  with  his  own  court  and  ceremonial, 
assign  to  each  an  endowment  and  to  make  each  a  real  "  King  " 
over  a  certain  Vicariate  General.  A  fragment  is  extant  of  the 
Emperor's  will  dating  from  1247,  drawn  up  apparently  under 
the  impression  of  the  conspiracy  or  in  anticipation  of  a  campaign 
towards  the  north.  Its  contents  are  confirmed  by  certain 
entries  of  the  chroniclers  in  the  same  year :  Frederick  of 
Antioch  with  the  County  of  Alba  was  to  be  King  of  Tuscany  ; 
King  Enzio  of  Lunigiana  ;  King  Henry  of  Sicily  and  the  Pro 
vince  of  Viterbo  ;  the  Emperor's  grandson  Frederick,  son  of 
the  unfortunate  German  King,  Henry  VII,  was  to  be  king  of 
Austria  and  Syria.  Finally,  in  the  same  year,  Manfred  was  to 
be  invested  with  the  Vicariate  General  of  Burgundy  and  West 
Lombardy.  This  scheme  was  never  actually  put  into  execu 
tion,  but  it  shows  how  Frederick  was  endeavouring  to  strengthen 
his  Italian  Empire  which  he  felt  rocking  under  his  feet.  It 
also  shows  how  by  this  distribution  of  his  inheritance  he  was 
gradually  loosening  himself  from  earthly  ties  which  were  exer 
cising  less  and  less  force  on  the  Antichrist  and  Scourge  of  God. 
He  announced  at  this  period  to  his  friends  that  he  had  handed 
over  the  fatigues  of  Italy  to  his  sons.  He  was,  however,  plan 
ning  another  stroke. 


I247  VISIT  TO  GERMANY  641 

In  the  spring  of  1247,  after  a  stay  of  several  months  in  Sicily, 
the  position  south  of  the  Alps  seemed  so  favourable  that 
Frederick  felt  he  might  safely  leave  Italy  and  march  to  Germany 
once  more,  where  the  pretender  Henry  Raspe  was  creating 
unrest.  He  had  long  since  promised  King  Conrad,  who  was 
a  lad  of  only  twenty  and  who  had  been  carrying  on  the  fight  on 
hopeless  outpost  duty,  remote  from  his  father  and  his  brothers, 
that  he  would  ere  long  be  with  him,  and  the  preparations  for 
his  German  campaign  occupied  the  winter  of  1246-7.  This 
time  he  did  not  intend  to  rely  solely  on  exotic  pomp  and  im 
perial  riches  which  had  been  so  effective  when  he  crossed  the 
Alps  alone  with  the  boy  Conrad  twelve  years  before.  A  great 
army  was  to  accompany  him  as  well  as  his  Court,  and  it  was 
remarked  that  the  Emperor  summoned  the  knights  of  the 
Italian  towns  to  join  the  campaign.  The  suggestion  was  sup 
posed  to  be  Piero  della  Vigna's.  This  was  an  unheard  of  thing  ! 
Many  a  time  had  the  Emperors  led  German  warriors  to  Italy, 
but  since  the  days  of  the  Caesars  no  Italians  had  been  enlisted 
for  trans-Alpine  service  in  Germany.  It  appears  that  the 
Italian  knights  acquiesced  without  a  murmur. 

In  March  1247  the  Emperor  quitted  his  hereditary  kingdom. 
He  travelled  by  the  usual  route  northwards  through  Tuscany, 
met  Frederick  of  Antioch  in  Siena,  marched  by  way  of  San 
Miniato  to  Pisa,  without  approaching  Florence.  Frederick 
always  avoided  this  town,  they  say,  because  the  astrologers  had 
foretold  that  he  was  destined  to  die  "  sub  flore,"  and  the  oracle 
had  been  interpreted  as  relating  to  Florence.  From  Tuscany 
he  continued  his  march  to  Lombardy.  Only  one  of  the  Apen- 
nine  passes  was  open  to  him  :  the  Cisa  Pass,  which  was  covered 
in  the  south  by  Pontremoli  and  in  the  north  by  Parma.  The 
other  route,  down  the  Reno  valley  by  way  of  Pistoia,  was  com 
manded  by  the  hostile  town  of  Bologna.  Frederick  reached 
Parma  in  April,  intending  to  push  straight  on  to  Cremona. 
His  original  plan  was  to  hold  a  one-day  Diet  in  Cremona  and 
to  proceed  straight  by  Verona  and  the  Brenner  into  Germany. 
Before  quitting  Tuscany,  however,  the  Emperor  had  heard  of 
the  death  of  Henry  Raspe,  and  this  news,  which  the  court 
received  with  rejoicing,  probably  modified  his  plans.  He  now 
decided  to  march  through  the  Arelate  instead  of  by  the  Brenner 


642  THREAT  TO  LYONS  ix 

and  from  Burgundy  to  make  his  appearance  on  the  Upper 
Rhine,  taking  this  opportunity  not  only  of  visiting  his  kingdom 
of  Burgundy  but  also  of  paying  a  call  on  Pope  Innocent  IV  in 
Lyons.  Counting  on  the  mediation  of  King  Louis  of  France 
he  hoped  either  to  induce  the  Pope  to  conclude  a  friendly  peace 
or  by  a  siege  to  wring  peace  from  him,  as  he  had  once  tried  to 
wring  it  from  Gregory  in  Rome. 

It  was  a  daring  undertaking  which  held  great  prospect  of 
success.  The  plan  of  appearing  on  the  Upper  Rhine  shows 
foresight.  He  could  count  on  many  supporters  there  and 
could  immediately  march  on  to  the  lower  Rhine  which  was 
the  focus  of  the  German  revolt.  His  personal  appearance  in 
Burgundy  would  have  greatly  strengthened  its  attachment  to 
his  service  ;  he  had  already  made  more  impression  on  this 
western  frontier  kingdom  than  any  preceding  German  Emperor 
had  done,  and  he  was  now  apparently  intending  to  establish 
Manfred  there  as  a  Burgundian  king.  The  undertaking  against 
Lyons  was  not  less  promising.  The  recent  alliances  with  the 
Count  of  Savoy  and  his  neighbouring  magnates  had  extended 
his  power  up  to  the  very  gates  of  Lyons,  so  that  Innocent  IV 
would  indeed  be  in  serious  straits  if  Frederick  II  really  appeared 
in  Burgundy.  The  King  of  France  and  his  brothers  would, 
of  course,  have  shielded  him  from  actual  armed  attack,  but 
Lyons  belonged  not  to  France  but  to  the  Empire,  and  King 
Louis  had  not  given  permission  for  the  Pope  to  cross  into 
French  territory. 

In  this  spring  of  1247  Pope  Innocent  IV  was  in  considerable 
distress.  He  was  a  partial  prisoner.  The  fate  of  his  pre 
decessor  besieged  in  Rome,  the  very  fate  he  had  sought  to  flee 
from,  seemed  about  to  overtake  him.  Preparations  for  the 
Emperor's  reception  were  proceeding  apace.  The  Count  of 
Savoy  and  the  Dauphin  had  already  prepared  the  pass  south  of 
the  Mont  Cenis ;  the  Gallic  nobles  were  invited  to  a  Diet  in 
Chambery  for  the  second  week  after  Whitsun,  and  the  trans- 
Alpine  populace  was  eagerly  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the 
"  Caesarea  Fortuna."  After  a  brief  meeting  with  Eccelino  in 
Cremona,  Frederick  had  turned  his  face  westwards  in  the 
middle  of  May,  had  marched  through  Pavia  with  great  pomp 
and  reached  Turin  in  early  June.  While  the  imperial  house- 


1247  GUELFS  TAKE  PARMA  643 

hold  and  the  whole  attendant  train  marched  on  into  the  moun 
tains  Frederick  remained  behind  for  a  few  days  in  Turin  at 
the  foot  of  the  Alps  to  meet  the  Count  of  Savoy.  Just  as  he 
was  about  to  set  out  to  overtake  his  vanguard  a  cry  for  help 
reached  him  from  Enzio.  Parma  had  been  surprised  and  taken 
by  the  Guelfs. 


Orlando  di  Rossi  had  again  taken  a  hand  in  the  game.  Some 
seventy  Guelf  knights  of  Parma,  who  had  fled  to  Piacenza  with 
Orlando  two  years  before,  had  seized  their  opportunity  to 
appear  suddenly  one  Sunday  before  the  gates  of  their  native 
town.  They  knew  the  Emperor  was  in  Turin  ;  Enzio  was 
besieging  a  fortress  in  the  Brescia  region  ;  the  Ghibelline 
knights  of  Parma  has  just  assembled  for  a  big  wedding  and  were 
"  full  of  wine  and  of  good  cheer."  Nevertheless  they  leapt  to 
horse  on  hearing  of  the  Guelfs'  approach.  Led  by  the  imperial 
podesta,  Arrigo  Testa  of  Arezzo,  the  knightly  poet  and  the 
Emperor's  friend,  they  flung  themselves  on  the  foe  before  he 
reached  the  town.  The  imperialists  were  worsted  in  the  first 
bloody  encounter.  Arrigo  Testa  fell  "  fighting  like  a  king," 
and  with  him  many  another,  so  that  the  Guelfs  unhindered 
entered  the  open  city.  Frederick  had  always  feared  the  in 
ternal  treachery  of  Parma,  and  with  a  refinement  of  shrewdness 
he  had  had  the  fortifications  destroyed.  The  German  garrison, 
though  fairly  strong,  was  therefore  unable  to  make  a  stand,  and 
the  victors  met  with  no  other  resistance,  for  the  townsfolk 
remained  indifferent.  No  sooner  had  the  surprise  been  suc 
cessful  than  Parma  by  arrangement  received  help  from  all  sides. 
The  other  Guelf  towns  sent  help  ;  the  Guelf  partisans  who  had 
been  banished  from  the  imperial  towns  hastened  to  Parma  ; 
Milan  sent  a  strong  body  of  auxiliaries  under  the  leadership  of 
the  papal  legate  Gregory  of  Montelongo.  With  them  came 
Orlando  di  Rossi.  All  the  Emperor's  enemies  who  had  long 
been  chafing  in  inactivity  had  now  one  rallying  point ;  in  the 
shortest  possible  space  of  time  the  struggle  for  Parma  had 
become  the  affair  of  all  the  Guelfdom  of  Italy. 

Frederick  recognised  the  danger  involved.  The  journey  to 
Lyons  and  the  German  campaign  were  abandoned  and  the 


644  GUELF  RISINGS  ix 

return  march  hastily  begun.  The  Emperor's  prestige  de 
manded  the  most  severe  punishment  of  the  treacherous  town, 
which  was  of  the  highest  strategic  importance  because  it 
commanded  the  only  route  of  communication  with  the  south. 
The  command  of  Italy  outweighed  every  other  consideration. 
"  Only  one  anxiety  occupies  our  mind :  to  restore  Italy's 
severely-shattered  government.'*  Within  two  weeks  of  the 
catastrophe  the  Emperor  reached  Cremona,  where  he  was  met 
by  Eccelino  with  six  hundred  knights.  Two  days  later  he 
camped  before  Parma,  where  King  Enzio  was  awaiting  him. 
He  had  abandoned  his  luckless  expedition  against  Brescia, 
hastened  to  Cremona,  and  marched  on  Parma  with  all  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms.  Enzio  had  not  ventured  to  attack 
with  such  meagre  forces,  though  according  to  the  chroniclers' 
account  the  town  might  even  then  have  been  re-won  for  the 
Emperor.  He  had  fortified  his  camp  in  front  of  Parma  and 
was  awaiting  his  father's  arrival.  It  is  not  now  possible  to 
divine  why  Frederick  did  not  immediately  storm  the  town, 
which  had  scarcely  had  time  to  throw  up  serious  defences. 
He  seems  to  have  overestimated  the  strength  of  his  opponents, 
and  waited  to  bring  up  reinforcements  from  every  side.  Hugo 
Boterius  of  Parma  was  one  of  the  first  to  arrive  ;  he  brought 
the  levies  of  Pavia.  He  was  a  nephew  of  the  Pope  and  of 
Orlando  di  Rossi,  but  in  spite  of  his  two  uncles  he  remained 
faithful  to  the  Emperor  to  the  last.  Frederick  of  Antioch  was 
soon  on  the  spot  with  the  troops  of  Tuscany.  The  Emperor 
had  himself  had  a  large  army  going  to  Turin,  mainly  composed 
of  Sicilians,  Saracens,  Italian  and  German  mercenary  knights. 
Eccelino  had  brought  Burgundian  knights.  Altogether  Frede 
rick  must  now  have  had  a  very  considerable  force  at  his  dis 
posal.  Having  missed  the  initial  opportunity  of  storming  the 
town  without  waiting  to  besiege  it  he  could  not  keep  this  large 
army  together  before  Parma. 


The  defection  of  Parma  was  the  signal  for  an  almost  universal 
revolt  of  the  Guelfs  of  Italy.  In  every  province  the  Emperor's 
authority  was  suddenly  endangered.  There  was  not  a  single 
Vicariate  General  where  the  Guelfs  did  not  rise  against  the 


BLOCKADE  OF  PARMA  645 

Emperor,  usually  supported  by  papal  troops,  and  even  Sicily 
seemed  threatened  by  the  Genoese,  Within  a  few  weeks  the 
whole  of  Italy  was  ablaze,  and  innumerable  minor  theatres  of 
war  sapped  the  strength  of  the  main  army.  Every  great  power 
in  its  death-throes  is  exposed  to  the  same  danger.  Never 
before  had  Frederick's  case  been  so  desperate.  It  was  no  small 
achievement  that  he  did  succeed  in  repressing  the  insurrection 
in  spite  of  the  infinite  dispersion  of  his  forces. 

A  hard  and  fast  siege  of  Parma  was  from  the  first  impossible. 
The  Emperor  must  be  in  a  position  to  release  troops  as  required 
for  minor  campaigns.  He,  therefore,  set  about  cutting  off  all 
lines  of  communication  with  the  town  in  a  wide  arc,  while  his 
strong  Cavalry  detachments  swept  the  country  round  Parma. 
The  Emperor  himself  closed  the  road  to  the  Guelf  town  of 
Piacenza  by  camping  west  of  Parma  on  the  Taro.  The  im 
perial  towns  of  Reggio  and  Modena  blocked  the  eastern  road  to 
Bologna.  The  road  to  the  north,  and  with  it  the  communica 
tion  with  the  Po,  had  to  remain  open  for  the  moment,  for  nothing 
competed  in  importance  with  the  southern  route  over  the  Cisa 
Pass.  This  pass  over  the  Apennines  was  as  good  as  lost.  The 
northern  exit  had  been  at  once  secured  by  Margrave  Lancia, 
but  confusion  reigned  on  the  further  side.  Garfagnana  and 
Lunigiana  had  fallen  at  the  same  time  as  Parma,  the  Imperial 
Vicar  had  been  taken  prisoner  and  the  Malaspina  Margraves 
had  revolted,  hoping  thus  to  recover  their  territories  which  the 
Emperor  had  confiscated.  Communication  with  Tuscany  was, 
therefore,  actually  cut.  King  Enzio  had  just  returned  with 
Eccelino  and  Hubert  Pallavicini  from  a  raid — he  had  been  sent 
to  strengthen  Modena  and  Reggio  against  Bologna.  He  was 
now  entrusted  with  the  task  of  opening  up  the  Cisa  Pass.  With 
the  assistance  of  Pallavicini,  and  supported  by  the  loyal  Pon- 
tremoli,  he  succeeded  in  taking  the  fortress  of  Berceto  and 
pushing  on  far  beyond  Pontremoli.  One  of  the  Malaspina 
Margraves  submitted.  This  most  important  route  was  thus  at 
the  Emperor's  disposal  once  more. 

Frederick  was  now  free  to  complete  the  encirclement  of 
Parma  on  the  north.  As  long  as  the  besieged  town  had  free 
access  to  the  Po  the  garrison  was  able  to  secure  provisions  sent 
from  Mantua  and  Ferrara  by  boat.  Enzio  and  Eccelino,  who 


646  CHECK  ix 

now  usually  worked  in  concert,  were  ordered  to  make  a  bridge 
head  on  the  Po  west  of  Guastalla,  both  to  put  an  end  to  river 
traffic  and  to  close  the  roads  leading  from  the  river  to  Parma. 
They  took  Brescello,  a  fort  upstream  from  Guastalla,  and  threw 
a  bridge  across  the  river  which  they  strongly  fortified.  This 
drew  the  Mantuans  and  Ferrarese  into  the  quarrel.  They  tried 
to  relieve  Parma,  and  Enzio  and  Eccelino  had  to  keep  this  new 
enemy  at  bay.  This  they  did  without  difficulty,  but  presently 
a  strong  army  from  every  possible  Guelf  town,  accompanied  by 
a  great  fleet,  was  known  to  be  approaching.  Eccelino 's  brother, 
Alberigo  of  Romano,  was  in  the  Guelf  camp.  But  they  did  not 
venture  to  attack  the  imperial  forces,  and  for  two  months  the 
hostile  army  lay  at  Guastalla.  Enzio  and  Eccelino  felt  no  need 
to  attack.  They  were  holding  a  whole  army  in  check  and  ful 
filling  their  task  of  closing  Parma's  last  line  of  communication. 

We  have  no  clue  to  the  inactivity  of  the  papal- Guelf  army. 
The  rumour  inevitably  spread  through  the  besieged  town  that 
the  papal  general,  young  and  charming  Cardinal  Ottaviano 
degli  Ubaldini,  was  secretly  in  league  with  the  Emperor.  This 
was  certainly  untrue,  for  this  particular  scion  of  the  powerful 
Tuscan  family  which  played  so  important  a  role  in  Florentine 
history,  never  was  in  league  with  anyone.  He  made  this  a 
matter  of  principle.  This  highly-gifted,  "most  unpriestly 
priest,"  had  been  made  acting-bishop  of  Bologna  at  twenty- 
six,  was  fully  consecrated  when  he  reached  the  prescribed  age 
of  thirty,  and  at  once  created  a  Cardinal  Deacon  by  Pope 
Innocent.  He  was  neither  Guelf  nor  Ghibelline  but  just  him 
self  :  THE  CARDINAL  !  Every  child  in  Tuscany  knew  him  under 
this  title,  and  Dante  introduces  him  into  the  Divine  Comedy 
under  this  name.  The  poet  saw  him  side  by  side  with  Frede 
rick  II  in  the  fiery  tombs  of  the  Epicureans  "  who  with  the 
body  make  the  spirit  die."  Dante  made  them  neighbours  no 
doubt  also  because  the  Cardinal,  like  Eccelino  and  many  another, 
was  under  the  intellectual  spell  of  the  great  Hohenstaufen  whom 
he  took  as  his  model  in  many  ways. 

Once  when  he  lost  a  sum  of  money  through  the  Ghibellines- 
the  blasphemous  Ottaviano  remarked  with  a  sigh,  "  If  there 
happens  to  be  a  soul  I  have  lost  mine  to  the  Ghibellines." 
Ubaldini  did  not  make  ruthless  power  an  end  in  itself— he  was 


THE  CARDINAL  647 

a  complete  failure  as  a  general— but  he  pushed  to  its  ultimate 
limit  another  method  of  the  Emperor's  :  the  game  of  political 
diplomacy.  He  did  not  pursue  imperial  politics,  nor  church 
politics,  nor  Ubaldini  family  politics,  nor  cardinals*  politics, 
but  just  " politics";  sometimes  pro-  and  sometimes  anti- 
Guelf;  sometimes  with,  sometimes  against,  Florence;  there 
was  no  Ghibelline  party,  no  political  group  with  which  he  did 
not  maintain  continuous  relations,  no  intrigue  in  which  his 
ringed  hand  did  not  play  its  part  always  holding  the  last  card 
in  reserve.  Far  above  Empire  or  Papacy  he  rated  his  own 
attractive,  capricious  personality  which  everyone  in  Italy  cor 
dially  distrusted.  This  lighthearted  artist,  epicure  and  prince 
of  the  Church  sought  every  stimulus  that  the  times  offered. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  Tuscan  vernacular  poets,  closely  related 
to  Hohenstaufen  circles,  not  only  in  matters  of  belief.  When 
the  handsome  Cardinal  Ottaviano  apostrophised  "  my  master, 
Cupid,"  in  a  very  perfect  sonnet  he  sang  of  what  he  knew. 
His  mistresses  and  his  posterity  were  well  known.  The  luxury 
indulged  in  by  the  amorous  poet,  who  was  also  an  enthusiastic 
huntsman,  in  his  magnificent  country  seat  in  the  Mugello, 
rivalled  the  Emperor's.  He  had  had  his  silver  table-service 
wrought  in  Paris ;  he  sent  for  ornaments  and  costly  stuffs  from 
Spain  and  Tripoli  and  Greece ;  his  buckles  and  brooches  were 
set  with  cameos  and  pearls  and  precious  stones ;  his  apartments 
were  lighted  by  candles  in  candelabra  of  mountain  crystal ;  as 
well  as  the  rarest  and  most  select  works  of  art,  such  as  the  first 
goblet  worked  in  niello,  his  treasure  included  a  magnificent 
crown  set  with  sapphires,  rubies  and  carbuncles.  The  pomp 
of  Ubaldini  exercised  nearly  as  great  a  fascination  over  the 
young  aristocrats  as  the  Emperor's  court  had  been  wont  to  do, 
and  the  Cardinal  was  well  skilled  in  finding  high  positions  for 
his  young  chaplains.  These  protege's  of  his  were  infected  as 
a  matter  of  course  with  his  amazing  religious  indifference,  still 
remarkable  amongst  the  spiritual  princes  of  the  day,  and  with 
the  Epicurean  doctrines  of  Averroes  which  Ottaviano  expiated 
in  his  tomb  of  flame.  He  raised  his  chamberlain,  Otto  Visconti, 
to  the  see  of  St.  Ambrose,  making  him  archbishop  of  Milan 
when  this  town  turned  Ghibelline.  Otto  Visconti,  to  whom 
the  Galeazzo  and  Bernabo  owed  their  power,  was  such  a  perfect 


PARMA  IN  STRAITS  ix 

heretic  that  his  chiselled  tomb  of  red  marble  turned  black  of 
itself,  and  when  his  nephew  Matthew  Visconti  had  it  painted 
red  again  turned  black  once  more,  so  the  story  ran.  Cardinal 
Ottaviano  was,  in  short,  the  first  of  a  type  of  cardinal  which 
perished  with  Ippolito  Medici. 

While  the  Cardinal  remained  quietly  in  his  camp  at  Guastalla 
his  reluctance  to  attack  produced  ere  long  unpleasant  conse 
quences  in  Parma.  The  blockade  which  Enzio  and  Eccelino 
had  succeeded  in  establishing  began  to  make  itself  gradu 
ally  felt.  Parma  was  cut  off  from  all  external  assistance,  and 
nothing  was  to  be  got  from  the  immediate  neighbourhood,  for 
cavalry  and  raiding  parties  of  the  Emperor's  scoured  the  country 
without  ceasing,  and  devastated  and  laid  waste  everything  which 
they  did  not  themselves  require.  Famine  became  so  acute  that 
they  were  baking  bread  of  linseed,  and  were  suffering  severely 
from  lack  of  salt.  The  townsfolk  began  to  lose  heart  when  the 
Cardinal's  promised  reliefs  on  which  they  had  been  counting 
were  still  delayed.  The  courageous  and  resourceful  defender 
of  Parma,  the  papal  legate  Gregory  of.Montelongo,  who  knew 
the  Lombards  better  than  most  men,  was  driven  to  every 
conceivable  stratagem  to  persuade  the  inhabitants  to  hold  out. 
The  most  distinguished  knights  of  Parma  were  assembled  when 
a  mendicant  monk  suddenly  appeared  in  their  midst,  travel- 
stained  and  in  the  last  stages  of  exhaustion,  and  took  from  his 
knapsack  a  letter  with  the  joyful  news  that  help  was  at  hand. 
The  letter  had  been  written  overnight  by  Montelongo.  In 
spite  of  all  promises  the  general  opinion  was  that  Cardinal 
Ottaviano  was  betraying  the  papal  cause,  and  Fra  Salimbene, 
who  at  this  point  escaped  from  Parma,  even  carried  the  rumour 
to  Lyons,  where  the  upshot  of  the  siege  was  awaited  with  in 
tense  anxiety :  "for  as  in  a  duel  the  whole  fate  of  Rome  and 
of  the  clergy  hung  thereon."  The  story  ran  that  the  red- 
legged  cardinals  who  swarmed  in  Lyons  had  pressed  round  Fra 
Salimbene  in  such  numbers  that  one  climbed  the  shoulders  of 
another  in  their  eagerness  to  hear  the  latest  news  of  Parma. 

In  spite  of  the  greatest  exertions  on  both  sides  a  speedy 
decision  was  not  forthcoming.  During  the  winter  of  1247-48 


OSIMO  649 

the  Emperor  was  fighting  everywhere  in  Italy.  December 
brought  especially  heavy  battles  in  the  provinces.  Margrave 
Boniface  of  Montferrat,  who  had  recently  submitted  to  the 
Emperor,  had  turned  his  coat  once  more,  and  with  the  support 
of  Vercelli  and  Milan  had  seized  Turin,  where  only  the  garrison 
of  the  Emperor's  palace  still  held  out.  The  Emperor  des 
patched  thither  his  grandson  Frederick,  a  youth  of  twenty  or 
so,  who  succeeded  in  driving  the  Margrave  out  and  rescuing 
Turin  for  the  Emperor.  At  about  the  same  time  Count 
Richard  of  Theate  defeated  a  papal  army  under  Hugo  Novellus 
at  Interamna,  and  Robert  of  Castiglione,  imperial  Vicar  of  the 
March,  inflicted  an  overwhelming  defeat  on  the  papal  legate, 
bishop  Marcellina  at  Osimo,  south  of  Ancona,  chiefly  by  the 
assistance  of  German  mercenary  knights.  The  bishop  was 
taken  prisoner,  four  thousand  papalists  were  reported  slain, 
numerous  standards  and  banners  were  captured,  amongst  them 
one  which  Manuel  Comnenus  had  presented  to  the  people  of 
Ancona  when  they  betrayed  Barbarossa.  Hubert  Pallavicini 
with  Jacob  of  Caretto,  the  Emperor's  son-in-law,  was  preparing 
an  attack  on  Genoa  in  which  the  fleet  took  part. 

Conditions  in  Florence,  and  indeed  in  Tuscany  in  general, 
were  nevertheless  very  critical  for  the  Emperor.  Even  without 
going  himself  to  Florence  Cardinal  Ottaviano  had  an  easy  task 
to  urge  the  Guelfs,  especially  the  nobility,  into  open  rebellion. 
They  had  been  everywhere  excluded  from  office  and  jealously 
watched.  The  common  people,  artisans  and  merchants,  were 
by  no  means  exclusively  anti-Kaiser.  Thanks  to  skilful  Ghibel- 
line  policy  the  famous  imperialist  party,  well  known  as  the 
primo  popolo,  had  been  formed,  which  included  both  the  pro- 
Kaiser  nobility  and  the  people's  party.  Their  case  was  not 
unique.  The  popular  movement  in  Siena  had  years  before 
been  given  an  imperialist  bias  and  a  Ghibelline  had  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  people.  In  Florence  both  parties  now  pro 
ceeded  to  woo  the  crowd,  and  although  Orlando  di  Rossi  may 
have  worked  against  the  Emperor  while  still  keeping  the  mask 
of  loyalty  during  his  term  of  office  as  podesta,  there  were  prob 
ably  not  many  of  the  popular  party  on  the  occasion  of  this  rising 
fighting  under  the  lily-banner  of  the  Guelfs  against  the  Hohen- 
staufen  eagles. 


650  CHAOS  ix 

Frederick  of  Antioch  had  hitherto  treated  the  Florentine 
Guelfs  with  tolerance  and  had  permitted  their  remaining  in 
the  town.  This  lightened  their  task  of  capturing  the  reins  of 
government  in  the  town  with  the  help  of  the  Bolognese  and 
causing  Florence  to  desert  the  Emperor.  The  most  terrible 
street  fighting  took  place,  in  which  the  rage  of  the  Guelfs  was 
chiefly  directed  against  the  imperialist  family  of  the  Uberti. 
They,  however,  were  able  in  their  powerful  towers  to  defy  all 
attack  and  even  to  take  the  offensive.  The  head  of  the  Uberti 
was  the  great  leader  Farinata,  who,  in  Dante's  hell,  is  a  neigh 
bour  of  Frederick  II  and  of  the  Cardinal.  After  the  victory  of 
Montaperti  his  Ghibelline  friends  wanted  to  wipe  Florence  off 
the  face  of  the  earth,  but  Farinata  intervened  and  won  thereby 
the  eternal  fame  of  having  saved  Florence.  His  gigantic  shade 
recognising  a  fellow  Florentine  in  Dante's  speech  revealed  the 
future  to  the  poet : 

His  breast  and  forehead  there 

Erecting,  seemed  as  in  high  scorn  he  held 

E'en  Hell. 

Farinata  had  been  preparing  the  ground  for  an  attack  on  the 
Guelfs  when  Frederick  of  Antioch,  having  assembled  his  forces 
in  Prato,  arrived  and  penetrated  into  Florence.  He  soon  had 
the  town  in  his  power,  and  while  the  Guelfs  fled  to  various 
minor  rallying  points  in  Tuscany  the  crash  might  be  heard  of 
the  Guelf  towers  which  Frederick  of  Antioch  was  pulling  down. 
The  lofty  tower  of  the  Adimari,  some  230  feet  high,  crashed 
down  on  the  Piazza,  missing  the  Baptistery  by  the  thickness  of 
a  hair. 

The  tale  of  Florence  was  repeated  everywhere,  and  even 
when  the  imperial  officials  contrived  to  drive  the  rebels  from 
the  towns,  the  "  fugitives,"  as  they  were  called  now,  formed  a 
definite  class  in  the  population  (one  to  which  Dante  was  later 
to  belong)  which  was  nearly  as  dangerous  without  the  walls  as 
within.  For  they  leagued  themselves  with  the  fugitives  from 
other  towns  and  constituted  a  standing  menace  to  every  im 
perialist  city,  as,  conversely,  fugitive  Ghibellines  from  the  Guelf 
towns  fought  in  the  Emperor's  army  and  threatened  their  native 
places.  The  defection  of  Parma  was  the  signal  in  Italy  for  a 


REX  TYRANNUS  651 

fight  of  all  against  all,  which  was  to  rage  for  decades  with  un- 
diminished  fury.  The  chronicler  complains  that  none  could 
plough  nor  sow  nor  reap  nor  gather  in  the  vintage,  nor  live  in 
the  country  villas,  for  all  was  too  unsafe.  Only  quite  close  to 
a  town  under  the  protection  of  armed  men  a  little  agriculture 
could  be  carried  on.  On  the  high  road  one  traveller  shrank 
from  another  as  from  the  devil  incarnate,  for  each  suspected 
the  other  of  wanting  to  hold  him  to  ransom.  Merchants  could 
only  move  about  in  large  caravans,  and  even  then  the  Floren 
tines  who  were  reckoned  to  be  imperialists  were  by  no  means 
safe  from,  for  instance,  the  papalist  folk  of  Piacenza,  who  on 
occasion  looted  an  entire  Tuscan  caravan.  The  Middle  Ages 
looked  on  this  general  unrest  only  as  a  sign  that  the  reign  of 
Antichrist,  of  the  rex  tyrannus,  had  come,  and  that,  as  the 
chronicler  adds,  "  all  hath  fulfilled  itself  in  its  time  from  the 
moment  that  Parma  fell  away  from  the  side  of  the  Emperor  to 
the  side  of  the  Church." 


Day  by  day  Frederick  was  indeed  growing  more  and  more  of 
a  rex  tyrannus.  While  he  was  encamped  before  Parma  he  saw 
his  whole  Italian  state  aflame  in  raging  revolt  and  the  Church 
lashing  men  on  to  treachery.  How  could  he  master  these 
intangible  spirits  !  Thanks  to  the  valour  of  his  sons  and  his 
vicars  he  was  at  first  victorious  in  the  provinces,  but  it 
became  more  and  more  difficult  to  get  to  grips  with  the  foe. 
Men  of  Florence,  Parma,  Ferrara,  Mantua,  and  other  places 
were  fighting  :  some  in  the  imperial  army  and  some  for  the 
Guelfs  ;  and  Frederick  was  now  pitted  not  against  the  hostile 
feeling  of  whole  communes,  but  against  individual  and  isolated 
persons,  whose  adherence  to  this  party  or  that  was  dictated  by 
the  petty  accidents  and  advantages  of  the  moment.  The  im 
pulses  that  actuated  them  were  confused,  incalculable,  making 
a  mockery  of  any  comprehensive  policy.  Thousands  of  single 
foes  and  single  traitors  constituted  no  commensurable  enemy 
for  an  Emperor.  All  the  while,  as  the  great  conspiracy  had 
proved,  Frederick's  life  was  not  safe.  Surrounded  by  his  body 
guard  of  Saracens  he  came  more  and  more,  though  against  his 
will,  to  resemble  the  "  Tyrant  "  who,  with  treachery  spreading 


652  SARACEN  EXECUTIONERS  ix 

round  him  like  a  plague,  the  defection  of  yesterday's  friends 
for  ever  imminent,  grew  hourly  more  suspicious,  more  severe, 
even  malicious,  in  his  punishments,  and  often  by  fear  terrified 
men  into  disloyalty  and  rebellion. 

Frederick  now  began  to  have  recourse  to  all  the  cruel  re 
finements  of  oppression  which  are  forced  on  a  government 
threatened  by  betrayal.  The  principle  of  taking  hostages  had 
long  been  in  force,  but  the  system  was  now  carefully  extended. 
It  was  not  possible  to  transport  all  hostages  &t  once  to  Apulia,  so 
those  of  one  town  were  handed  over  for  safe  custody  to  another. 

The  hostages  of  Como,  for  instance,  were  lodged  with  Siena, 
those  of  Spoleto  with  Poggibonsi  and  San  Gimignano,  so  that 
each  town  went  bail  for  the  other  and  the  towns  were  linked 
together  by  a  network  of  hostages.  Further,  so  far  as  Guelfs 
did  not  of  their  own  accord  fly  from  the  Ghibelline  towns, 
suspects  were  banished  in  masses  and  every  imperialist  town 
was  forbidden  to  accord  them  refuge.  The  evils  of  denuncia 
tion  followed,  for  anyone  could  thus  get  rid  of  a  rival  or 
opponent.  The  imperial  officials,  breathing  the  air  of  treachery, 
dare  not  neglect  any  accusation.  They  had  to  take  up  any  sus 
picious  case  brought  to  their  notice,  and  in  order,  if  necessary, 
to  extort  confession,  torture  came  into  play.  The  Sicilian 
Book  of  Laws  forbade  the  use  of  torture  save  in  a  few 
restricted  cases,  but  all  safeguards  were  now  thrown  to  the 
winds  in  Italy,  and  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  (the  repeated 
breaking  of  a  rope  for  instance)  could  set  a  victim  again  at 
liberty.  The  application  of  torture  had  a  further  consequence. 
It  was  natural  to  employ  "  the  cyclops  of  Avernus,  the  slaves 
of  Vulcan/'  that  is  to  say,  the  Emperor's  Saracens,  as  execu 
tioners,  and  the  vicar's  courts  were  usually  provided  with  a 
Saracen  hangman,  whom  saint  or  priest  could  not  intimidate. 


The  case  of  bishop  Marcellina  of  Arezzo,  who  was  taken 
prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Osimo,  will  show  how  these  "  myrmi 
dons  of  Satan  "  discharged  their  office.  The  Emperor  had 
issued  general  orders  that  no  more  prisoners  should  be  spared 
and  held  to  ransom,  they  should  be  without  exception  hanged. 
The  fact  that  Marcellina  of  Arezzo  was  a  priest  and  a  legate 


BISHOP  MARCELLINA  653 

of  the  Pope's  was  certainly  not  an  extenuating  circumstance  in 
the  Emperor's  eyes.  On  the  contrary,  he  had  often  inveighed 
against  weapon-bearing  priests,  and  Marcellina  was,  moreover,  a 
vassal  who  had  broken  his  oath  of  fealty.  Yet  his  case  was 
looked  into  and  he  was  imprisoned  for  several  months  before 
being  handed  over  to  the  hangman.  His  execution  aroused 
great  indignation.  Cardinal  Rainer  of  Viterbo  gave  vent  to  his 
hate  shortly  before  his  own  death  in  a  horror-inspiring  pamph 
let  recording  in  letters  of  fire  the  martyrdom  of  Marcellina  and 
the  abominations  of  Frederick  II.  The  Saracen  devils  had 
first  bound  the  saint's  hands  and  feet  and  tied  the  bishop  to  a 
horse's  tail  to  drag  him  through  the  mire  to  the  place  of 
execution.  But  the  bishop  sang  the  Te  Deum  and  the  pious 
horse  stood  still,  and  even  blows  would  not  induce  him  to 
move  till  the  Saracens  had  silenced  further  singing.  After 
various  torments  the  bishop  was  hanged.  Three  days  later 
some  mendicant  monks  buried  him.  The  Saracens  exhumed 
the  corpse,  defiled  it,  and  hung  it  on  the  gallows  again.  This 
continued  till  the  Emperor  put  an  end  to  it. 

The  episode  gave  a  handle  to  hostile  agitation.  In  Wurz- 
burg  a  crusading  sermon  against  Frederick  was  preached.  In 
England  the  opinion  was  that  this  deed  of  shame  would  have 
been  more  scandalous  if  the  papalists  had  not  sullied  their  cause 
with  deeds  more  heinous.  The  Emperor  will  not  have  been 
greatly  stirred  by  the  news  that  Marcellina 's  bones  performed 
miracles.  Saints  who  were  still  alive  were  always,  with  good 
reason,  highly  suspect :  Peter  "  the  Martyr,"  who  later  became 
the  patron  saint  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  stirred  up  a  revolt 
in  Florence,  and  St.  Rosa  carried  on  her  activities  in  Viterbo 
till  the  Emperor  banished  her  and  her  following.  Frederick 
now  issued  instructions  against  the  monks  and  priests  of  Italy 
similar  to  those  he  had  formerly  levelled  at  the  clergy  of  Sicily. 
No  cleric  was  to  presume  to  change  his  dwelling  without  the 
written  permission  of  the  podesta.  Every  bishop  who  obeyed 
the  Pope's  command  and  ceased  to  hold  divine  service  and 
administer  the  sacraments  was  banished  and  his  ^  goods  con 
fiscated.  A  ten-days'  respite  was  granted  them  in  which  to 
resume  the  services.  This  put  the  priests  into  an  awkward 
position.  The  Pope's  advice  :  patiently  to  endure  martyrdom 


6S4  VICTORIA  ix 

was  probably  not  always  taken.  The  mendicant  monks,  whom 
Innocent  sternly  segregated  from  all  other  orders,  developed  a 
Jesuitical  theory  that  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  hold  services  and 
avail  themselves  of  imperial  passports  in  order  to  get  about 
their  business.  Frederick,  therefore,  tightened  up  the  regula 
tions  against  the  mendicant  orders  :  any  receiver  or  conveyer 
of  a  papal  letter,  anyone  even  knowing  of  such  a  letter,  was 
forthwith  condemned  to  a  fiery  death.  One  suspect  pro 
curator  of  the  Sicilian  Minorites  was  arrested,  and  eighteen 
separate  tortures  were  appointed  for  him.  The  chroniclers 
were  never  tired  of  recording  the  cruelties  and  outrages  com 
mitted  by  this  "  Pharaoh  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints  " 
who  had  persecuted  the  clergy  above  all  others.  Frederick 
showed  in  reality  little  of  a  bloodthirsty  tyrant,  though  he  would 
execute  a  number  of  Parma  prisoners  every  morning  in  front 
of  the  city  to  intimidate  the  besieged.  His  reign  of  terror  was 
inspired  not  by  madness  but  by  direst  need. 


Meanwhile  matters  were  progressing  favourably  round 
Parma.  As  winter  drew  on,  Frederick  II  repeated  his  Faenza 
procedure  on  a  much  larger  scale  and  built  a  fortified  camp- 
town,  bringing  wood  and  tiles  from  all  the  neighbourhood 
round.  The  Emperor  was  determined  that  when  Parma  fell 
it  should  be  wiped  out  and  in  its  stead  this  new  town  should 
.remain.  He  laid  it  out  according  to  a  well-thought-out  plan, 
and  in  anticipation  called  it  "  Victoria,"  a  name  not  unworthy 
to  rank  with  his  other  foundations  :  Caesarea,  Augusta,  Aquila. 
He  copied  the  methods  of  classical  town-planners  :  the  new 
town  was  to  arise  under  the  sign  of  Mars  :  astrologers  and 
augurs  had  to  calculate  an  auspicious  moment  while  the  site 
of  the  new  town  was  marked  out  with  the  plough.  It  was  to 
have  eight  gates,  with  walls,  moats  and  drawbridges  ;  nothing 
was  lacking  :  a  canal  brought  water  to  it,  and  mills  were  built 
on  the  new  river.  And  in  Victoria  one  of  the  very  few  places 
of  worship  was  erected  of  which  Frederick  was  the  founder. 
This  temple  was  dedicated  to  St.  Victor.  The  coins  of  the  new 
town  bore  on  the  one  side  the  Emperor's  head,  and  on  the  other 
the  town  with  the  legend  "  Victoria  " ;  they  were  known  as 


DISTRESS  IN  PARMA  655 

Victorines.  This  new  foundation  was  to  resemble  a  town  of 
long  standing,  with  streets  and  houses,  market-place  and  palace, 
shops,  and  everything  which  a  town  could  require,  while  out 
side  it  the  Emperor  laid  out  villas  with  gardens  and  vineyards 
and  orchards  for  his  Saracen  maidens  and  their  host  of  eunuchs. 
Frederick  had  installed  himself  with  his  entire  court,  his 
chancery  and  treasury,  his  courts  of  law  and  household,  his 
menagerie  and  his  huntsmen,  so  as  to  await  in  peace  and 
comfort  the  starvation  of  Parma.  The  world  looked  on  in 
amazement.  Not  a  chronicler  but  records  at  least  the  building 
of  Victoria,  One  who  was  learned  in  astrological  lore  remarks 
that  the  Emperor  had  failed  to  note  in  founding  his  town  that 
Cancer  was  very  close  to  Mars  ;  the  town  was  doomed. 

Here  in  Victoria  the  Emperor  felt  himself  safe  for  the  winter. 
He  had,  as  usual,  at  the  beginning  of  the  cold  weather,  dis 
missed  a  part  of  the  town  levies  or  sent  them  off  to  other  theatres 
of  war  where  the  fighting  this  December  was  very  brisk.  In 
the  Spring  the  town  ought  to  be  nearly  starved  out  and  could 
be  stormed.  The  privation  in  Parma  was  increasing.  Just 
once  the  Mantuans  and  Ferrarese  had  succeeded  in  getting  a 
supply  of  corn  into  the  famine-stricken  town.  During  a  short 
absence  of  Enzio  and  Eccelino  these  allies  of  Parma  had  de 
stroyed  the  fortified  bridge  at  Brescello,  and  when  Enzio  in 
revenge  besieged  Colorno,  which  lay  on  Parma's  own  little  river, 
they  opened  the  sluices  and  flooded  the  country  so  that  Enzio 
had  to  withdraw.  The  king  of  Sardinia  soon  equalised  the 
account.  He  threw  a  new  bridge  over  the  Po  at  Bugno  between 
Colorno  and  Brescello,  and  from  this  position  he  was  able  to 
repel  all  attacks.  Parma  was  thus  once  more  completely  shut 
in  and  its  surrender  imminent.  Frederick  could  feel  his  success 
assured,  and  when  messengers  came  out  to  him  to  beg  his 
mercy  in  case  Parma  should  surrender,  he  sent  them  back,  so 
the  story  runs,  "  with  the  acid  advice  ironically  imparted  in 
confidence  that  they  had  better  be  economical  with  their  corn, 
because  as  long  as  he  lived  Parma  should  get  nothing  more 

to  eat/' 

But,  as  a  chronicler  puts  it,  "  confidence  is  the  mother  of 
misfortune/'  and  the  imperial  camp  let  itself  be  lulled  into 
culpable  carelessness.  The  Emperor  was  normally  distrustful 


656  DISASTER  ix 

enough  ;  for  once  he  was  too  trustful.     Certainly  Parma  had 
spies  in  his  army  and  were  exactly  informed  of  his  movements. 
Thus  they  knew  that  on  the  eighteenth  of  February,  1248, 
Victoria's  garrison  was  weakened  by  many  small  diversions  ; 
that  Enzio  was  away  ;  that  the  Emperor  according  to  custom 
had  ridden  forth  at  dawn  with  his  falcons  and  his  hawks  and 
his  buzzards,  accompanied  by  his  sixteen-year-old  son  Manfred 
and  some  fifty  knights  :  the  marshes  round  Parma  lent  them 
selves  to  the  chase  of  waterfowl.     Only  Margrave  Lancia  was 
left  behind  in  command.    The  Parma  garrison  made  a  sortie 
as  they  often  did,  this  time  towards  the  south  in  the  direction 
of  the  Apennines.    The  Margrave  with  a  portion  of  his  army 
set  off  in  pursuit.    The  sortie  had  only  been  a  ruse.     No 
sooner  was  Lancia  gone  than  the  population  of  Parma,  followed 
by  their  wives  and  children,  flung  themselves  suddenly  on  the 
almost  unguarded  camp,  rushed  over  the  drawbridges  into 
Victoria,  set  the  town  on  fire  and  mowed  down  the  unprepared 
troops  in  masses.    The  Emperor,  listening  to  his  falcons'  silver 
bells,  heard  suddenly  the  great  alarm  bell  of  Victoria.     He 
galloped  back  at  full  speed  with  his  following  and  found  the 
Margrave  heavily  engaged.    The  Emperor  came  to  his  assis 
tance,  forced  his  way  into  Victoria  and  tried  to  save  what  still 
remained.    But  he  was  soon  in  difficulties  himself  with  his  few 
huntsmen  :  he  could  only  just  cut  his  way  out,  and  when  he 
saw  that  all  was  lost  he  escaped  with  barely  fourteen  horsemen 
to  Borgo  San  Donnino. 

It  was  the  severest  defeat  of  his  life.  Fifteen  hundred  of  his 
men  were  slain,  and  twice  that  number  taken  prisoners — 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  his  friend  and  Lord  Chief  Justice,  was 
dead,  and  with  him  others  of  the  very  best :  one  Aquino  and 
one  Hohenburg  among  them,  it  would  seem.  The  whole 
treasury  was  gone :  gold,  silver,  pearls,  gems,  solitaires,  purple 
cloths,  ceremonial  robes  ;  gone  was  the  sceptre,  the  Royal  Seal 
of  Sicily,  the  heavy  giant  crown  with  its  many  figures  like  a 
piece  of  masonry,  which  was  intended  on  solemn  occasions  to 
be  suspended  over  the  head  of  the  world-ruler.  A  little  man 
from  Parma,  who  was  nicknamed  "  Corto  passo  "  from  his 
tripping  gait,  had  secured  this  as  his  booty  and  brought  it  in 
triumph  back  to  Parma.  Much  other  booty  from  the  light- 


1248  FORTUNA  AUGUSTI  657 

hearted  camp-town  :  the  menagerie,  the  eunuchs,  the  harem, 
must  have  excited  interest ;  other  things  awakened  horror 
and  curiosity  :  there  was,  for  instance,  a  statue  supposed  to  be 
made  of  Church  treasures  melted  down,  which  the  Emperor 
was  said  to  have  adored.  They  found  experimentally  that  this 
idol  healed  neither  the  maimed  nor  the  blind ;  at  most  it  con 
temned  the  scriptures.  There  were  magic  drawings,  charts  of 
the  heavens  and  animal  circles  which  "  Beelzebub  and  Ash- 
taroth,  the  Consuls  of  Darkness, "  the  astrologers  and  magicians, 
made  use  of.  The  most  important  trophy  was  the  carroccio  of 
Cremona,  which  to  Cremona's  shame  was  drawn  by  a  team  of 
donkeys  in  triumph  into  Parma — following  the  example  the 
Emperor  had  set. 


The  impression  which  this  defeat  made  on  the  world  at  large 
was  annihilating.    This  was  the  end  of  the  Emperor's  power 
people  said,  and  numerous  songs  of  clergy,  townsfolk  and 
wandering  minstrels  sang  the  brilliant  victory  of  Parma.    It 
was  Frederick's  first  serious  defeat.    Things  had  gone  against 
him  on  previous  occasions,  but  he  had  never  before  been  con 
quered  by  the  towns,  and  now  his  most  priceless  asset  was  at 
stake  :  the  tradition  of  his  invincibility.    Frederick  diagnosed 
the  situation  exactly.    Instead  of  being  crushed  under  the  blow 
he  drew  new  strength  from  defeat  through  his  fanatic  belief 
in  his  star,  in  the  Fortuna  Augusti.    Even  defeat  must  turn 
to  advantage  since  Fortune  dwelt  with  him,  and  this  defeat 
spurred  him  to  maximum  effort,  as  at  other  times  victory  was 
wont  to  do .    Under  this  blow  the  fifty-year-old  warrior  showed 
the  tense  vigour  of  his  prime.    With  the  scanty  following  that 
had  followed  him  to  Borgo   San  Donnino  he  galloped  to 
Cremona  and  arrived  late  that  night,  having  been  in  the  saddle 
since  dawn,  "in  no  wise  out  of  heart."    The  terrified  popu 
lace,  men,  women  and  children,  poured  into  the  streets  and 
crowded  round  the  Emperor,  thanking  God  with  tears  that  he 
at  least  was  safe .    Frederick  spoke  to  them  words  of  good  cheer. 
Within  three  days  he  had  assembled  a  new  army,  mainly  com 
posed  of  men  of  Pavia  and  Cremona,  and  on  the  fourth  he 
resumed  the  oflfensive.    Victoria  had  fallen  on  the  i8th  of 


658  NEW  VICTORIES  ix 

February  ;  on  the  22nd  the  Emperor  led  his  forces  across  to 
the  Po  to  attack  Parma.  The  mere  sound  of  his  name  had  still 
such  potency  that  the  victors  who  had  intended,  under  Monte- 
longo,  to  invest  the  bridge  at  Bugno  which  Enzio  was  still 
holding,  took  to  their  heels  in  terror  at  his  approach.  King 
Enzio  was  consequently  able  to  loot  a  fleet  of  some  hundred 
ships  which  was  bringing  provisions  from  Mantua  and  Ferrara 
to  the  half-starved  town,  and  to  take  three  hundred  prisoners 
whom  he  promptly  hanged  on  either  bank. 

Frederick  could  now  have  restored  the  previous  state  of 
siege,  and  this  was  undoubtedly  his  first  intention,  for  he  wrote 
that  he  was  now  laying  waste  the  country  round  Parma  with 
fire  and  sword  and  inspiring  courage  in  his  troops  by  his  own 
presence,  and  the  town  should  not  evade  her  fate.  A  council 
of  war  was  held  in  the  ruins  of  Victoria,  but  the  vote  was  against 
a  resumption  of  the  siege.  Frederick  still  camped  near  in  order 
to  secure  the  road  to  Pontremoli  and  the  pass  which  was  again 
threatened.  Incidentally  he  was  able  to  take  a  preliminary 
revenge.  The  Parma  forces  were  pressing  on  after  the  Em 
peror  when  they  were  attacked  by  Lancia  with  the  loyal  knights 
of  Parma,  sixty  Guelf  knights  were  captured  and  over  a  hundred 
slain,  amongst  them  Bernardo  Orlando  di  Rossi,  who  was  hewn 
in  pieces,  "  our  infamous  traitor  of  long  standing,  the  head  and 
tail  of  the  entire  opposition."  The  most  dangerous  result  of 
the  defeat  of  Victoria  was  its  effect  on  opinion  at  a  distance. 
Parma's  defection  had  breathed  hope  into  the  Guelfs,  how  much 
more  Parma's  victory !  Almost  the  whole  of  the  Romagna  was 
lost;  Ravenna  surrendered  to  Ottaviano,  and  her  secession 
brought  in  its  train  the  loss  of  a  number  of  other  towns  in  the 
neighbourhood  who  were  her  dependents.  It  is  believed 
that  an  imperial  vicar  had  here  been  in  league  with  Pandulf  of 
Fasanella  and  Jacob  of  Morra,  the  two  fugitive  conspirators 
who  were  now  fighting  in  the  papalist  ranks. 

Nevertheless,  the  Emperor  succeeded  in  restoring  the 
equilibrium  of  the  tottering  state.  Richard  of  Theate  seems 
to  have  won  another  victory  over  the  papalist  general,  Hugo 
Novellus,  at  Cittanuova  in  the  Ancona  March.  Novellus  was 
slain  and  with  him  Matthew  Fasanella,  the  traitor's  brother. 
A  conspiracy  was  detected  in  Reggio  and  nipped  in  the  bud  by 


MONEY  SHORTAGE  659 

Enzio,  who  had  a  hundred  conspirators  publicly  beheaded.  A 
Milanese  army  going  to  Parma's  assistance  hastily  turned  back 
when  the  Emperor  moved  against  Milan.  At  the  same  time 
Feltre  and  Belluno  in  the  north-east  submitted  to  Eccelino, 
and  a  revulsion  in  Frederick's  favour  began  to  be  felt  in 
Vercelli.  Frederick  was  to  appear  during  the  summer  in  Pied 
mont  and  take  possession  of  Vercelli.  He  wrote  to  his  loyal 
Sicilians  that  "  Fortuna  who  is  ours  and  who  is  wont  to  smile 
more  graciously  when  we  challenge  her  favours  has  turned 
once  more  on  us  a  smiling  face,  though  lately  she  had  seemed 
to  cold-shoulder  us  a  little."  He  told  his  friends  in  confidence 
that  he  had  "thrice  thrown  a  six"  at  dice,  and  Fortuna  was 
promising  not  only  invincibility  but  certain  victory. 


The  Emperor's  confidence  was  never  shaken,  though 
numerous  minor  annoyances  occurred  at  this  juncture.  It  was 
peculiarly  irritating  that  the  entire  imperial  treasury  had  been 
lost  at  Parma.  He  was  in  such  straits  for  money  that  he  main 
tained  that  he  and  his  court  lacked  for  the  moment  the  barest 
necessities,  he  had  scarcely  enough  to  eat,  let  alone  the  means 
for  winning  victories.  New  taxes  must  be  raised.  The  taxes 
now  imposed  were  double  or  more  than  double  the  average  : 
60,000  ounces  had  been  levied  in  Sicily  in  1242,  130,000  were 
raised  now.  Frederick  further  commanded  all  his  Italian 
vicars  to  impose  a  tax  extraordinary  on  all  monasteries  and 
churches.  The  Emperor  was  not  wont  to  consider  the  tax 
payer  overmuch  ;  yet  when  one  Sicilian  town  offered  to  make 
a  proportional  freewill  contribution  towards  replacing  the 
state  treasury  he  declined  to  accept  it.  He  thanked  the  citizens 
warmly  for  their  good  will,  but  in  view  of  existing  hardships, 
and  of  the  intolerable  burden  which  the  town  was  already 
bearing,  he  would  take  the  will  for  the  deed.  On  the  other  hand 
he  again  mortgaged,  as  he  had  done  once  before,  the  Montieri 
silver  mines  at  Volterra.  Either  he  or  Frederick  of  Antioch 
borrowed  12,000  Pisan  silver  pounds  (roughly  £6000)  from 
Siena  at  80  per  cent,  interest.  The  Emperor  absolutely  had  to 
have  cash,  and  had  to  resort  to  extreme  measures.  New  coins 
were  struck  in  Sicily  which,  with  exchange  fees,  etc.,  brought 


660  KNIGHTS  ix 

in  some  8000  gold  ounces  (say  .£21,000).  These  expedients 
must  have  mitigated  the  money  shortage,  and  we  learn  that 
considerable  consignments  of  money  reached  Frederick  with 
other  assistance  from  the  Greek  Emperor,  John  Vatatzes.  It 
must  have  been  about  this  period  that  a  certain  amount  of 
grumbling  was  heard  among  the  mercenary  knights  who  were 
drawn  from  every  corner  of  the  Empire,  but  more  especially 
from  Italy  and  Germany. 

The  German  knights,  who  came  in  ever-increasing  numbers 
to  serve  in  Italy,  were  in  these  last  years  almost  Frederick's 
only  link  with  the  North.  Since  the  diet  of  Verona,  which 
Frederick  had  held  at  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Lyons,  the 
German  nobles  had  ceased  to  attend  Frederick's  camp  and 
court ;  and  the  feudal  knights  whom  they  should  have  supplied 
were  also  missing.  "We  do  not  wish  to  overtax  our  princes 
either  in  personal  service  or  material  contribution  for  the  con 
quest  of  Italy,  though  some,  thirsty  for  the  glory  of  the  Empire 
and  greedy  of  our  presence,  have  voluntarily  shared  our  labours 
and  been  with  us  all  the  time  .  .  .",  wrote  the  Emperor  once. 
Except  the  brothers  Hohenburg  no  German  princes  had  sought 
to  share  the  Emperor's  labours  ;  and  conditions  in  Germany  : 
the  papal  oppression  which  lay  heavy  on  the  spiritual  princes  ; 
the  rival  kings  who  divided  the  secular  loyalties ;  the 
civil  wars  in  Germany  and  the  general  misery,  made  absence 
from  Germany  well-nigh  impossible  even  if  they  had  wished 
to  go  to  Italy.  Frederick  could  dispense  easily  enough  with 
the  German  princes;  but  he  would  sorely  have  missed  his 
German  knights.  Although  the  town  infantries  were  taking 
an  increasing  share  in  the  fighting,  the  heavily-armoured  knight 
still  formed  the  flower  of  every  army.  The  brilliance  and  the 
power  of  the  higher  command  depended  on  the  number  of 
the  knights,  declared  the  Emperor,  and  he  naturally  valued  the 
German  knights  above  them  all.  "  We  want  to  have  Germans 
as  knights,  for  we  rely  on  their  war  experience.  They  must 
receive  their  pay  and  whatever  they  require  without  hitch." 
Early  Hohenstaufens  had  used  mercenary  knights  as  well  as 
feudal  cavalry  for  their  short  journeys  to  Rome  and  campaigns 
in  Italy,  but  Frederick  was  permanently  in  Italy.  He  was  the 
first,  therefore,  to  establish  a  permanent  corps  of  German  knights 


GERMANS  IN  ITALY  661 

as  a  regular  institution.  His  principle  was  that  Sicily  must 
provide  the  money  and  Germany  the  men.  Frederick's  need 
met  a  complementary  need  in  Germany.  Love  of  adventure 
and  many  another  motive  drove  the  German  knights  into 
Frederick's  arms.  In  large  and  ever-increasing  numbers  the 
lower  nobility  crossed  the  Alps  and  joined  the  imperial  armies  ; 
counts  and  gentlemen,  ministeriales,  made  the  pilgrimage  and 
hired  themselves  out,  at  first  to  the  Emperor  only,  later  to  other 
Ghlbelline  leaders,  and,  when  the  Empire  had  fallen,  to  the 
Guelfs  also.  Presently  counts  and  dukes  also,  whose  gifts 
found  no  scope  in  Germany,  followed  the  lead  and  became 
commandants  of  large  mercenary  bands.  These  independent 
"  Marshals J>  foreshadow  the  later  type  of  great  mercenary 
leaders,  John  Hawkwood  for  example,  or  Duke  Werner 
Urslingen  (Guarneri)  with  his  "  Great  Company  "  of  three 
thousand  German  lances,  who  bore  on  their  silver  breastplate 
the  motto  "  Enemy  of  Pity,  of  Mercy,  and  of  God."  Under 
Frederick  II  one  such  German  force,  said  to  have  amounted 
to  eighteen  hundred  lances,  was  serving  under  Count  Jordan 
as  Marshal,  Frederick  having  no  doubt  appointed  Jordan  to 
the  command. 

It  is  possible  either  to  regret  that  so  much  German  strength 
flowed  into  Italy,  or  to  rejoice  that  at  least  some  ten  thousand 
German  knights  escaped  the  cheerless  constriction  of  Germany 
after  the  fall  of  the  Empire.  Whichever  line  we  take,  Frederick 
II  and  the  Hohenstaufens  must  answer  for  it.  Through  her 
mercenary  knights  Germany  played  no  negligible  part  in  the 
Italian  Renaissance,  for  the  appearance  of  these  northern 
warriors  made  a  great  impression  in  Italy.  The  Italians  of  the 
late  thirteenth  century,  and  still  more  of  later  days,  would  have 
had  no  conception  of  a  knight  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  French 
and  the  thousands  of  young  German  nobles  whom  first  the 
Hohenstaufens  attracted  to  Italy.  What  an  impression  King 
Manfred's  victorious  Germans  of  Montaperti  left  behind  them  ! 
"  Powerful  figures,  expert  in  the  use  of  weapons,  expert  on 
horseback,  they  charge  like  lions  let  loose,  and  their  war  horses 
are  like  moving  mountains  in  the  flash  of  the  weapons."  They 
went  into  battle  on  the  Arbia  singing,  with  the  name  of  God 
and  St.  George,  their  patron  saint,  on  their  lips.  We  learn  in 


662  DONATELLO'S  "  ST.  GEORGE"  ix 

great  detail  how  these  Germans  under  the  black  and  silver 
banner  of  King  Manfred  charged  against  the  red  lily  of  Florence : 
"  Never  did  Hector  perform  such  slaughter  among  the  Greek 
host  as  Marshal  Jordan  this  day  amongst  the  Florentines." 
After  the  victory  the  eight  hundred  German  knights,  with 
wreaths  of  olive  on  their  helmets,  rode  behind  the  trumpets  and 
the  royal  banner  in  triumph  into  Siena  and  dismounted  before 
the  cathedral  to  thank  the  Virgin  for  their  victory.  In  later 
days  the  impression  made  by  the  Germans  was  even  stronger. 
Somewhere  about  the  beginning  of  the  Trecento  a  body  of 
fifteen  hundred  knights  rode  into  Lombardy,  "excellently 
armed  and  cast  as  it  were  in  one  piece  with  their  chargers,"  and 
the  Italians  said  "  these  are  the  most  handsome  men  that 
Lombardy  has  ever  seen  and  all  down  to  the  very  last  of  them 
.  .  .  fearless  knights  of  lofty  stature,  still  in  the  flower  of  their 
youth,  but  practised  in  arms  and  dauntless  in  courage." 

A  Roman  cardinal  of  those  days  still  called  the  Germans 
"the  handsomest  warriors  in  the  world."  In  all  the  larger 
towns  they  erected  to  their  "  San  Giorgio  "  altars,  chapels  and 
churches.  We  need  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  that  Donatello 
in  the  opening  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in  creating  his  St. 
George,  unwittingly  quickened  from  the  marble  a  noble  German 
boy.^  In  these  forms  we  still  catch  the  echoes  of  Germany's 
heroic  age,  the  Hohenstaufen  age  that  gave  birth  to  the  regal 
horsemen  of  Bamberg  and  Magdeburg,  now  echoing  to  its 
close  in  Italy.  The  tortured,  distorted,  thought-tormented 
Germany  of  later  Gothic  had  no  eye  for  the  noble  pride  and 
aristocratic  freedom  of  such  forms.  It  almost  seems  as  if  these 
young  warriors  were  driven  south  so  that  their  beauty  might 
not  perish  fruitlessly,  unhonoured  and  unsung.  These  home 
less  heroes  were  doomed  to  perish  whichever  way  they  turned  : 
"  if  they  mixed  too  long  with  the  Italians  they  became  inocu 
lated  with  their  vices  ...  but  from  their  homes  they  come 
simple  and  loyal  and  true  hearted."  Their  simplicity  struck 
the  over-refined,  indescribably  corrupt  Italy  of  the  Renaissance 
much  as  of  old  that  of  the  Germanic  tribes  had  affected  the 
Rome  of  the  Caesars.  The  Germanic  heroic  age  closed,  there 
fore,  as  it  had  begun  :  singly  at  first,  then  in  groups,  then  in 
ever-growing  numbers  their  warriors  had  gone  to  Rome  to 


LOUIS'  CRUSADE  663 

serve  the  divine  Emperors;  they  then  had  conquered  Rome, 
and  then — beginning  with  Dietrich  of  Bern  and  ending  with 
Frederick  II — they  had  founded  their  own  States,  and  then 
fought  on  as  mercenaries  till  towards  the  close  of  the  Renais 
sance  the  stream  dried  up :  to  Italy's  loss. 


Within  four  months  of  the  defeat  of  Victoria,  Frederick  II 
to  some  extent  quieted  Italy.    Indeed,  he  felt  the  situation  so 
secure  that  he  began  to  toy  again  with  the  plan  of  the  preceding 
year  :  to  march  on  Lyons.    New  possibilities  of  peace  seemed 
open.     King  Louis  of  France  was  just  about  to  start  on  his 
Crusade,  and  that  strife  at  home  might  not  imperil  his  great 
undertaking  he  wanted  to  see  the  Empire  and  the  Papacy  at 
peace.     Saint  Louis  had  never  recognised  the  Emperor's  de 
position,  and  for  all  his  piety  had  throughout  maintained  a 
correspondence  with  Frederick,  although  the  Pope  assured  him 
that  Frederick  sought  to  abolish  all  worship  of  God  so  that  he 
himself  might  be  worshipped  alone  throughout  the  universe  : 
an  idol  of  the  most  revolting  depravity.    Moreover,  Louis 
wanted  the  Emperor's  co-operation,  for  Sicily  was  always  the 
base  for  any  overseas  expeditions.    Other  important  people 
also  interested  themselves  in  securing  peace,  but  all  attempts 
failed.    The  Pope  refused  to  contemplate  any  peace  which 
left  the  Hohenstaufen  Empire  standing.    Disappointed  by  his 
failure  the  French  King  set  sail  from  Aiguesmortes  on  his  fatal 
Crusade.    These  negotiations  and  the  plan  of  a  possible  move 
to  Lyons  had  led  the  Emperor  to  enter  Piedmont  in  July  1248, 
where  the  accession  of  Vercelli  gave  affairs  a  favourable  turn. 
Pope  Innocent  IV  saw  the  Emperor  again  drawing  near  the 
Alps  and  had  himself  well  guarded  in  Lyons.    A  papal  attempt 
to  divert  some  Crusaders  for  an  attack  on  Sicily  instead  of  on 
the  Holy  Land  fell  through.     Frederick  held  a  diet  in  Vercelli 
and  remained  many  months  in  Western  Lombardy.    Towards 
the  end  of  1248  he  returned  to  Cremona  by  way  of  Pavia.    Here 
he  was  to  meet  the  bitterest  disillusionment  of  his  life. 

Frederick  had  allowed  his  followers  to  worship  him  as  the 
Son  of  God  ;  his  loyal  adherents  captured  in  Parma  implored 
him  to  set  them  free  with  "  his  sacred  hands,"  for  they  were 


664  ET  TU  .  .  .  ix 

suffering  for  him  "  as  the  martyrs  for  Christ's  sake."  He  had 
shared  the  honour  and  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  God.  There  was 
a  pitiless  logic  in  the  fact  that  at  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  to 
a  certain  degree  to  share  Christ's  fate.  It  was  probably  from 
Cremona  that  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  France  that  he  felt  it 
particularly  embittering  that  the  Pope  should  send  Crusaders 
against  Sicily, "  as  if  the  mystery  of  the  life-giving  cross  had 
been  wafted  from  the  Holy  Land  to  Sicily,  as  if  Christ  were 
crucified  again  in  Apulia."  This  mournful  comparison  is 
uncannily  close  to  facts :  Judas  Iscariot's  role  had  just  been 
played  by  his  most  trusted  friend,  Piero  della  Vigna. 

The  details  of  the  occurrences  at  Cremona  are  obscure.  The 
Emperor  drew  a  veil  over  them  and  gossip  distorted  them. 
Contemporaries  heard  little  more  than  the  fact  of  della  Vigna's 
sudden  fall  and  his  arrest.  The  obvious  gu£ss  was  that  the 
Protonotary  and  Logothetes  of  Sicily  had  been  bought  by  the 
Pope,  like  so  many  others.  So  much,  however,  seems  certain 
that  della  Vigna  was  not  conspiring  with  the  Pope.  No  change 
of  thought  prompted  his  treachery,  no  suddenly  awakened 
papalist  spirit,  no  fanatical  love  of  freedom  stirred  him  against 
the  Tyrant  whom  yet  he  reverenced  and  loved :  della  Vigna  was 
no  Brutus.  Neither  was  he  guiltless.  It  was  not  only  envy, 
"  that  harlot  of  courts,"  that  brought  the  Capuan  to  his  fall. 
He  sinned  not  as  the  defender  of  a  lofty  idea  but  as  one  who 
sold  his  master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 

As  far  as  the  evidence  goes,  it  seems  that  the  inconceivable 
repeated  itself :  della  Vigna  betrayed  his  Lord  for  a  handful  of 
silver  by  selling  justice  for  money.  Only  once  did  the  Emperor 
quite  briefly,  in  a  confidential  letter  to  Count  Richard  of 
Caserta,  betray  his  feeling  about  della  Vigna's  guilt,  calling 
him  a  "  second  Simon,"  who  "  that  he  might  fill  his  purse  or 
keep  it  full,  turned  the  rod  of  justice  into  a  serpent."  Della 
Vigna  had  always  been  exposed  to  terrific  temptation.  All 
letters  and  petitions  went  through  his  hands,  he  decided  what 
must  be  referred  and  what  might  be  independently  disposed 
of.  Princes  and  kings,  prelates  and  popes  who  had  business 
to  transact  with  Frederick  approached  him  through  della 
Vigna.  Abusing  his  absolute  discretion  Piero  della  Vigna  may 
have  taken  money  to  let  things  pass  which  at  this  highly  critical 


1248  JUSTICE  BARTERED  665 

moment  involved  danger  to  the  Emperor.  Or,  perhaps,  as 
overseer  of  the  entire  accounts  of  the  Sicilian  kingdom  he  may 
have  connived  at  embezzlements  by  his  subordinates,  or  himself 
committed  them.  He  left  an  immense  fortune,  and  how  far  it 
was  honourably  acquired  the  Emperor  must  have  known  pretty 
exactly.  Embezzlement  at  such  a  time  of  money-famine  would 
not  be  far  short  of  treason.  Apart  from  the  major  defalcation, 
della  Vigna  may  well,  as  Frederick  further  wrote  to  Caserta, 
"  by  systematic  swindling  have  driven  the  Imperium  into  such 
danger  that  Empire  and  Emperor  like  the  Egyptian  chariots  and 
the  hosts  of  Pharaoh  might  have  been  drowned  in  the  depths 
Of  the  sea." 

Bribery  and  embezzlement  must  have  been  indulged  in  by 
the  majority  of  the  officials,  but  this  does  not  lighten  della 
Vigna's  guilt ;  it  aggravates  it  rather.  The  other  officials  were 
merely  disobeying  the  laws.  Della  Vigna  had  himself  in  the 
Emperor 's  name  promulgated  those  laws.  He  had  formulated 
and  defined  them  ;  with  his  own  words  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  Emperor  he  had  condemned  the  bartering  of  Justice  and 
stigmatised  it  as  "  simony, "  He  had  for  money  betrayed  the 
whole  worship  of  the  imperialis  ecclesia  which  was  based  on 
"the  lawbringer  Moses"  and  the  "Vicar  Petrus"  which  he, 
like  a  very  apostle  had  evolved  and  represented.  If  Piero  della 
Vigna  himself  could  not  preserve  clean  hands,  could  not  him 
self  live  the  laws  that  he  proclaimed,  it  was  calculated  to  shake 
the  world's  faith  in  the  Emperor,  as  the  shortcoming  of  a 
justiciar  or  a  vicar  could  not  do.  A  crime  that  an  ordinary 
official  might  unobtrusively  expiate  by  loss  of  office  became  in 
della  Vigna's  case  a  fall  that  shook  the  world. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Frederick  would  have  overlooked 
many  little  irregularities  as  long  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so  in 
order  to  retain  his  nearest  counsellor,  his  ablest  intimate. 
Arrest  will  not  have  occurred  until  Piero  della  Vigna's  behaviour 
had  become  a  danger  to  the  State,  and  the  jealousy  of  the  other 
courtiers  may  well  have  precipitated  the  climax.  What  amazes 
the  observer  is  the  disproportion  between  the  advantage  gained 
and  the  advantages  lost  by  this  treachery.  On  the  one  hand 
the  master,  honoured  as  the  Saviour,  perhaps  at  last  believed 
and  proclaimed  a  Saviour  by  della  Vigna  alone  ...  on  the  other 


666  POISON  ix 

the  silver.  .  .  .  There  is  something  grotesque  in  this  incom 
mensurability  :  there  is  something  sinister.  The  power  and 
magic  of  great  men  are  shattered  not  by  the  world's  great 
resistances,  on  these  they  thrive,  but  by  the  pettiness  of  human 
frailty. 


The  discovery  of  Piero  della  Vigna's  breach  of  faith  and  the 
arrest  were  terrible  for  Frederick,  the  more  because  at  this  same 
moment  he  escaped  poison  by  a  hair's  breadth,  poison  proffered 
by  one  of  his  entourage.  His  physician,  whom  he  completely 
trusted,  and  whom  he  had  ransomed  from  Parma  because  he 
could  not  do  without  him,  prepared  a  poisoned  bath  and  a 
poisoned  draught  to  meet  some  trifling  indisposition.  At  the 
last  moment  the  Emperor  was  warned.  When  the  doctor 
handed  him  the  goblet  Frederick  said — so  the  story  goes — that 
they  must  be  careful  not  to  give  him  poison  instead  of  medicine. 
The  doctor  sought  to  reassure  him.  Frederick  looked  at  him  : 
"  Drink  to  my  health  and  share  the  draught  with  me."  The 
doctor  feigned  to  stumble,  and,  falling,  contrived  to  spill  most 
of  the  contents  of  the  goblet.  The  Emperor's  guards  seized 
him.  What  was  left  was  given  to  a  condemned  criminal  to 
drink.  He  died  on  the  instant.  The  Emperor  is  said  then, 
reflecting  on  what  had  passed,  to  have  wrung  his  hands  and 
groaned  aloud  :  "  alas  for  me,  my  very  bowels  fight  against  me  ! 
Whom  can  I  trust !  Where  can  I  again  be  happy  and  secure ! " 
And  his  friends  sat  round  and  sighed  with  him  and  wept. 
After  this  the  words  of  Job  were  often  in  the  Emperor's  mouth : 
"  All  my  inward  friends  abhorred  me,  and  they  whom  I  loved 
are  turned  against  me." 

Contemporaries  associated  the  doctor's  attempt  with  Piero 
della  Vigna's  sudden  fall.  They  were  two  quite  independent 
episodes  which  happened  to  occur  at  the  same  time.  The 
doctor  had  been  captured  at  Parma  and  had  been  won  over  by 
the  Pope's  legate  ;  "  the  Pope's  reputation  was  blackened  not 
a  little,"  a  chronicler  writes.  Frederick  informed  the  kings 
and  people  of  the  world  of  this  new  effort  of  the  Pope's.  "  This 
priest,  this  shepherd,  this  peace-loving  director  of  our  faith  is 
not  content  with  the  innumerable  intrigues  and  shameful 


VIGNA'S  SUICIDE  667 

machinations  with  which  he  has  disgraced  the  rule  of  his  order 
to  do  us  injury  but— O  shame  ! — he  has  just  attempted  to 
murder  us  by  secret  means  !  "  After  the  events  of  the  last  few 
days  the  Emperor  can  no  longer  doubt  that  the  end  of  the  times 
is  near.  The  doctor's  fate  matched  his  crime.  Blinded  and 
mutilated,  with  continuous  torture,  so  that  no  rest  was  given 
him  even  on  Sundays  or  on  holy  days,  he  was  taken  to  Sicily 
for  execution. 


A  similar  fate  hung  over  Piero  della  Vigna.  When  the 
Cremonese  heard  of  his  treachery  they  nearly  tore  and  hacked 
in  pieces  the  man  so  lately  feared.  But  Frederick  prevented 
mob  justice  and  had  the  prisoner  taken  by  night  to  the  neigh 
bouring  Borgo  San  Donnino.  In  March  when  the  Emperor 
started  for  Tuscany  he  took  Piero  della  Vigna  with  him  mounted 
on  a  donkey,  amongst  the  baggage  train.  They  took  him  to 
San  Miniato.  They  say  that  Frederick  made  use  of  his  former 
friend  for  a  stratagem.  The  Guelfs  in  San  Miniato  would  not 
permit  the  entrance  of  armed  men.  They  were  assured  that 
only  the  prisoners  and  the  imperial  exchequer  were  being 
brought  to  the  fortress.  The  baggage  animals  were,  however, 
loaded  with  weapons  instead  of  treasure,  and  the  ostensible 
prisoners  were  imperial  men-at-arms  whose  fetters  could  easily 
be  struck  off.  To  disarm  the  Guelfs'  suspicion,  however,  Piero 
della  Vigna  had  to  lead  the  procession  of  prisoners.  If  the  tale 
is  true,  it  was  Frederick's  last  vengeance  on  his  friend.  Piero 
della  Vigna  knew  his  master  well  enough  to  know  that  some 
terrible  death  awaited  him.  He  put  himself  beyond  the  fear 
of  torture:  he,  also,  "went  and  hanged  himself."  The  story 
is  that  when  the  blinded  prisoner  was  being  led  into  the  dungeon 
of  San  Miniato  he  asked  the  guards  whether  anything  lay 
between  him  and  the  wall.  They  said  not.  The  blind  man 
forthwith  flung  himself  with  such  violence  against  the  prison 
wall  that  he  split  his  skull.  After  these  days  of  horror  Frederick 
proceeded  to  Pisa.  On  the  Arno  he  embarked  on  his  Sicilian 
galleys  to  return  to  his  mother  country  :  for  ever.  He  never 
saw  Italy  again. 

For  more  than  a  decade  Frederick  II  had  reigned  and  ruled 


668  FREDERICK'S  LEGACY  ix 

and  raged  in  Italy  as  the  Judge,  the  Caesar,  the  Antichrist,  and 
he  had  left  his  mark  indelibly  on  the  land.  He  had  left  a  legacy 
of  "  the  majestic  and  the  terrible. "  Italy  had  altered  more  in 
those  ten  years  than  sometimes  in  a  century.  The  times  had 
gone  mad  with  the  intensity  of  life,  with  the  enormous  expen 
diture  of  power,  and  Italy  stood  under  the  shadow  of  Dante  in 
the  sign  of  the  rising  Renaissance.  The  Hohenstaufen  had  not 
only  a  share  in  the  change  :  he  had  been  himself  the  immutator 
mirabilis  who  dared  to  alter  laws  and  times,  a  fact  which  the 
Church  cast  in  his  teeth.  It  was  high  time  that  he  should  now 
pass  on.  His  mission  was  fulfilled.  The  sap  was  in  circula 
tion.  Condottieri,  signori,  tyrants,  as  well  as  the  wise,  learned 
and  magnificent  dukes  of  Florence,  Urbino  and  Ferrara,  finally 
the  towns  and  the  city-states  also,  were  all  the  heirs  and  in 
heritors  of  Frederick  IL 

The  image  of  Frederick  as  ruler  and  the  image  of  Frederick's 
state  survived  actually  only  in  miniature.  Spiritually  they 
received  immense  extension  through  Dante :  in  the  de 
Monarchici  as  well  as  in  the  state  structure  and  cosmogony  of 
the  Divine  Comedy.  It  has  often  enough  been  demonstrated 
that  Dante  only  proclaims  what  Frederick  II  had  lived.  Since 
the  heretic  Frederick  II,  his  life,  his  acts,  his  thought,  all 
determined  Dante's  picture  of  a  State,  it  was  inevitable  that 
the  poet  should  also  be  reckoned  as  a  heretic.  The  implica 
tions  of  his  poem  were  not  wholly  understood,  but  the  de 
Monarchia  was  clear  to  all,  especially  as  this  dangerous  Ghibel- 
line  document  seemed  about  to  be  fulfilled  by  Louis  the 
Bavarian  seven  years  after  the  poet's  death.  The  papal  legate 
thereupon  condemned  the  treatise  as  heretical  and  burnt  it 
publicly,  and  they  even  wanted  to  take  the  poet's  remains  out 
of  their  Franciscan  vault  at  Ravenna  and  burn  them  to  "  the 
eternal  disgrace  and  the  ruin  of  his  memory."  The  de 
Monarchia  was  put  on  the  Index  of  Forbidden  Books  and  was 
not  removed  therefrom  till  the  days  of  Leo  XIII  in  1897. 

Frederick  II  had  created  in  Sicily  the  "  mirror  of  likeness 
for  those  who  admire  it,"  a  visible  mirror  of  princes  for  the 
days  to  come.  It  was  the  structure  of  the  State  that  was  the 
vital  thing.  The  kingdom  of  Sicily  itself  lost  all  importance  for 
the  world  at  large.  This  last  Emperor  was  not  destined,  like 


FREDERICK'S   GENIUS  669 

Caesar  or  like  Charlemagne,  to  be  the  heros  eponymos  of  a  new 
epoch,  which  bore  his  stamp  on  its  secular  statecraft  and  was 
irradiated  by  his  indwelling  spirit.  Frederick  II  dominated  the 
Renaissance  anonymously  and  illegitimately.  The  establish 
ment  of  the  Norman  despotism  itself  had  been  illegitimate,  and 
so,  therefore,  were  the  small  Italian  town-states  which  were 
offshoots  of  the  Sicilian  parent  state.  The  tyrants,  too,  were 
illegitimate  :  the  bodily  or  spiritual  bastards,  sons  or  grandsons, 
of  the  Hohenstaufen,  had  each  to  win  anew  sua  virtute  the 
Emperor's  immediacy,  since  Frederick  had  only  usurped  it  by 
right  of  genius  through  an  illegitimate  priestship. 

The  Emperor's  rule  in  Italy  might  easily  have  become 
legitimate  if  the  Lombards  had  been  complaisant.  It  rested, 
however,  in  fact,  not  on  the  privileges  or  rights  of  the  excom 
municate  monarch  but  on  his  genius  :  what  Machiavelli  called 
virtu ,  this  combination  of  strength  and  talent,  not  incom 
patible  with  evil.  After  this  each  of  the  Renaissance  tyrants 
had  to  show  virtu  or  genius  if  he  was  to  maintain  his  illegitimate 
rule  over  his  tiny  State,  Frederick  II,  statesman  and  philo 
sopher,  politician  and  soldier,  general  and  jurist,  poet  and 
diplomat,  architect,  zoologist,  mathematician,  the  master  of  six 
or  it  might  be  nine  languages,  who  collected  ancient  works  of 
art,  directed  a  school  of  sculpture,  made  independent  researches 
in  natural  science,  and  organised  states,  this  supremely  versatile 
man  was  the  Genius  of  the  Renaissance  on  the  throne  of  the 
Emperors,  was  the  Emperor  of  Genius.  It  is  not  without 
deeper  significance  that  this  first  genius  of  the  Renaissance  wore 
the  actual  diadem  of  a  world  ruler,  which  in  a  sense  still 
crowned  the  later  geniuses  but  no  longer  kept  them  within 
the  Empire, 


So  Frederick  left  Italy.  The  year  of  horror  did  not  end  with 
his  friends'  death.  He  had  lost  within  one  year  his  two  best 
statesmen  and  most  trusty  comrades,  in  whose  company  he 
had  had  his  image  carved  over  the  triumphal  gate  of  Capua, 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa  and  Piero  della  Vigna.  Now  he  lost  two 
sons.  Soon  after  the  Emperor's  arrival  in  Naples,  Count 
Richard  of  Theate  seems  to  have  died.  He  had  been  Vicar 


670  ENZIO  A  PRISONER  ix 

General  of  the  Romagna  and  of  Spoleto,  and  had  just  recently 
distinguished  himself  by  his  victories  over  Hugo  Novellus. 
We  do  not  know  how  much  attached  the  Emperor  was  to  him. 
The  news  about  King  Enzio  which  shortly  followed  certainly 
touched  Frederick  more. 

Enzio  had  remained  behind,  as  usual,  to  represent  his  father 
in  Lombardy.  His  marriage  with  the  Sardinian  heiress 
Adelasia  had  been  declared  void,  and  Frederick  had  been 
present  at  his  marriage  to  a  niece  of  Eccelino's  at  Cremona. 
This  relationship  set  the  seal  on  the  comradeship  in  arms  of 
two  gallant  men.  The  ceremony  had  taken  place  just  about 
the  time  of  Piero  della  Vigna's  arrest.  The  active  young  king 
had  no  idea  in  life  except  fighting  ;  for  ten  years  he  had  been 
continuously  crossing  swords  with  the  Lombards,  and  soon  after 
his  wedding,  in  January  1249,  ^e  niarched  against  the  Guelfs 
of  Reggio  to  undertake  a  campaign  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Parma.  He  had  returned  to  his  headquarters  at  Cremona  when 
he  got  an  appeal  from  Modena  for  help  against  the  Bolognese. 
Off  he  hastened  with  his  bodyguard,  his  "  cohort  "  and  the 
knights  of  Cremona  across  the  Po  by  his  own  bridge  at  Bugno 
in  the  direction  of  Modena.  At  Fossalta  in  the  frontier  of  the 
Modena  territory  he  got  entangled  in  a  small  skirmish  ;  sud 
denly  the  main  forces  of  Bologna  arrived  and  took  a  hand.  In 
the  melee  Enzio  Js  horse  was  killed  under  him,  his  troops  began 
to  waver,  and  he  was  taken  prisoner  with  four  hundred  knights 
and  twelve  hundred  foot-soldiers.  Marinus  of  Eboli,  well- 
known  as  podesta  and  vicar,  shared  his  fate. 

The  skirmish  had  in  itself  no  serious  importance,  but  the  loss 
of  Enzio  was  for  Frederick  more  severe  than  the  loss  of  an  army 
or  a  province.  The  later  battles  of  the  Hohenstaufen  heirs 
might  have  worn  a  different  complexion  if  King  Enzio  had  been 
there  to  keep  the  Ghibelline  flag  flying  in  Lombardy.  The 
Emperor  at  once  set  about  procuring  his  son's  release.  He 
first  wrote  a  beautiful  letter  to  the  people  of  Bologna  about  the 
Goddess  Fortuna.  "  We  read  in  the  most  various  writings  that 
Fortuna  knows  many  final  acts.  The  evil  fortune  that  now 
weighs  a  man  to  earth  may  presently  lift  him  to  the  heights. 
And  fortune  often  smiles  on  those  she  raises  and  yet  casts  them 
down  at  last  and  scourges  them  and  pierces  them  with  wounds 


BOLOGNA'S  TRIUMPH  671 

incurable.  If  ye,  therefore,  on  this  day,  see  fortune  smiling  on 
you  with  unclouded  brow  ye  would  yet  be  wise  to  refrain  from 
being  puffed  up,  for  he  who  rises  to  the  greater  heights  is  the 
worfce  broken  by  the  fall.  Fortuna  often  promises  success  at 
first  ...  but  overfills  the  middle  and  concludes  the  end  with 
manifold  misfortune."  There  breathes  here  a  spirit  of  fore 
boding.  There  is  no  longer  any  word  of  the  Fortuna  August!, 
the  Goddess  who  obeys  the  Caesar.  The  Emperor,  however,  is 
not  bankrupt  of  proud  words  as  he  demands  Enzio's  liberty. 
"  Ask  ye  of  your  fathers  and  they  will  tell  how  our  grandfather 
of  most  happy  and  glorious  memory,  the  all-conquering 
Frederick,  drove  out  that  generation  of  Milan  from  their  lares 
and  divided  up  their  town  into  three  parcels.  If  ye  surrender 
Enzio  our  beloved  son,  King  of  Sardinia  and  Gallura,  from  his 
prison,  we  shall  exalt  your  town  above  every  town  in  Lombardy. 
But  if  ye  hearken  not  to  the  voice  of  our  commandment  then 
expect  our  triumphant  and  unnumbered  army.  The  traitors 
of  Liguria  shall  not  avail  to  deliver  you  out  of  our  hands,  but 
ye  shall  become  a  fable  and  a  disgrace  to  the  nations  and  this 
shall  be  held  as  a  reproach  against  you  for  ever." 

The  Emperor's  letter  bore  no  fruit,  Bologna's  answer  was 
that  a  cane  non  magno  saepe  tenetur  aper,  and  Frederick  must 
know  that  they  had  held,  and  did  hold,  and  would  continue  .to 
hold,  King  Enzio.  The  suggestion  of  exchanging  Enzio  for 
the  son  of  the  Count  of  Montferrat  whom  Frederick  had  cap 
tured  was  not  acceptable,  neither  was  the  offer  to  buy  his 
freedom  by  laying  a  ring  of  silver  round  the  town  for  ransom. 
King  Enzio  was  fated  to  live  and  die  a  prisoner.  The  early 
fame  of  the  young  warrior  formed  henceforth  a  halo  round  the 
royal  captive.  The  people  of  Bologna  had  chained  the  imperial 
king  with  golden  fetters  when  they  led  him  in  triumph  through 
their  town,  following  the  fashion  set  by  the  Emperor.  Legend 
tells  us  that  the  young  king  in  his  royal  dress,  with  his  long 
golden  hair  under  the  flashing  helmet-crown,  set  the  hearts  of 
the  populace  afire,  not  only  of  the  beautiful  womenfolk.  The 
men  of  Bologna  no  less  met  with  admiration  and  respect  the 
young  hero  who  bore  with  justice  a  lion  in  his  shield.  His 
confinement  was  strict  but  never  degrading.  A  large  hall  in 
the  podesta's  palace  was  assigned  to  him,  in  which  he  and  his 


672  SAD   SONGS  ix 

well-born  fellow-prisoners  could  spend  the  day.  Only  at  night 
he  was  shut  into  a  small  chamber  of  wood  and  iron  that  had 
been  erected  in  the  middle  of  the  apartment.  This  is  the 
origin  of  the  legend  that  he  was  kept  in  an  iron  cage.  He  was 
allowed  to  correspond  freely  with  the  outside  world  and  to 
receive  as  many  visitors  as  he  would.  In  later  times  he  lived 
at  the  expense  of  the  commune,  for  he  was  so  extravagant  that 
in  spite  of  his  large  means  he  was  presently  reduced  to  poverty. 
His  fellow-prisoners  soon  left,  and  only  one  German  count, 
Conrad  of  Solimburg,  shared  his  captivity.  The  Bolognese 
themselves  counted  Conrad  an  intolerably  effeminate  little 
creature.  The  king  found  him  at  last  so  wearisome  that  he 
begged  his  captors  to  spare  him  this  companionship. 

Except  for  his  own  servants  Enzio's  only  friends  were  the 
Ghibellines  of  Bologna,  the  Lambertacci,  who  frequently 
visited  him  and  with  one  of  whom,  Pietro  Asinelli,  he  formed 
an  intimate  friendship.  Visitors  of  the  other  sex  were  not 
lacking.  People  tell  how  the  beautiful  Lucia  Viadagola  took 
pity  on  him,  and  his  two  natural  daughters  probably  belong  to 
the  twenty-three  years  of  his  captivity. 

In  the  early  days  his  imprisonment  was  quite  endurable. 
He  bore  it  with  unclouded  serenity  and  was  often  able  to  cheer 
his  guards  or  visitors  by  singing  his  songs  to  them.  He 
guarded  the  volume  of  his  poems  as  a  treasure  and  mentioned 
it  in  his  will.  His  songs  were  pretty  if  not  profound,  such 
as  befitted  this  gifted  but  simple  warrior,  singer  and  king. 
Gradually,  as  all  hope  of  freedom  died  away,  they  lost  their 
lightheartedness.  There  is  a  sad  sonnet  about  the  ever- 
changing  demands  of  changing  time  .  .  .  there  is  a  still  sadder 
canzone  which  Enzio  sent  to  Tuscany,  the  land  of  noble  living, 
where  he  had  worked  in  the  most  brilliant  days  of  his  father's 
reign,  in  the  days  when  Faenza  fell  and  the  prelates  were  caught 
at  sea. 

Va,  canzonetta  mia  .  .  . 

Salutami  Toscana 

Quella  che  de  sovraua 

In  cui  regna  tutta  cortesia, 

E  vanne  in  Puglia  piana 

La  magna  Capitana 

La  dov'  &  lo  mio  core  nott'  e  dia. 


THE  DOOM  OF  A  HOUSE  673 

Enzio  was  probably  familiar  with  Apulia  and  the  Capitanata 
from  childhood,  for  these  were  his  father's  favourite  provinces. 
Here  the  captive  king's  brothers  and  nephews  were  presently 
to  fight  a  losing  fight  against  Frenchmen  and  priests,  and 
were  to  succumb  one  after  another  while  still  scarcely  out  of 
boyhood. 


Enzio  had  to  witness,  from  his  prison,  the  whole  tragic  dis 
appearance  of  the  imperial  House  of  Hohenstaufen,  ever  hoping 
for  freedom,  ever  doubly  disappointed  and  deceived.  A  year 
after  the  Emperor's  death  the  news  reached  him  that  his  half- 
brother,  King  Conrad,  the  heir  of  the  Empire,  was  coming  to 
Italy.  Conrad  had  been  spending  Christmas  night  in  the 
monastery  of  St.  Emmeram  in  Ratisbon,  and  had  only  by  a 
miracle  escaped  a  treacherous  attempt  on  his  life  by  the  abbot, 
his  host.  He  had  abandoned  the  lonely,  hopeless  fight  in  the 
north,  had  precipitately  mortgaged,  sold,  or  given  away  all  his 
German  possessions  and  come  south.  He  hoped  to  make 
Sicily  a  base,  as  his  father  had  done,  for  war  against  the  Church 
on  behalf  of  the  Empire.  From  the  first  the  cause  was  lost. 
The  burden  of  intolerable  responsibility  on  his  young  shoulders 
had  made  the  boy  prematurely  bitter  and  gloomy.  He  knew 
very  little  about  Sicilian  conditions.  Though  he  was  the  son 
of  the  Syrian  Isabella  and  had  been  born  in  Apulia  he  was 
unaccustomed  to  the  climate.  After  more  than  two  years  of 
joyless  undistinguished  activity  he  died  of  fever  at  scarcely 
twenty-six.  The  corpse  was  taken  to  Messina  and  before  the 
consecration  was  consumed  in  a  great  conflagration.  Other 
people  said  that  Manfred  was  jealous  and  had  poisoned  his 
brother,  and  that  enemies  had  thrown  the  body  into  the  sea. 
In  those  first  years,  when  the  Emperor  was  no  longer  there  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  fate,  other  Hohenstaufen  sons  fell  victims  to 
the  doom  of  their  house.  King  Henry,  the  son  of  the  English 
Isabella,  had  died  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  here  the  rumour 
ran  that  King  Conrad  had  had  his  brother  assassinated  by  the 
black  Grand  Chamberlain ,  Johannes  Maurus ,  Two  years  after 
Conrad's  death  Frederick  of  Antioch,  who  had  had  to  give  up 


674  MANFRED  ix 

the  attempt  to  maintain  himself  in  Tuscany,  was  killed  in  battle 
against  Foggia  (1256),  which  Cardinal  Ottaviano  degli  Ubaldini 
had  garrisoned. 

Just  at  this  time  Manfred's  star  began  to  mount.  He  was 
prince  of  Taranto.  With  the  help  of  relatives  and  friends  he 
won  by  force  or  cunning  or  genius,  with  or  without  right,  the 
crown  of  Sicily.  With  snow-white  skin  and  pink  cheeks  and 
eyes  like  stars  (Dante  calls  him  "  comely  and  fair  and  gentle  of 
aspect,"  and  praises  him  as  the  pattern  of  an  Italian  prince)  he 
restored  something  of  the  old  brilliance  to  his  father's  court. 
Hohenstaufen  wit  sparkled  once  more  ;  Hohenstaufen  hospi 
tality  andjoie  de  vtvre  blossomed  again  in  the  southern  kingdom ; 
again  the  royal  falcons  rose  and  stooped  ;  the  king  conversed 
again  with  oriental  and  western  philosophers.  Almost  more 
numerous  than  the  warriors  were  the  minstrels  and  fiddlers  who 
hummed  around  the  irresponsible  young  prodigal,  who  with 
his  friend  Manfred  Maletta  himself  composed  airs  and  can 
zones,  crowding  the  fulness  of  a  lifetime  into  the  space  of  a 
few  years.  Manfred  seemed  to  be  reviving  the  Italico- Sicilian 
rule  of  the  Hohenstaufens  as  well  as  the  brilliance  of  the  court. 
The  victory  at  Montaperti  on  the  Arbia  was  full  of  promise  and 
made  Manfred  dream  even  of  the  imperial  crown.  He  did  not 
know,  however,  how  to  follow  up  the  victory,  and  before  long 
he  was  busy  defending  his  kingdom  against  Anjou,  whom  the 
Church  had  called  in. 

The  young  king  was  said  to  possess  a  magic  ring  with  which 
he  could  conjure  demons  (Pope  Boniface  used  later  to  wear  it)  ; 
but  this  did  not  avail.  If  the  Hohenstaufens  loved  life  they 
also  knew  how  to  die.  The  battle  of  Benevento  was  as  good 
as  lost  when  Manfred,  armed  by  a  tearful  aged  servant  of  the 
Emperor's,  plunged  into  the  fray  in  which  he  perished.  Not 
for  some  days  was  his  body  found  under  the  pile  of  corpses. 
They  knew  it  by  its  beauty.  His  friends,  captives  now 
themselves,  drew  it  forth  with  trembling  hands  and  covered 
their  dead  king's  feet  and  hands  with  kisses.  Victorious 
Anjou  gave  King  Manfred  a  grave  beside  the  bridge  over 
the  Liris  at  Benevento.  But  the  revengeful  Pope,  so  runs 
the  tale,  would  not  permit  the  body  to  rest  there.  The  arch 
bishop  of  Cosenza  dug  up  the  royal  corpse  and  gave  it  shallow 


CONRADIN  675 

burial  in  the  sand  close  by  the  river,  so  that  the  remains  were 

washed  away  : 

.  .  .  but  the  rain  now  drenches  them 
And  the  wind  drives,  out  of  the  kingdom's  bounds, 
Far  as  the  stream  of  Verde,  where,  with  lights 
Extinguished,  he  removed  them  from  their  bed. 

Thus  Manfred  in  Purgatory  tells  the  poet. 

Manfred's  consort,  Helena,  was  some  twenty-four  years  of 
age.  With  three  sons  and  her  one  daughter  she  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Anjou  and  died  after  five  years'  imprisonment.  The 
daughter,  Beatrice,  after  eighteen  years  of  confinement  in  the 
Castel  dell'  Ovo  at  Naples  was  set  free  by  the  Sicilian  Vespers. 
The  sons  grew  up  literally  in  chains.  They  were  unfettered 
after  thirty  years  but  still  kept  prisoner.  Half-starved,  reduced 
to  beggary,  driven  to  madness  one  after  another,  the  two  heirs 
of  Manfred  died  in  prison  :  "  the  brood  of  poison-swollen 
adders." 


Before  leaving  his  wife  Elizabeth  behind  in  Bavaria  King 
Conrad  begot  a  son  called  Conradin.  This  nephew  of  Enzio's 
now  came  to  Italy.  Once  more  the  Ghibellines  took  heart. 
The  tall  slight  boy  was  hailed  as  "  the  most  handsome  child  a 
man  could  find."  He  was  received  with  enthusiasm  in  the 
quondam  imperialist  towns  of  northern  Italy,  Verona  and  Pavia, 
Pisa  and  Siena.  He  was  fifteen  when  he  left  his  Swabian  home 
with  his  friend  Francis  of  Baden,  who  was  three  years  older. 
"  In  order  that  the  glorious  race  to  which  we  belong  may  not 
degenerate  in  our  person,"  the  proud  boy  said  as  he  journeyed 
south.  It  seemed  as  if  the  ancient  Hohenstaufen  dreams  were 
to  be  at  last  fulfilled.  What  had  lured  on  the  Puer  Apuliae 
from  afar,  but  what  the  giant  Emperor  and  Caesar  Frederick  II 
had  never  achieved,  was  granted  to  young  Conradin.  He  rode 
beside  his  friend  into  Ghibelline  Rome  as  Felix  Victor  ac 
Triumphator.  His  cousin,  Henry  of  Castile,  Senator  of 
the  Eternal  City,  handed  over  the  town  to  him.  Triumphal 
arches  stretched  across  his  path  all  the  way  from  the  Bridge  of 
S.  Angelo  to  the  Capitol,  ropes  were  slung  across  the  streets 
from  house  to  house,  on  which  carpets,  silks  and  purples  were 


676  DEATH   OF   CONRADIN  ix 

hung.  Choirs  of  Roman  women  sang  songs  of  welcome  to  the 
last  Hohenstaufen  king,  while  the  men  already  acclaimed  him 
Emperor  as  they  led  him  to  the  Capitol.  It  was  Ghibelline 
Rome  welcoming  the  Hohenstaufen,  and  the  Romans  whom 
the  thunder-voice  of  Frederick  had  so  often  roused  from  their 
lazy  slumber  remembered  now  that  they  were  of  the  blood  of 
Romulus,  remembered  the  triumphs  and  the  laurels  Frederick 
won  for  them  of  old,  and  did  homage  to  his  grandson.  In 
Sicily  the  Saracens  of  Lucera  revolted  against  the  hated 
Angevin  as  soon  as  they  heard  that  a  Hohenstaufen  was  coming 
again  to  his  hereditary  kingdom. 

Less  than  four  weeks  later  catastrophe  followed  triumph. 
Conradin  had  scarcely  entered  Sicily  when  he  was  defeated  by 
cunning  at  Tagliacozzo  and  betrayed  as  he  fled.  He  fell  a 
captive  into  the  hands  of  Anjou,  and  with  him  the  rest  of  his 
family,  Conradin  of  Caserta,  Thomas  Aquino,  Henry  of  Castile, 
whose  brother  Frederick  had  educated  at  his  court,  and  several 
Lancias.  Only  Conrad  of  Antioch  escaped  and  carried  on  a 
relentless  guerilla  war  against  the  French.  All  the  others  were 
victims  of  a  cruel  fate.  Aquino  was  condemned  to  death. 
Conradin  of  Caserta  spent  thirty-two  years  in  prison,  at  Castel 
del  Monte,  Henry  of  Castile  was  captive  for  twenty  years,  the 
Lancias,  Galvano  and  Frederick,  were  executed,  the  father  after 
his  son  ;  a  half-brother  of  Conradin's,  yet  another  Conradin, 
was  hanged  in  Lucera.  Conradin,  sitting  playing  chess  with 
his  friend  Frederick  of  Baden,  learned  the  fate  reserved  for 
them  both.  An  unheard-of  decision  of  Anjou's — to  send  to 
the  scaffold  a  king  taken  in  battle.  The  majority  of  the  judges 
refused  to  concur  in  the  sentence.  The  execution  took  place 
in  the  Frenchman's  presence  in  the  market  square  of  Naples, 
witnessed  by  a  thronging  crowd,  curious  to  see  a  king's  decapi 
tation.  As  the  head  fell  to  the  ground  an  eagle  swooped  to 
earth,  trailed  his  right  wing  in  the  blood  of  the  last  of  the 
Hohenstaufen  kings,  and  thus  stained  soared  again  to  heaven 
— so  men  said. 

"  How  can  the  Germans  bear  to  live  " — queries  a  Venetian 
troubadour — "  when  they  think  upon  this  end  !  They  have 
lost  their  bravest  and  their  best  and  have  reaped  disgrace  I 
Unless  they  avenge  themselves  they  are  dishonoured  !  "  The 


1272  DEATH  OF  ENZIO  677 

night  after  the  death  of  Conradin  the  earth  trembled ;  but  the 
Germans  felt  no  earthquake.  They  thought  not  of  revenge. 
Nay,  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  to  gratify  the  Pope,  solemnly  re 
nounced  the  right  of  vengeance  on  Anjou.  Never  has  the 
blood-stained  eagle  yet  been  purged  ;  never  have  German 
vespers  followed  the  Sicilian.  M  The  southern  peoples  seemed 
more  moved  and  grieved  than  the  Germans,"  the  German 
chronicler  confesses  with  surprise,  when  the  royal  corpses  were 
shovelled  into  the  shallow  sand  "  as  if  the  sea  had  spewed  them 
forth. "  The  German  princes  shuddered,  and  Conradin  was 
mourned  in  Worms  and  Strasburg  on  the  Upper  Rhine,  but  all 
the  great  body  of  Germany  lay  dull  and  stupid  and  unmoved. 
Better  this,  perhaps,  than  imitating  the  Meissner  poet,  who 
patted  as  it  were  the  fallen  king  patronisingly  on  the  shoulder 
with  a  "  pride  goeth  before  a  fall  "  and  a  "  why  fly  so  far  afield," 
or  the  schoolmaster  who  wrote  a  comic  poem  on  Conradin  who 
had  been  playing  the  children's  game  of  <£  peep  "  and  "  heads 
off  "  with  Anjou  and  had  lost  it.  This  characteristically  Ger 
man  obtuseness  in  face  of  greatness,  fate,  and  human  dignity, 
makes  the  miracle  the  more  astounding  that  such  heroes  could 
have  sprung  from  such  a  people. 

The  hapless  Enzio,  forgotten  in  his  Bologna  prison,  lived  to 
hear  the  tale  of  Conradin.  He  was  now  himself  the  last  of  all 
that  brilliant  race.  He  must  take  up  the  thread  again  and  spin 
it  on,  avenge  the  blood  of  the  slain,  sacrifice  himself  and  die 
like  them.  He  had  been  twenty  years  a  captive,  he  was  over 
fifty,  but  he  must  escape  since  there  was  no  Staufen  left  alive 
but  he.  He  negotiated  with  friends  and  bribed  a  gigantic 
cellarer  named  Filippo  to  carry  him  forth  one  evening  in  an 
empty  cask.  Pietro  Asinelli  was  to  be  in  waiting  with  horses 
for  the  king.  Everything  worked  according  to  plan.  Filippo 
had  reached  the  street  with  his  burden  when  a  woman  spied 
a  long  lock  of  golden  hair  flowing  from  the  bung.  In  all 
Bologna  was  no  such  hair  but  Enzio's  !  She  shrieked  ;  all  was 
discovered  ;  the  cellarer  was  beheaded  and  King  Enzio  more 
strictly  watched.  Not  for  long.  He  died  within  two  years, 
in  1272. 

The  Bolognese  accorded  him  a  royal  funeral.  In  scarlet 
robes,  with  sceptre,  sword  and  diadem,  he  was  buried  in  San 


678  "  OUR  PROUD   HEAD  "  ix 

Domenico  according  to  his  own  request.  The  curse  on  the 
Staufen  house  did  not  perish  with  him.  His  children  were 
swept  into  the  tragedy  of  another  race.  His  only  legitimate 
daughter  was  married  to  Guelfo  da  Donoratico  della  Gherar- 
desca  of  Pisa.  An  old  nobleman,  a  relation  of  Guelfo 's,  had 
already  shared  Conradin's  fate.  A  grandson  of  Enzio's  shared 
the  fate  of  his  father's  father  and  perished  with  Count  Ugolino 
in  the  dreaded  hunger-tower  of  Pisa. 

The  unforgiveable  sin  was  Staufen  blood.  Never  in  historic 
times  had  a  jealous  God  demanded  through  his  priesthood  such 
expiation  :  "  Root  out  the  name  and  fame,  the  seed  and  sapling 
of  this  Babylonian  !  "  Frederick  had  no  presentiment  of  what 
Fate  had  in  store  for  his  sons.  If  he  had  he  could  scarcely 
have  challenged  Nemesis  by  writing  to  cheer  his  family  after 
the  battle  of  Fossalta  and  the  capture  of  Enzio  :  "  Though  this 
misfortune — since  we  must  call  it  so — seems  as  in  fairytale  or 
nightmare  terribly  severe,  yet  is  our  cause  not  lost.  We  accept 
this  reverse  as  slight  or  even  negligible,  nor  is  our  proud  head 
bowed.  The  accidents  of  war  are  manifold  but  OUR  ILLUSTRIOUS 
QUIVER  is  FILLED  WITH  MANY  SONS.  We  learn  such  news 
therefore  with  calm ;  and  our  powerful  right  arm  is  thereby 
strengthened  the  more  vigorously  to  pursue  the  destruction  of 
our  rebels." 

The  doom  of  the  house  of  Hohenstaufen  is  comparable  to 
the  fate  of  the  children  of  Niobe.  Frederick  was  spared  the 
sight  of  his  sons'  long  martyrdom.  One  of  the  uncanny  "  Anti- 
christian  "  things  about  him  is  that  in  spite  of  the  heavy  blows 
fate  dealt  him  in  the  later  years  the  arch-offender  himself 
escaped  anything  like  adequate  expiation  of  his  guilt.  His  life 
and  strife  to  the  last  hour  did  not  lack  glory. 


"  Nor  is  our  proud  head  bowed/'  Frederick  had  written. 
It  is  a  fact  that  his  last  year  showed  neither  weariness  nor 
dejection,  nor  any  relaxation  of  his  tense  activity.  An  actual 
rejuvenation  seems  rather  to  have  renewed  his  powers.  He 
wrote  in  friendly  wise  to  his  contemporary  Eccelino  how  fully 
he  realised  that  Eccelino  ys  loyalty  grew  warmer  with  the  years 
"  as  a  renewal  of  mental  vigour  accompanies  the  ageing  of  the 


TIDE  TURNS  679 

body/'  In  reply  to  Eccelino's  kind  enquiries  he  could  assure 
his  friend  that  while  thoughts  of  the  Empire  and  the  rebels  were 
ever  with  him,  he  was  happy,  and  his  physique  which  had  been 
somewhat  severely  taxed  by  the  Italian  campaigns  was  now 
responding  to  the  comfort  and  treatment  of  home. 

Frederick  was  even  contemplating  a  new  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  Duke  Albert  of  Saxony.  His  return  to  Sicily  had 
had  a  double  purpose,  first  to  restore  order  in  the  administration 
and  finance  which  under  Piero  della  Vigna  had  of  late  fallen 
into  confusion,  and,  secondly,  to  make  the  necessary  prepara 
tions  for  the  following  year  "to  turn  his  steps  joyfully  to 
Germany  "  as  he  expressed  it.  He  had  long  been  promising 
King  Conrad  a  visit. 

The  political  situation  seemed  every  month  to  favour  such 
plans  more.  A  few  ugly  items  of  news  had  followed  King 
Enzio's  capture  :  the  defection  of  Como,  the  capitulation  of 
Modena,  which  the  Bolognese  took  after  a  siege,  the  renewed 
loss  of  the  Cisa  Pass.  The  beginning  of  1250,  however,  saw 
the  fortune  of  war  set  again  in  the  Emperor's  favour  It  began 
in  the  Romagna.  Ravenna,  which  had  twice  proved  false,  had 
once  more  been  won  for  the  Emperor  by  the  loyal  Counts  of 
Bagnacavallo  and  the  March  of  Ancona  was  following  suit. 
The  papal  legate  of  the  March,  Peter  Capoccio,  had  been  in 
structed  to  invade  Sicily,  but  before  the  banner  of  the  Keys 
could  cross  the  Sicilian  frontier  he  was  utterly  defeated  with  a 
loss  of  two  thousand  dead.  Two  of  his  nephews  were  taken 
prisoner.  A  few  months  later  the  imperial  troops  took  Cingoli 
in  the  March  and  the  Cardinal  escaped  capture  by  the  skin  of 
his  teeth.  A  whole  series  of  towns  returned  to  their  allegiance, 
so  that  Frederick  was  able  to  announce  to  his  Byzantine  son- 
in-law  that  Spoleto,  the  Romagna,  and  the  March  were  his 
once  more. 

Frederick  of  Antioch's  position  in  Florence  was  not  so  happy. 
The  imperial  government  of  Tuscany  could  only  be  maintained 
by  perpetual  petty  fighting.  Some  Florentine  troops  in 
Frederick's  service  were  surprised  by  the  Guelfs  on  a  campaign 
in  the  Arezzo  neighbourhood,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1250  a 
distinct  change  of  atmosphere  was  noticeable  in  Florence.  Not 
that  the  Florentines  went  over  to  the  Pope  or  rebelled  against 


680  PALLAVICINI  ix 

the  Emperor,  but  they  were  the  first  commune  to  form  a  non- 
party  popolo  regardless  of  Ghibelline  or  Guelf .  Henceforth 
all  the  forces  which  Frederick  had  hitherto  sacrificed  on  the 
altar  of  the  Empire  should  be  diverted  to  the  service  of  the  town 
itself.  The  imperial  podesta,  however,  remained  for  the  dura 
tion  of  Frederick's  life.  The  very  night  following  the  Emperor's 
death  the  house  fell  in  and  the  imperial  official  was  buried  in 
the  ruins. 


Central  Lombardy  was  the  scene  of  really  big  successes. 
The  one-eyed  Margrave,  Hubert  Pallavicini,  was  proving  a  most 
distinguished  successor  to  King  Enzio.  Possibly  Hubert's 
despotic  savagery  was  more  effective  than  Enzio's  chivalrous 
battle-loving  bonhomie.  Hubert  was  famous  as  the  inventor 
of  new  tortures  :  he  would  hang  a  victim  up  naked  by  his  feet 
and  break  his  teeth  one  by  one. 

Frederick  knew  just  how  to  handle  this  most  ambitious  man. 
Eccelino  enjoyed  practical  independence  and  guaranteed  the 
Brenner ;  similarly,  the  Count  of  Savoy  was  guardian  of  the 
passes  into  Burgundy  ;  Hubert  Pallavicini  was  in  like  manner 
to  cover  the  Cisa  Pass.  Frederick,  therefore,  made  over  to  him 
some  fifty  small  villages  and  hamlets  in  the  neighbourhood,  so 
that  the  Emperor's  cause  was  his  own.  A  number  of  these 
estates  lay  in  the  Parma  domain,  and  the  Margrave  took  the 
field  with  his  Cremonese  against  this  hated  town.  On  the  very 
spot  where  the  Emperor's  care-free  town  of  Victoria  had  stood 
a  battle  was  fought  in  which  Parma  lost  three  thousand  dead 
and  captured  and  lost  also  their  standard-bearing  chariot, 
Cremona  was  avenged  for  the  carroccio  she  had  lost  at  Victoria. 
Parma  long  remembered  this  "  Black  Thursday."  Dante  once, 
in  a  letter  to  Florence,  exhorting  his  townsmen  not  to  oppose 
the  advancing  Henry  of  Luxemburg,  recalls  the  episode  : 
"  Let  not  yourselves  be  lured  to  foolhardiness  by  the  incredible 
good  fortune  of  the  people  of  Parma  who  in  ill-advised  pas 
sionate  greed  .  .  .  burst  into  Caesar's  camp  in  Caesar's  absence. 
They  brought  home  victory  from  Victoria  but  they  also  drew 
down  on  themselves  sorrow  from  sorrow."  The  effects  of  this 
victory  of  Pallavicini  were  felt  also  in  the  Bologna  direction. 


ST.  LOUIS  A  PRISONER  681 

The  men  of  that  city  sent  messengers  to  Frederick  to  treat  of 
peace.  But  Frederick  refused  to  negotiate  about  anything  save 
Enzio's  release. 

Hubert  Pallavicini  was  successful  in  other  matters.  He 
reduced  the  political  confusion  of  Cremona  by  a  firm  re 
organisation  of  the  imperial  partisans  who  called  themselves 
"  the  Beardless "  Barbarasi.  He  soon  got  into  touch  with 
Piacenza  also,  a  town  traditionally  anti-Kaiser.  Ere  long  it 
renounced  its  old  alliance  with  Milan  and  elected  to  be  ruled 
by  Pallavicini,  whose  strength  men  feared  and  trusted. 

The  fleet  now  came  once  more  to  the  fore  again.  Peter  of 
Gaeta,  the  new  Sicilian  admiral,  succeeded  in  conquering 
seventeen  Genoese  ships  with  their  crews,  by  an  attack  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Savona. 


The  Pope's  prospects  began  to  look  bleak  in  Italy.  Nor  were 
things  brighter  for  him  in  Germany,  for  in  the  summer  of  1250 
King  Conrad  had  undertaken  a  great  Rhenish  campaign  against 
William  of  Holland,  which  had  happily  led  to  a  truce  with  the 
archbishops  on  the  Rhine.  In  Avignon  and  Aries  the  inhabi 
tants  had  renewed  their  oaths  of  fealty  to  the  imperial  envoys 
in  spite  of  the  Pope's  utmost  efforts  to  alienate  them  from  the 
Hohenstaufen  cause.  Pope  Innocent  IV  had  little  stomach  left 
for  further  fighting.  His  money  and  his  troops  were  almost 
exhausted  ;  less  than  ever  could  he  count  on  the  French  king 
even  for  the  most  trivial  service.  King  Louis  had  had  some 
initial  successes  in  his  Egyptian  Crusade,  but  had  been  taken 
prisoner  at  Mansurah  with  almost  his  entire  army.  In  com 
mon  with  countless  others  he  laid  the  blame  for  this  disaster  at 
the  Pope's  door.  For  in  spite  of  Louis'  instant  entreaties  the 
Pope  had  refused  peace  with  the  Emperor,  and  hence  prevented 
Frederick  from  lending  "  an  assistance  more  potent  than 
letters"  in  these  overseas  adventures.  The  Pope,  moreover, 
still  diverted,  as  far  as  he  was  able,  those  who  had  taken  the 
cross  to  war  against  Frederick  and  thus  robbed  the  Crusade  of 
full  support. 

Frederick  skilfully  exploited  the  spreading  discontent.    From 
the  beginning  he  had  furthered  Saint  Louis'  undertaking  to  the 


682  JUBILANT   LETTERS  ix 

utmost  of  his  power,  and  when  the  news  of  the  French  King's 
capture  reached  him  in  Apulia  he  wrote  immediately  to  the 
Egyptian  Sultan,  the  son  of  al  Kamil,  and  begged  the  king's 
release.  The  commander-in-chief  of  the  Saracen  army  was 
Frederick's  old  friend  Fakhru'd  Din,  and  the  French  were  not 
a  little  surprised  to  see  the  Roman  eagle  flashing  in  the  shield 
of  the  infidel,  an  early  gift  of  Frederick  to  his  friend. 

A  change  of  dynasty  in  Egypt,  however,  had  enabled  Louis 
to  purchase  his  freedom  for  a  large  ransom  without  awaiting 
Frederick's  intervention.  He  then  proceeded  to  Acre.  The 
hopes  of  the  French  king  and  of  the  Crusaders  were  centred  in 
help  from  Frederick,  the  chosen  Leader  of  Crusades.  Even 
one  of  the  Templars  (whose  order  Frederick  had  bitterly 
persecuted  for  years)  wrote  from  the  Holy  Land  that  Chris 
tian  and  Saracen  alike  believed  that  the  Emperor  could  have 
averted  the  fiasco  of  this  Crusade  if  the  Pope's  conceit  had  not 
prevented  his  participation.  "  Truly  all  our  hope  lies  in 
Frederick's  bosom,"  wrote  the  Templar.  The  whole  world 
agreed.  King  Louis  charged  his  brothers,  whom  he  sent  back 
from  Acre,  most  insistently  to  demand  that  the  Pope  make 
peace  with  the  Emperor,  otherwise  the  French  would  drive  him 
out  of  Lyons.  Innocent,  in  perturbation,  addressed  himself 
thereupon  to  the  English  king,  begging  him  to  offer  the  Curia 
asylum  in  Bordeaux.  The  English  king  hesitated  to  permit 
this  change  of  domicile,  for  Innocent  IV  had  filled  England  with 
unfathomable  hate. 

Frederick  II  seemed  near  the  goal  of  his  desire,  an  alliance 
of  all  the  secular  princes  against  the  Pope.  At  the  beginning 
of  1250  the  Greek  Emperor  Vatatzes  had  sent  considerable 
auxiliaries,  and  only  the  stirring  events  in  Egypt,  so  Frederick 
wrote  to  the  Castilian  king,  had  detained  Frederick  so  long  in 
Apulia,  that  he  might  be  near  at  hand.  The  journey  to  Ger 
many  and  a  call  at  Lyons  were  plans  ever  present  to  Frederick's 
mind.  His  power  had  not  for  many  years  been  so  assured  as 
now.  Victory  waited  on  his  banners  everywhere,  and  he  was 
able  to  send  one  jubilant  message  after  another  to  Vatatzes, 
"  To  let  one  letter  follow  on  another,  bringing  good  news  of 
victories,  rejoices  not  only  those  who  are  related  by  ties  of 
blood  and  of  unfeigned  affection  but  rejoices  every  friend,"  he 


1250  DEATH  683 

wrote,  concluding  with  full  assurances  of  success  :  "  and  thus 
our  divine  glory  re-inforced  by  the  providence  of  heaven,  leads 
and  directs  the  Empire  in  order  and  in  peace." 


In  this  moment  of  brilliant,  almost  unhoped-for,  fulfilment, 
when  the  power  of  the  Empire  seemed  unimpaired  and  the 
Imperator  himself  rejoicing  in  action  and  ready  for  the  fray  ; 
when  east  and  west  alike  were  turning  their  gaze  with  eager 
expectation  on  the  monarch  of  the  world,  at  this  moment  of 
suddenly  intensified  glory  the  Emperor  was  reft  from  the  arena. 
Frederick  II  died  on  the  I3th  of  December,  1250,  the  feast  of 
St.  Lucy,  shortly  before  the  completion  of  his  fifty-sixth  year, 
an  age  that  seems  to  belong  to  a  certain  group  of  heroes  and 
rulers. 

In  the  early  days  of  December  he  had  been  staying  at  Foggia. 
He  seemed  perfectly  fit  in  spite  of  several  slight  indispositions 
during  the  year.    Then  he  had  left  the  palace,  presumably  on 
a  hunting  expedition,  and  later  legends  tell  that  while  hunting 
he  had  turned  on  his  finger  the  magic  ring  of  Prester  John  and 
suddenly  disappeared  from  sight.    The  fact  was,  however,  that 
a  severe  attack  of  fever  drove  him  to  take  refuge  in  Castel 
Fiorentino  which  he  had  never  visited  before.    The  dysentery 
which  he  had  foolishly  been  neglecting  turned  to  gastric  in 
flammation,  and  he  seems  to  have  realised  from  the  first  that 
this  illness  was  to  be  his  last .    He  must  himself  have  summoned 
at  once  his  chief  state  officials,  for  within  a  day  or  two  he  had 
with  him  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo,  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Richard  of  Montenero,  several  High  Court  Judges,  notaries, 
etc.    The  other  faithful  adherents  who  were  with  him  in  these 
last  days  were  probably  part  of  his  permanent  household. 
They  included  the  eighteen-year-old  Manfred,  who  was  then 
the  nearest  and  dearest  of  all  his  sons  ;    Count  Berthold  of 
Hohenburg,  to  whose  friendship  the  Emperor  commended  the 
boy ;  Pietro  Ruffo,  Master  of  the  Royal  Stables,  with  his  nephew 
Folco  Ruffo,  one  of  the  young  poets  of  the  Sicilian  school  to 
whom  Frederick  had  recently  been  showing  marks  of  great 
favour  ;  his  son-in-law  Count  Richard  of  Caserta  ;  and,  lastly, 


684  FREDERICK'S  WILL  ix 

the  physician  John  of  Procida  whose  name  is  linked  with  the 
Sicilian  Vespers  that  spelt  the  fate  of  the  Anjous. 

Frederick  II  never  left  Castel  Fiorentino,  and  the  oracle  that 
had  foretold  that  he  was  destined  to  die  sub  flore  was  here  ful 
filled.  The  man  who  had,  they  said,  hoped  "  to  defy  Nature  " 
and  live  for  ever,  had  in  vain  avoided  Florence  all  his  life.  The 
illness  lasted  a  few  days  only.  Shortly  before  his  death 
Frederick  II,  in  the  presence  of  his  faithful  friends,*  drew  up 
his  last  testament:  Conrad  was  to  be  heir -of  the  Empire  as  a 
whole ;  Manfred,  Prince  of  Taranto  and  Vicar  of  the  Italian- 
Sicilian  state.  Arrangements  for  legacies,  pious  foundations 
and  the  like  were  made.  All  prisoners  were  to  be  released, 
except  traitors.  The  Church  was  to  recover  her  possessions 
on  condition  of  rendering  to  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
Caesar's.  Frederick  anticipated  that  his  sons  would  carry  on 
the  fight.  The  witnesses  signed  the  will :  first  among  them  the 
octogenarian  Archbishop  Berard  of  Palermo,  who  had  accom 
panied  the  Puer  Apuliae  on  his  first  dash  to  Germany,  and  was 
now  about  to  render  him  the  last  rites.  Then  Frederick, 
showing  himself  therein  a  greater  man  than  the  giants  Eccelino 
and  Pallavicini,  asked  for  absolution,  donned  the  grey  habit  of 
a  Cistercian  and  received  the  last  sacrament  from  the  hand  of 
Archbishop  Berard,  in  death  as  in  life  preserving  the  restraint 
and  dignity  that  beseem  a  Christian-Roman  Emperor. 

Frederick  had  given  instructions  that  his  obsequies  should 
be  carried  out  without  ostentation.  He  probably  also  gave 
orders  that  the  news  of  his  death  should  be  kept  from  the  public 
as  long  as  possible  to  avoid  premature  disturbance  throughout 
the  Empire.  Manfred,  however,  did  not  allow  the  ceremonies 
to  lack  pomp  or  reverence  as  the  body  was  conveyed  first  to 
Messina  and  then  to  Palermo.  In  the  cathedral  of  Palermo, 
beside  the  tombs  of  King  Roger  II  and  the  imperial  parents 
Henry  VI  and  his  great  consort  Constance,  Frederick  was  laid 
to  rest  in  the  majestic  sarcophagus  of  dark-red  porphyry  which 
more  than  twenty  years  ago  he  had  himself  transferred  from 
Cefalu  to  Palermo  to  await  his  mortal  remains.  The  sarcoph 
agus  is  borne  on  four  porphyry  lions  carved  with  mysterious 
south-Italian  pagan  symbols  dating  from  prehistoric  times  ;  one 
of  them  with  his  claws  is  guarding  a  Hercules.  The  lid  is 


1250  INVICTUS  685 

ornamented  with  the  symbols  of  the  four  evangelists  and  the 
figure  of  the  Emperor  himself.  The  ruler  was  no  longer 
shrouded  in  the  Cistercian  habit,  but  wrapped  in  a  garment  of 
Arabian  silk  into  which  were  woven  the  symbols  of  world 
lordship  and  writings  in  exotic  script. 

Frederick  had  passed  away  in  the  full  glory  of  imperial  power. 
The  faithful  hailed  him  as  the  vas  electum  Dei  .  .  .  "  overcome 
by  the  might  of  God  alone  whom  the  might  of  the  children  of 
men  had  not  availed  to  overcome  "  ..."  the  unconquered  " 
.  ,  .  "  the  mightiest  of  heroes  "  .  .  .  "  the  greatest  of  the  princes 
of  the  earth,  the  admiration  of  the  world  and  her  most  mar 
vellous  transformer. "  Frederick  suffered  no  martyrdom,  nor 
bore  the  wounds  St.  Francis  bore.  The  last  Emperor  of  the 
Romans  disappeared  from  amidst  his  followers  in  the  radiant 
glory  of  the  Imperator  Invictus,  and  was  spared  the  knowledge 
of  the  tragic  fate  that  overhung  his  house.  His  life  closed  with 
the  "  transfiguration  "  into  the  Emperor  of  the  End.  His  im 
perial  career  had  described  no  curve,  had  known  neither  climax 
nor  decline.  From  birth  his  line  of  life  ran  arrow-straight  to 
its  zenith,  then  quitted  earth  and  vanished  like  a  comet  in  the 
ether  :  perchance  to  reappear  once  more  in  fiery  brilliance  at 
the  end  of  time.  Ere  long  the  sibyls  spake :  HE  LIVES  AND  HE 
LIVES  NOT. 


Frederick  was  the  last  emperor  to  be  deified  or  to  find  a  place 
among  the  stars  of  heaven.  In  life  they  had  hailed  him  as  a 
"  Sun  King."  A  notary  and  master  of  Frederick  of  Antioch 
writes  "a  new  Sun  is  born:  peace  and  fame,  and  haven  and 
way."  At  the  time  of  the  great  conspiracy  another  had  written , 
"  they  sought  to  rob  the  world  of  her  Sun,"  and  again  "  Satan 
would  fain  have  erected  his  rival  throne  beside  the  Sun  God 
(deltas  soKs)"  These  are  not  the  traditional  commonplace 
metaphors  applied  to  any  powerful  Emperor,  they  are  com 
parisons  belonging  to  a  certain  cycle  of  thought.  The  poet  has 
in  mind  the  great  Vergilian  prophecy  of  a  Saviour  and  when 
he  celebrates  the  Emperor's  "  sacred  posterity,"  "  like  a  radiant 
sun  begotten  by  the  sun,"  or  praises  Conrad  the  imperial  heir 


686  ETNA  ix 

as  the  "  unifying  king  at  whose  feet  lieth  the  universe  and  to 
whom  God  smileth  " ;  these  and  countless  other  turns  of  phrase 
belong  to  the  messianic  idea. 

Manfred  writes  to  King  Conrad  of  their  father's  death  :  "  the 
sun  of  the  world  has  set,  the  sun  which  lightened  the  peoples  ; 
the  sun  of  Justice  has  set,  the  treasure  of  Peace. "  Within  a 
month  the  Emperor's  followers  are  writing  in  the  style  of  the 
Tiburtine  Sibyl,  "  like  the  sun  when  he  sinks  from  the  heaven 
into  the  Western  Sea,  Frederick  has  left  a  son-sun  in  the  west 
and  already  the  crimson  of  the  dawn  begins  to  glow."  Here 
is  the  age-old  cult  of  Sol  Invictus,  revivified  by  prophecy,  which 
a  thousand  years  before  had  fused  with  the  cult  of  a  Saviour 
and  had  now  lent  itself  to  an  Emperor,  Frederick  II,  who  him 
self  was  born  within  a  day  of  the  birth  of  Christ  and  of  the  Sun, 
who  had  died  in  December  and  would  return  in  his  own  time 
at  the  end  of  time  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Prophecies  and  sibylline  sayings  multiplied  themselves  with 
out  end.  Men  knew  that  the  Roman  Empire  closed  with 
Frederick  ;  it  was  said  and  said  again.  The  people  did  not 
believe  that  Frederick  was  dead.  The  Pope  had  too  often 
announced  the  Emperor's  death  and  the  fall  of  the  Empire. 
After  great  promises  people  were  still  awaiting  greater  deeds  ; 
they  were  readier  to  believe  in  a  ruse  of  the  resourceful  Emperpr 
than  in  his  death.  Many  years  after  his  death  wagers  were  still 
laid  in  Florence  as  to  whether  Frederick  was  alive  or  not,  since 
the  prophets  had  promised  him  a  life  of  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  years.  For  decades  to  come  impostors  gave  themselves 
out  for  the  returning  Emperor,  who  was  believed  to  be  in  con 
cealment  in  Etna  or  where  not.  Mons  Gebellus  was  clearly 
the  appropriate  dwelling-place  of  the  Ghibelline  Emperor  and 
philosopher  whom  men  feared  like  Satan.  One  of  these  sham 
Fredericks  established  himself  there  and  was  styled  Emperor, 
and  was  honoured  and  worshipped  as  the  Lord.  A  Sicilian 
Franciscan  told  how  he  had  been  sunk  in  prayer  beside  the  sea 
and  had  suddenly  seen  a  mighty  train  of  five  thousand  armed 
horsemen  riding  towards  the  shore  and  plunging  into  the  sea. 
Then  the  sea  hissed  as  if  all  the  riders  had  been  armed  in 
glowing  metal,  and  one  of  the  horsemen  said  to  the  astonished 
monk  "  that  was  Kaiser  Frederick,  riding  into  Etna  with  his 


INTERREGNUM  687 

men."  This  vision,  which  recalls  the  death  of  the  great  King 
of  the  Goths  Dietrich  of  Bern,  was  said  to  have  visited  the 
brother  at  the  very  moment  that  Frederick  died. 

The  rumour  of  a  mysterious  disappearance  of  Frederick  was 
not  slow  in  reaching  Germany.  The  Sibyl  had  foretold :  "  The 
Empire  shall  end  with  him  ;  his  successors,  if  any  he  shall  have, 
shall  be  bereft  of  the  Roman  throne  and  the  imperial  name/' 
The  chaos  of  the  Interregnum  saw  the  literal  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy.  Germany  had  kings  enough  and  to  spare  :  William 
of  Holland,  Alfonso  of  Castile,  Richard  of  Cornwall;  but  no 
ruler.  The  world  had  never  seen  before  on  such  a  scale  the 
spectacle  that  followed  the  death  of  the  Emperor :  the  complete 
disintegration  in  a  night  of  the  proud  structure  of  government, 
the  incoherence  of  all  German  happenings.  The  dismay  which 
gripped  the  Germans  is  even  more  evident  in  art  than  in  history  : 
the  glorious  pride  and  freedom  of  Hohenstaufen  days  lay  in 
the  dust. 

South  of  the  Alps  Frederick's  legacy  was  the  image  of  the 
"  terrible  "  blent  with  the  "  majestic  "  which  stemmed  the 
inflowing  tide  of  the  God  of  Souls.  Nothing  of  this  touched 
the  Germans  in  the  North.  Goethe's  saying  already  held  of 
them :  "  they  are  more  apt  to  perceive  the  Good  than  the 
Beautiful."  To  them  Frederick  was  no  Apollo,  no  Sol  In- 
victus,  neither  the  God  of  the  Sibyls  nor  the  Bringer  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  Sun  God.  The  terrifying  vision  of  Antichrist 
sweeping  in  storm  above  the  clouds  carried  more  conviction, 
for  here  only  the  degenerate  Church  stood  at  the  judgment  bar. 
Germany  also  refused  to  believe  in  the  death  of  this  great 
Emperor,  and  decades  later  impostors  would  still  appear  as  the 
risen  Kaiser.  The  pre-Christian  God  with  whom  men  here 
identified  Frederick  was  not  Apollo  but  Woden.  He  appeared 
as  "  The  Wanderer  "  to  the  peasants  to  announce  : 

Once  again  shall  he  come  home 
The  mighty  emperor  of  Rome. 

The  reformation  of  the  Church  appeared  the  most  important 
mission  of  the  "  Awaited  One,"  to  flog  and  scourge  the  priests 
till  they  should  hide  their  tonsures  with  cow-dung.  So  per 
sistent  was  the  conception  of  the  redeeming  saviour  as  a  figure 


688  KYFFHAUSER  ix 

of  awe  and  horror  that  after  the  Great  Plague  people  hailed  the 
dread  leader  of  the  Flagellants  as  Kaiser  Frederick. 

Even  in  Germany  other  attributes,  however,  clung  round 
Frederick's  name,  wisdom  and  majesty  and  glory,  though  the 
beauty  and  the  radiance  had  not  impressed  themselves  on  the 
northern  people  as  on  the  Italians.  Frederick  would  come 
again,  though  he  had  been  cut  into  pieces  or  burnt  to  ashes,  he 
would  come  to  raise  the  Empire  of  the  Germans  to  glory  and 
to  brilliance.  He  would  bring  justice  and  peace,  he  would  hang 
the  shield  on  the  dry  tree  and  lay  down  the  sceptre  of  the  world. 
Until  the  hour  should  strike  when  he  would  sit  in  judgment 
on  a  corrupt  Church  and  gloriously  renew  the  Empire's  might 
the  northern  peoples  dreamt  of  him  as  withdrawn  into  some 
fastness  of  the  mountains.  The  sagas  pitched  on  Kyffhauser  in 
Thuringia  as  his  hiding-place  ;  perhaps  because  a  grandson  of 
Frederick  II's,  Frederick  the  Peaceful,  lived  on  till  the  opening 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  son  of  the  illustrious  Henry  of 
Meissen,  and  people  longed  to  find  in  him  the  wished  for 
Frederick  III.  Whatever  associations  of  glory  and  brilliance 
the  "  Emperor  "  retained  in  the  people's  dreams  even  into  the 
later  barren  years,  were  derived  from  the  deposed  and  ex 
communicated  prince,  the  enemy  of  the  Church,  the  Antichrist, 
the  fallen  angel. 

Old  prophecies  had  given  Frederick  267  years  to  live,  and 
267  years  after  his  death  the  Reformation  dawned  in  Germany. 
Two  years  later,  in  the  chapbook  of  1519,  Frederick  II  was  for 
the  first  time  confused  with  his  grandfather  Barbarossa.  It 
gradually  became  superfluous  to  picture  the  long-hoped  for 
Saviour-Emperor  as  persecutor  of  the  Church.  And  almost 
no  one  in  Germany  had  had  an  Italian  eye  for  Frederick  II 
Antichrist  as  Herakles  Musagetes.  Frederick  II  is  gradually 
metamorphosed  into  the  bearded  Barbarossa,  the  immortal  boy 
into  the  aged  man.  Germany's  dream  was  changed,  and  change 
of  myth  reflects  the  changing  life  and  longings  of  a  people. 
The  snow-white  sleeper  whose  beard  has  grown  through  the 
table  on  which  his  elbow  rests  has  no  message  for  the  German 
of  to-day  :  he  has  had  his  fulfilment,  in  the  greatest  vassal  of 
the  Empire,  the  aged  Bismarck.  The  weary  Lord  of  the  Last 
Day  has  naught  to  say  to  the  fiery  Lord  of  the  Beginning,  the 


A   SIBYLLINE  SAYING  689 

seducer,  the  deceiver,  the  radiant,  the  merry,  the  ever-young, 
the  stern  and  mighty  judge,  the  scholar,  the  sage  who  leads  his 
armed  warriors  to  the  Muses'  dance  and  song,  he  who  slumbers 
not  nor  sleeps  but  ponders  how  he  can  renew  the  "Empire." 
The  mountain  would  to-day  stand  empty  were  it  not  for  the 
son  of  Barbarossa's  son.  The  greatest  Frederick  is  not  yet 
redeemed,  him  his  people  knew  not  and  sufficed  not.  "  Lives 
and  lives  not,"  the  Sibyl's  word  is  not  for  the  Emperor,  but  for 
the  German  People. 


FINIS 


INDEX 


[v.  also  Table  of  Contents] 


Abacus,  342 

Abbasids,  192 

Abelard,  82 

Abruzzi,  116,  204,  206,  285 

strongholds,  479 
Absalom,  447 
Absolutism,  Chap.  V  passim,  473  ff., 

486  ff . 

Abu  Zacharia  Yahya,  287  f. 
Academy,  of  F.,  345 
Acerno,  145 
Acerra,    Count   of,   t;.   Diepold   of 

Schweinspeunt 
Achilles,  16,  469 
Acquaviva  family,  314,  316,  492 
Acre,  139,  182,  183,  187,  205,  682 
Adam,  258,  395 

age  of,  523 

Adam  of  Cremona,  357 
Adda  R.,  149 
Adelasia  of  Sardinia,  wife  of  King 

Enzio,  470,  670 
Adige  R.,  58,  431 
Adimari  tower,  650 
Admirals,  v.  William  Porcus,  Henry 

of    Malta,    Nicholas    Spinola, 

Ansaldus    de    Mari,    Peter    of 

Gae"ta 

Adolf  of  Nassau,  410 
Adolf,  Abp.  of  Cologne,  18 
Adolf  us  of  Holstein,  204 
Adonis,  306 
Adriatic  Sea,  153,  554 
Advocatus,     Advocate     [Vogt]     of 

Rome,  399,47*,  5&3 
Aegean  Sea,  125 
Aeneas,  337 
Africa,  52,  128,  129,  287  ;    v.  also 

Egypt 
Age(s),  Three  ages  of  world,  160  f., 

335,  395 
Aghlabites,  128 
Agnes  of  Bohemia,  375 


Agriculture,  of  Cistercians,  83  ff. 

F.  and, 286 
Aiguesmortes,  663 
Aimeric  of  Peguilain,  61 
Aix  la  Chapelle    [Aachen],  63,  72, 
202,  419 

coronation  at,  443 
Ajello,  116 

Count  of,  116 
Al  Abbas,  192 
Alaman  da  Costa,  123,  141 
Alaric,  King  of  the  W.  Goths,  20 
Alba,  452,  640 
Albenga,  460 
Alberigo  of  Romano,  388,  471,  613, 

646 
Albert,  Patriarch   of  Antioch,   390, 

591 

Albert  of  Austria,  410 
Albert  of  Bohemia,  619 
Albert  of  Halberstadt,  81 
Albert,  Abp.  of  Magdeburg,  176 
Albert,  Duke  of  Saxony,  204,  679 
Albertus  Magnus,  3 40,  363  f.,  415 
Albigensian(s),  war,  40 

heresy,  161 
Albumazar,  355 
Alchemy,  354,  510 
Alessandria,  461 

and  Pallavicini,  614 
Alexander  of  Aphrodisias,  348 
Alexander  III,  Pope,  42,  229 
Alexander  the  Great,  61,  160,  197, 

207,   344»   357,  409,  427,  494, 
609 

legends  of,  337 

and  elephants,  464 
Alexandria,  123,  288 
Alexius  III,  Byzantine  Emp.,  9 
Al  Farabi,  338 
Al  Fargani,  344,  355 
Alfonso  I  of  Aragon,  530 
Alfonso  VIII  of  Castile,  90 


691 


692 


INDEX 


Alfonso    of    Castile,    King   of   the 

Romans,  687 

Alfonso,  Count  of  Provence,  34  f. 
Al  Hanifi,  342 
Al  Kamil,  Sultan  of  Egypt,  183-192, 

195,  288,  341  f. 
son  of,  682 
Alkamo,  324 
Al  Kindi,  338 
Allemania,  554 
Almagest,  355 

Amaury  of  Lusignan,  King  of  Cy 
prus,  10,  179 
Almohades,  9,  287,  348 
Al  Muazzam,  Sultan  of  Damascus, 

183,  184 
Alpetragius,  339 
Alpetronius,  344 
Alpheus,  21 
Alpine  Passes,  388,  415  f.,  430  f.,  475 

closure  of,  156,  372,  393 
Alsace,  60,  65,  89,  415 
Altavilla,  634 
Amadeus  of  Savoy,  639 
Amalfi,  122 
Amelia,  487 
Amidei  family,  68 
Anagni,   169,   170,   210,  399,  467, 

57.6  f. 

Analytica  of  Aristotle,  339 
"  Ananke,"  334 
Anatomy,  356  f. 

Ancona  [the  March],  5,  8,  47,  138, 
153,  486 

Vicariate  General,  487 

betrays  Barharossa,  649 
Andalusian  horses,  404 
Andernach,  72 

Andrew  of  Cicala,  477,  630,  633  f. 
Angel-Pope,  v.  Papa  angelicus 
Angelo  Malabranca,  460 
Angelus,  442 
Angevin(s),  massacre  of,  292 

court  of,  312,  318 
Anjou(s),  in  Sicily,  323  f.,  362 

and  Manfred,  674 

and  Saracens,  676 

v.  also  Vespers,  Sicilian 
Ansaldus  de  Mari,  Admiral,  545,  579 
Anselm  of  Justingen,  53 
Anthony  of  Padua,  v.  St.  Anthony 
Antichrist,  160,  198 

expectation  of,  396  f . 

F.  as,  499, 515 

Rainer's  pamphlets,  592  f. 


predicted  for  1261,  603 

Chap.  IX,  passim 
Antioch,  341 
Antiochus,  464 
Apennines,  509,  627,  641,  645,  656  ; 

v.  also  La  Cisa 
Apocalypse,  395,  495,  498,  609,  and 

Chap.  IX  passim 

Apollo,  3,  139,  202,  340,  396,  687 
Apothecaries,  357 
Apuleius,  337 
Apulia(ns),5o,si,  no,  121,204,220 

architecture,  86 

agriculture,  85 

plantation  of  Saracens,  129 

fairs,  285 

F/s  love  of,  321 

in  Italy  as  officials,  491  f. 

v.  also  Puer  Apuliae 
Aquila,  arsenal,  281 
Aquila,  ship,  125 
Aquila,  town,  654 
Aquileia,  376,  403 

patriarch  of,  598 
Aquinas,  v.  Thomas 
Aquino  family,  115,  313,  316,  492 

as  poets,  330  f. 
Arab(s),  291 

literature,  338  f. 

learning,  338  ft. 

astrology,  355 

troops,  464 

numerals,  158,  341 

poets,  185 
Arabia,  196,  361 
Aragon,  8,  31,  271 

knights  of,  32,  34  f. 

court  of,  312,  330 

and  Papacy,  566  f. 
Aratus,  355 
Arbia,  66 1 
Arch,  of  Constantine,  452 

of  Titus,  452 

of  Trajan,  530 
Archer,  constellation,  355 
Archer(s),428,43o,436 ;  v.  also  Army 
Architecture,    German-Roman-An 
tique,  81  f. 

of  Cistercians,  86 

of  Sicilian  fortresses,  120  f. 

Prussian,  120 

Arab,  192 

Renaissance,  322 

Gothic,  322 

Corinthian,  322 


INDEX 


693 


Archpoet,  425,  444 

Archpriest  of  Greek  Church,  143 

Arcole,  431 

Arctic,  361 

Arduin,  Bp.  of  Cefalu,  141 

Ar elate,  the,  641 

Arethusa,  21 

Arezzo,  105 

and  poetry,  331 

and  Florence,  679 
Argentum  vivum,  354 
Ariosto,  189 
Aristotelianism,  254 
Aristotle,  248,  298,  337  f.,  344,  357 

as  scientist,  362 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  146,  595 
Aries,  68 1 
Army,  F.'s  in  general,  427  f. 

agt.  Babenberg,  428 

first  Lombard  campaign,  434 

second  Lombard  campaign,  463  f. 

cost  of,  540 

agt.  Viterbo,  585 

Italian  for  Germany,  641 

before  walls  of  Parma,  644 

after  battle  of  Parma,  657 
Arnaldus,  Master,  298 
Arno  R.,  52,  317,  667 
Arnold,  v.  Brother  Arnold 
Arnsberg,  Count  of,  401 
Arrigo  Testa,  332,  643 
Art,  in  Sicily,  526  f. 

ancient,  529 

and  Church,  534  f. 

plastic, 81  f .,  i  I  i  , 336, 363 ,409, 509 

German,  408  f. 
Art  of  War,  277,  427 
Arthur,  King,  409 
Ashtaroth,  657 
Asia,  627 

Asia  Minor,  348  ;  v.  also  Nicaea 
Assassins  [Hashishin],  193,  388 
Assisi,  6,  509  ;  v.  also  St.  Francis 
Asti,  57 
Astrolabe,  342 

Astrologers,    Astrology,    167,    197, 
342  f.,  355 

and  Victoria,  654 
Astronomers,  Astronomy,  192,  336, 

355,  415 
Athens,  283 
Atina,  114 
Attila,  605 

Augsburg,  65,  78, 104,  378,  416,  433 
Bp.  of,  402,  621 


Augusta,  town  of,  280,  654 
Augustales,  gold  coins,  225  flf.,  285, 

507>  531,  54i 

as  likeness,  366,  529 
Augustus,  220,  223,  224  ff.,  335 

and  Vergil,  447 

»>.  also  Caesar 
Austria,  379,  384,  432 

and    Confederation    of    Passau, 

619  f. 

Auvergne,  326 
Averroes,  248,  338,  340,  344,  415, 

647 
Aversa,  51,  145 

fortress,  116 

Avicenna,  248,  338,  340,  349 
Avignon,  473,  589,  68 1 
Ayyubids,  183 
Azzo  of  Este,  471,  474 

Baal,  615 

Babenberg,  384,  428,  432 
Gertrude  of,  596 

v.  also  Frederick  of  Babenberg 
Babylon(ian),  354  f.,  520 
Baden,  Margrave  of,  401 
Baghdad,  341 

Bagnacavallo,  Counts  of,  679 
Baldwin  II,  of  Flanders,  Emp.  of 

Constantinople,  556,  585 
Bale,  v.  Basel 
Balearic  Is.,  9 
Baltic  Sea,  91,  380,  412 
Bamberg,  35,  7 8 

architecture,  81  f.,  662 

Bp.  of,  635 

Ban,  of  Empire,  109,  157,  428,  474 
Baptistery,  in  Florence,  650 
Barbarasi,  681 

Barbarossa,  Frederick,  Emp.,  grand 
father  of  F.,  8,  40,  133,  371 

diplomacy  of,  6,  20 

and  Roman  Law,  12,  109,  222, 
228,  236 

pride  of  race,  64 

homage  to  Charlemagne,  72 

and  Teutonic  Order,  90,  93 

and  Lombards,  147,  149,  461 

as  Crusader,  167  f. 

appearance,  367 

sword-investiture,  409 

and  Archpoet,  425,  444 

and  Romans,  442,  451,  453 

contrast  with  F.,,  453 

and  fellow  kings,  563  f. 


694 


INDEX 


Barbarossa,  theories  of  Empire,  573 

myths,  688 

Barbary  horses,  358,  404 
Bad,  51,  145,  160 

castle,  479 
Barlaam,  305 
Barletta,  51,  206,  322,  476 

diet,  176 

Barnacle  geese,  361 
Bartholomew,  Dominican,  455 
Bartholomew  of  Foggia,  535 
Bartholomew  Pignatellus,  Professor 

at  Naples,  298 
Basel,  59,95,416 
Basilicata,  the,  51,  285 
Baths  of  Constantine,  558 
Batu,  son  of  Chingiz  Khan,  552 
Bavaria,  619 

Duke  of,  58,  428 

Beatrice  of  Burgundy,  wife  of  Bar 
barossa,  8,  78,  407 
Beatrice,  dau,  of  Philip  of  Swabia, 

wife  of  Otto  IV,  47,  64 
Beatrice,  dau.  of  Manfred,  675 
Beatrice,  wife  of  Roger  II,  4 
Beelzebub ,  657 

Bela  IV,  King  of  Hungary,  424,  462 
troops,  464 
and  Mongols,  553 
Belluno,  659 
Belshazzar,  594 
Benevento,  279 
battle  of,  327,  674 
wiped  out,  483,  547 
v.  Roffredo 

Berard  of  Acquaviva,  317 
Berard  of  Castacca,  Abp.  of  Palermo, 
58,  71,  143  f.,  179,  183,  296, 
,297,372,470,  476 
discovers  P.  d.  V.,  299 
head  of  Sic.  Church,  481 
ambassador  to  Innocent  IV,  583 
at  F.'s  deathbed,  683  f. 
Berard,  Abp.  of  Messina,  297 
Berceto,  645 
Bereshith,  414 
Bergamo,  431,  434 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  v.  St.  Bernard 
Bernardo  Orlando  di  Rossi,  465,  579 
treachery  of,  628  f . 
takes  Parma,  643 
in  Florence,  649 
death,  658 

Berthold  of  Hohenburg,  317,319, 345 
at  F.'s  deathbed,  683 


Berthold  of  Ratisbon,  404 

Berthold  of  Tannenrode,  89 

Besancon,  Abp.  of,  549 

Bethlehem,  187,  512,  572 

Bethshemesh,  594 

Bianca  Lancia,  639 

Bible,  201  f.,  230,  345,  348,  395,  512 

imagery,  220,  Chap.  IX  passim 
Birthday,  Emperor's,  227 
Bismarck,  67,  688 
Black  Art,  Black  Magic,  v.  Sorcery 
Black  Thursday,  680 
Blasphemers,  121 
Blood-letting,  323,  343 
Blood  sacrifices,  414 
Blucher,  580 
Boccaccio,  67,  306,  573 
Boethius,  337,  339,  355 
Bohemia,  62,  384,  428,  553 

and  Confederation  of  Passau,  619 

King  of,  59,  415 
Bohemund  of  Antioch,  10 
Bohemund  of  Tarentum,  167 
Bojano,  116 

Bologna,  as  seat  of  learning,  39,  105, 
109,  228,  253,  305 

University  of,  133,  297,  298 

Charter  of,  345 

imprisons  Enzio,  327,  670  f. 

F.'s  gift  to,  346 

and  penance,  397 

defies  F.,  461 

F.'s  campaign  agt.,  474 

and  League,  539 
Bonagiunta  di  Lucca,  333 
Boniface  VIII,  39,  247,  441,  674 
Boniface,   Marquis    of   Montferrat, 

649 

Book  of  All  Knowledge,  350 
Book  of  Indian  Sages,  344 
Book  of  Laws,  v.  Liber  Augustalis 
Book  of  the  Nine  Judges,  342 
Boppard,  401 
Bordeaux,  682 
Borgia   family,    457,    494,    v.    also 

Cesare 

Borgo  san  Donnino,  656,  657,  667 
Bosporus,  442 
Botany,  336,  354 
Bourbons,  569 

Bouvines,  battle  of,  68  f.,  562 
Bozen,  104 

Brabant,  Duke  of,  68,  72  , 
Brahmins,  349 
Breeding,  of  animals,  358 


INDEX 


695 


Breisach,  59 

Bremen,  Abp.  of,  631 

Brenner  Pass,  58,  104,  416,  475,  641 

closure  of,  156  f. 

and  Eccelino,  612,  680 
Brescello,  fort,  646,  655 
Brescia,  430,  435,  461 

siege  of,  464  f.,  541 

and  Enzio,  643  f. 
Breton  lineage,  314 
Brindisi,  harbour  of,  122 

marriage  of  Isabella,  139 

election  of  bp.,  145 

port  for  Crusades,  168  f.,  176  f. 

F.'s  return,  206 

and  plague,  419,  499 
Britain,  361 
Brixen,  Bp.  of,  630  f. 
Brother  Arnold,  618 
Brother  Elias  of  Cortona,  Minister 
General   of   Franciscans,  465, 
509  f. 

Brother  Gerard,  397  f. 
Brother  John,  v,  John  of  Vicenza 
Brother  Jordan,  510 
Brothers  Minor,  v.  Franciscans 
Brunetto  Latini,  311,  354,  445 
Brunswick,  65,  412 
Brunswick-Llineburg,  412 
Brutus,  664 
Bugno,  655,  658,  670 
Building,  Apulian  fortresses,  izof. 

Cistercian  monasteries,  86  f. 

Brother  Elias,  509 

of  Cologne  Cathedral,  620 

of  Victoria,  654  f. 

v.  also  Architecture 
Bulgaria,  361 
Buondelmonti,  family,  68 
Bureaucracy,  133 

in  Sicily,  272  ff .,  293  ff.,  477  fl. 

in  Germany,  379  f* 

in  Italy,  489  f . 

in  Teutonic  Order,  273 
Burgundy,  8,  62,  379 

troops  from,  388,  391,  463 

Vicar iate,  487 

Kingdom,  642 
Burzen,  92 
Busseto,  614 
Buzzard,  359 

Byzantine,  Byzantium  :    Henry  VI 
and,  9 

Crusaders'  conquest  of,  40 

trade,  149 


silk  monopoly,  283 
Liutprand  in,  336 
learning,  339 
strategy,  427 
rivalry  of  Rome,  442 
court  diction,  521 

Caesar(s),  cult  by  F.,  303  fl.,  443  ff., 

507  f. 

parallels,  425  f.,  434 

connotations  of,  446 

in  general,  Chap,  VII  passim 
Caesar,  Julius,  155,  202,  223,  227  ff. 

cheerfulness,  327 

campaigns,  427 

and  Pompey,  447 
Caesarea,  117,  187,  654 
Caesarean  precedents  and  titles,  438, 

441  ff.,  Chap.  VII  passim 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach,  8,  85 
Cairo,  slave  market,  129 

crusaders,  136 

schools,  1 86 

court,  331 
Cajazzo,  115,  116 
Calabria,  51,  53,  121,  285 

Greek  language,  305 
Calamandrinus,  464  f. 
Calatrava,  86 

Order  of,  90 
Calendar,  355 
Cambrai,  95 
Camels,  358,  404 
Caniino,  432 

Campagna,  the,  8,  389,  399 
Campanella,  245 
Campania,  in,  115,  255,  285 
Cancer,  constellation,  655 
Canonisation,  St.  Francis,  161 

Charlemagne,  167 

St.  Dominic,  394 

St.  Elizabeth,  419  f. 
Canon  Law,  229,  296 

and  Innocent  IV,  622"  f. 

v,  also  Decretals 
Canopus,  356 
Canosa,  310 
Canossa,  149,  599 
Canterbury,  Abp.  of,  340 
Capaccio,  634 
Capet(s),  386 
Capitanata,  the,  m,  285 

F.'s  hq.,  321 

Capitol,  the,    175,   442,   45°,  45*> 
6?5  f- 


696 


INDEX 


Capizzi,  280 

Capraio,  fortress,  626 

Capua,   strategic   importance,    114, 

H5 

diet  of,  115,  118,  140 

loyalty  to  F.,  204,  206 

law  courts,  278 

andP.d.V.,  299 

bridge  at,  301,  366 
Capuan  Assizes,  121,  124 
Capuan  Gate,  450  f.,  530  f.,  669 
Caraccioli,  family,  314,  316,  492 
Cardinals,  divisions  amongst,  208 

law  studies,  229 

and  Gregory  IX,  398  f. 

allies  of  F.,  457  f. 

and  F.'s  council,  542 

conclaves,  574  f.,  578 

oath  of,  586 

THE  CARDINAL,  v.  Ottaviano 
Caretto,  Margrave  of,  545,  639 
Carinola,  Bp.  of,  141 
Carinthia,  Duke  of,  315 
Carolingians,  441 
Carroccio,  as  pulpit,  398 

of  Milan,  436  f. 

sent  to  Rome,  448  f.,  450 

of  Cremona,  657,  680 
Carthage,  207,  426 
Caserta,  479 
Caserta,  family,  314,  316  ;    v.  also 

Richard  and  Conradin 
Cassiodorus,  299,  447 
Castel  Florentine,  683,  684 
Castel  del  Monte,  322,  529,  548,  676 
Castel  dell1  Ovo,  675 
Castellamare,  22,  52 
Castile,  8,  271 

troops,  464 
Castles,  annexation  of,  116  ff.,  281 

of  Capitanata,  321 

plan  of,  322  f . 

and  Lombard  war,  479 

adornment  of,  529  f. 
Catania,  34,  51,  138 
Categorica,  339 
Catiline,  155 
Cato,  223 

Cavalry,  436  ;  v.  also  Army 
Cefalu,  684 
Celano,  116,  117 

exiles  of,  130 
Celestine  III,  10,  n 
Celestine  IV.,  576 
Cencio  Savelli,  v.  Honorius  III 


Centiloquium  of  Hermes,  342 

Centaur,  constellation,  355 

Centorbi,  280 

Ceperano,  Peace  of,  209  f.,  374 

Cephalonia,  179 

Ceremonial,  Sicilian  coronation,  15 

collauding,  56 

coronation  in  Aix,  72 
in  Rome,  107  f. 
in  Jerusalem,  199 

of  law  courts,  236 

wedding,  406  f. 

at  court,  513,  527  f. 

on  Capuan  Gate,  532 
Ceres,  21 
Cerro,  castle,  479 
Cesar e  Borgia,  612 
Ceuta,  v.  Ibn  Sabin 
Chadar,  193 
Chalcidius,  339- 
Chambe'ry,  642 

Chariot,  standard-bearing,  v.  Car 
roccio 
Charlemagne  [Charles  the  Great] 

throne  at  Aix,  72 

wars  agt.  Jheathen,  93 

canonisation,  167 

heir  of  David,  201 

wealth,  289 

F.  as  heir  of,  371 

legends  of,  403 

re-interment  of,  419 

and  Empire,  230,  429,  543 

as  warrior,  628 
Charles  II  of  Anjou,  328 
Charles  V,  125,  217,  563 
Chartres,  82 
Charybdis,  21,  337 
Cherub,  199,  202,  203,  250  ;  v.  also 

Seraph 

Children's  Crusade,  59  f.,  71,  129 
Chingiz  Khan,  197,  309,  551  f. 
Chioggia,  377 
Chivalry,  of  Mussulmans,  189 

of  F.'s  court,  314,  320,  323  fl.,  334 

in  Germany,  409 
Christ,  prophecies  concerning,  3 

Jerusalem  manifesto,  201  f. 

F.  and,  228  ff.,  250  f. 

age  of,  395,  523 
Chap.  IX  passim 
Christmas,  Frederick's  birth,  5 

in  Pisa,  511  f. 
Chur  [Coire],  58 
Bp.  of,  58,  59,  621 


INDEX 


697 


Church,  v.  Table  of  Contents  and 

various  Popes 
Cicala,  family,  xi5>  3*4 
Cicero,  300,  302,  337 
Cilicia,  King  of,  10 
Cingoli,  679 
Cisa  Pass,  v.  La  Cisa 
Cistercians,  organisation  of,  83  ff. 

F.  and,  85  f. 

Spanish,  86 

as  farmers,  286 

and  Fridericus  Cornutus,  609 

F.  as,  85,  684 

t>.  also  Agriculture,  Architecture 
Citeaux,  84 

Abt.  of,  549 
Cittanuova,  658 
Cividale,  378,  379,  400 
Civita  Castellana,  588,  589 
Civitavecchia,  548,  589 
Ciairvaux,  Abt.  of,  549 
Claudius,  Emp.,  450 
Cluny,  Abt.  of,  549 
Coblenz,  68 
Cockatoos,  358 
Coinage,  silver  " imperials ,"  127 

Augustales,  22  $  f. 

leather,  541, 

Victorines,  654  f. 

change  of,  484,  659 

v.  also  Augustales 
Colbert,,  387 
Cologne,  59»  7*          ,     ,       f  e 

and  Isabella  of  England,  406  f. 

Albertus'  garden,  415 

Abp.  of,  620 
Colonna,  family,  452,  558 

Omni  feud,  576 
Colorno,  655 
Colosseum,  452 
Comacchio,  377 
Comedy,  topical,  305 
Comnenus,  442 
Como,  65,  475,  679 

hostages,  652 
Conca  d'Oro,  27 
Conclave,  of  Terror,  574  fl. 

at  Anagni,  578 
Concordat,  of  Constance  and  Pope, 

confirmed  by  F.,  55 
Condottieri,  427 
Conrad  III,  Emp,,  167,  442 

and  Romans,  453 
Conrad  IV,  King  of  Jerusalem,  son 


of  F.  and  Isabella  of  Jerusalem, 
20,  195,  342 

birth,  140 

and  Cremona,  150 

education,  319 

at  six,  399 

at  seven,  403 

heir,  406 

King  of  the  Romans,  433  f. 

Lombard  wars,  463  f. 

and  Mongols,  553 

sixth  Emp.,  572 

F.'s  letters,  587 

Diet  of  Verona,  596 

and  Henry  Raspe,  637 

F/s  visit,  641,  679 

death,  673  f. 

and  brother  Henry,  673 

and  Wm.  of  Holland,  68 1 
Conrad  of  Antioch,  676 
Conrad,  Bp.  of  Hildesheim,  Chan 
cellor,  20,  81,  337 
Conrad    of    Hochstaden,    Abp.    of 

Cologne,  620  f. 

Conrad  of  Hohenlohe,  179,  401 
Conrad    of    Marburg,    Inquisitor, 

400  f.,  419 
Conrad  of  Masovia,  Duke  of  Poland, 

92 

Conrad,  Abp.  of  Metz,  104 
Conrad  of  Solimburg,  672 
Conrad   of  Thuringia,   Landgrave, 
Grandmaster  of  the  Teutonic 
Order,  420,  536 
Conradin,   King  of  Sicily,   son  of 

Conrad  IV,  216,  328,  675  f. 
Conradin,  natural  son  of  Conrad  IV, 

676 

Conradin  of  Caserta,  676 
Consilarii,  278,  295 
Conspiracy,  of  Parma,  628 

of  intimates,  632  f. 

Lyons  the  centre  of,  635 
Constance,  town,  58,  63,  403 

peace  of,  147 

lake  of,  65 

Bp.  of,  621 

Constance,  dau.  of  Roger  II,  King 
of  Sicily,  wife  of  Henry  VI, 

consort  of  Henry,  4-6 

jealousy  for  son,  n 

Queen  in  Sic,,  13-17 

plans  for  son,  22  f.,  35 

F.'s  worship  of,  408,  512,  572 

tomb,  684 


INDEX 


and  FaSnza,  547 

v.  also  Concordat 

Constance  of  Aragon,  wife  of  Fre 
derick  II,  Emp.,  32,  53,  99>  *°4 

crowned  Empress,  107  f. 

death,  138 

tomb  in  Palermo,  529 
Constantine,  original  name  of  F.,  6, 

ii 
Constantine,  Emp,,  9,  335,  429 >  442> 

453 

v,  also  Donation  of 
Constantinople,  339,  556 

patriarch  of,  71,  143 
Constitutions    of   Melfi,   v.    Liber 

Augustalis 

Consulates,  consuls,  288 
Contempt  of  court,  276 
Conti,  family,  163 
Convivio,  of  Dante,  346 
Conza,  145 
Corfu,  179 
Corinth,  283 
Corn,  Sicilian,  126,  158,  286 

trade  in,  484  f . 
Cornelii,  454 
Corneto,  487,  546 
Cornutus,  609 
Cornwall,  v.  Richard 
Coronation,  in  Sic.,  15 

in  Mainz,  63 

in  Aix,  72 

in  Rome,  107  f. 

in  Jerusalem,  198  f. 
Corsica,  122 
Cortenuova,  436  f.,  475,  486 

consequences  of,  443,  444,  445  > 

457 

spolia  opima,  448 

doge's  son,  467,  542 
Cortopasso,  656 
Cortona,  509 
Cosenza,  405 

Abp.  of,  674  f. 

Cosmos,  249,  335,  355 
Council,  Church,  Pope  and,  497 

Lateran,  70,  597 

Lyons,  590,  597  f. 

Lyons  and  German  Church,  621 

F.'s  General  Council  suggested, 

Gregory  IX's,  543  f. 
Counsellors,  278,  295,  640 
Court(s),  at  Foggia,  308,  314  ff. 

law  courts,  229  fT. ;  v.  also  Justitia 


contempt  of,  276 

of  Exchequer,  484 

v,  also  Diets 
Cranes,  358 
Crema,  149,  150 

and  Pallavicini,  614 
Cremona,  welcome  to  Puer  Apuliae, 

57,  58 

abortive  diet  of,  147 

and  Milan,  148  f. 

charter,  149 

loyalty,  149-54,  i59>  *74 

administration,  282 

triumph,  311,  366 

and  Lombard  war,  430  fl.,  644 

diet,  431 

diet  of  1247,  641 

and  Pallavicini,  614 

F.'s  promises  to,  626 

loss  of  carrocdio,  657 

P,  d.V.'s  treachery,  663  f. 

avenged,  680 
Crete,  123,  179,  554 
Crevalcore,  474 
Critique  of  Pure  Reason,  228 
Crown  Property,  in  Sicily,  35.  "i  f-> 

286  ;  v.  also  Demanium 
Crown  Prosecution,  240 
Crusade(s),  Children's,  59  f.,  71 

under  Henry  VI,  n  f.,  15,  93 

Honorius  III,  97,  136 

first  and  second,  167 

F.'s,  Chap.  IV  passim,  390 

in  general,  442 

agt.  Tartars,  553 

Gregory  IX  and,  556  f. 

agt.  F.,  621  f. 
St.  Louis',  663,  681 
Cult,  of  "  Divine  Mother,"  408,  512, 

5721 

of  Caesars,  Chap.  VII  passim 

of  Emp.,  519  ff. 

of  Justitia,  229  fF. 
Customs,  283  f. 
Cyprus,  179  fl.,  317,  3^9  f-»  554 


Dacia,  554 
Daedalus,  21 
Dalmatian  pirates,  388 
Damascus,  184,  388,  557  i 

al  Muazzam,  Sultan 
Damietta,  97,  141 

disaster,  136,  173 
Damon,  329 
Daniel,  395 


.  also 


INDEX 


Dante,  as  Ghibelline,  67,  142,  509, 

533,  534 

mental  background,  248 
world  monarchy,  255  f.,  507 
pupil  of  Brunetto  Latini,  311 
and  Vergil,  335,  6u 
and  astrology,  342 
enquiring  mind,  352  f.,  365 
his  vision,  456  f. 
as  reconciler,  6n 
spiritual  communion,  617 
as  fugitive,  650 
works  :    de  Monarchia,  247,  255, 

346,  668 

Divina  Commedia,  259, 646, 668 
Convivio,  346 
de  Aqua  et  terra,  353 
de  Vulgari  eloquentia,  324,  353 
poems,  333 

views  :  on  Empress  Constance,  5 
on  Henry  VI,  14,  39 
on  St.  Bernard,  83 
on  St.  Francis,  161 
on  Saladin,  189 
on  Justinian,  223 
on  State,  227,  249 
on  Decretals,  229,  238 
on  Roman  Empire,  242 
on  F.,  260,  267 
on  F.  and  Manfred,  328  f. 
on  Emp.  and  Pope,  271,  392, 

393,  562,  563 
on  P.d.  V.,  298,  304 
on  Sicilian  literature,  324 
on  Sicilian  language,  325  f. 
quotation    from    Reginald    of 

Aquino,  330 
on  "  the  Notary, "  333 
on  Michael  Scot,  340 
on  human  speech,  353 
on  Maid  Italia,  494 
on  Guido  Guerra,  540 
on  Eccelino,  612 
on  ideal  Church,  616  f. 
on  *'  the  Cardinal,"  646 
on  Farinata,  650 
on  Manfred,  674  f. 
Danube,  404 
Date  groves,  286 
Dauphin,  642 

Day  of  Judgment,  v.  End  of  World 
David,  Puer  Apuliae  as,  61,  403 
F.  identified  with,  201,  215,  443 
and  Saul,  433 
and  Absalom,  447 


699 


Jews  and,  551 
house  of,  611 
De  Anima,  340 
De  Arte  venandi  cum  avibus,  359  ; 

v.  also  Falcon  Book 
De  Caelo,  340 

De  Monarchia,  247,  255,  346,  668 
De  Porno,  341 
De  resignandis  privileges,  112  ;    v. 

Law  of  Privileges 
Decretals,  42,  229,  298,  411 
Innocent  IV.  commentary,  579 
v,  also  Canon  Law 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  263 
Demanium,  35,  112,  286 
Denmark,  8,  91 

King  of,  70 

Devil- Worshippers,  v.  Luciferians 
Diepold  of  Schweinspeunt,  Count  of 

Acerra,  24,  48,  50,  116 
Diet,  Capua,  115,  121,  140 
Messina,  121 
Cremona,  147,  151,  157, 158,  297  J 

not  held,  431  (1247),  641 
Barletta,  176 
Friuli,  195,  378  f. 
Ravenna,  372  fl. 
Worms,  374  f. 
Frankfurt,  401 
Mainz,  409 
Piacenza,  423 
Vicenza,  432 
Pavia,  460 
Turin,  460,  486 
Foggia,  536 
Esslingen,  553 
Verona,  588,  591,  596 
Chambe*ry,  642 
Vercelli,  663 

Dietrich  of  Bern,  663,  687 
apparition  of,  13 
cycle  of,  80  f. 
Dieu  d'Amour,  castle,  181 
Diocletian,  baths  of,  107 
Diogenes,  160 
Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  282 
Dioscorides,  354 
Discipline,  359 
Dissection,  356 

Divina  Commedia,  259,  646,  668 
Divination,  338 
Doctor  angelicus,  297 
Doctor  mellifluus,  83 
Dominicus  Gundissalinus,  157,  338 
Dominicus,  Master,  same  ?,  341 


700 


INDEX 


Domitius,  155 
Donatello,  662 
"  Donation  of  Constantine,"  429, 

441,504 

Doria,  family,  545 
Dorians,  385 
Dorotheas,  355 

"  Dragon,"  F.'s  horse,  366,  609 
Drawings,  in  Falcon  Book,  362 
Dromedaries,  404 
Dvina  R.,  91 
Dye  monopoly,  269 


Eagle,  bird,  359 

Eagles,  Hohenstaufen,  125,  649 

Roman,  225,  682 

imperial,  427,  434,  438,  55° 
East  Indies,  288 
Eboli,  family,    115,   3*4,  492*,    v. 

Peter  of 
Ebrach,  83 
Eccelino  of  Romano,  612  f. 

temper  of,  309 

F.'s  alliance  with,  393 

Pope  and,  394 

and  penance,  398 

and  Lombard  War,  430  ff. 

marriage,  471 

governing,  492,  639 

at  diet  of  Verona,  596 

conspiracy  agt.  F.,  633  f. 

before  Parma,  644  f , 

letters  to,  678 

and  Brenner,  680 
Egeno  of  Urach,  77 
Eger,  Golden  Bull  of,  70 
Egg  experiments,  358 
Egypt,  97,  136,  157,  196,  288,  348, 

557 

court  of,  331 
and  Napoleon,  191,  627 
v.  aho  Cairo  and  al  Kamil 

Eider  R.,  158 

Eisenach,  419 

Elba,  548 

Elbe  R.,  91 

Elements  of  Astronomy,  al  Fargani, 

344 

Elements  of  Euclid,  339 
Ellwangen,  Abt.  of,  621 
Elijah,  615 
Elisha,  373 
Elizabeth  of  Bavaria,  wife  of  Conrad 

IV,  637,  675 


Elizabeth  of  Hungary,  v,  St.  Eliza 
beth 

Empire,  Henry  VFs  theories  of,  6  ff. 
Hohenstaufen  theories  of,  8 
F.'s  self-dedication  to,  73  f.,  79  ff. 
F.  emulates  the  Roman,  222  ff. 
F.'s  theories  of,  424  f.,  561  f. 
F.'s  dream  of  renovatio,  443  ff. 
Ideal    relation    between    Papacy 

and,  390 

Dante  on  Roman,  242 
Dantexm  papacy  and,  271,  392  f., 

562  f. 

Theory  of  German,  385  ff. 
Status  in  Europe,  561 
Empresses  of  F.,  334,  407  f.,  593  ; 
v.  also   Constance  of  Aragon, 
Isabella  of  Jerusalem,  Isabella 
of  England 
Encyclopaedia 
of  Michael  Scot,  342,  354 
of  Juda  ben  Salomon  Cohen,  344 
etymological,  298 
of  Isidore  of  Seville,  336 
End  of  the  World,  224  ff.,  396  f., 
423  >   444,    495,   506  ff.,    522  ; 
Chap.  IX  passim 
Eneide,  poem,  81 
Engadine,  58 
Engelbert,  Abp.  of  Cologne,   103, 

158, 373 

England,  English  :  traits  of,  65,  406 
and  fifth  Crusade,  168 
in  Syria,  182 
and  Welfs,  406 
and  Lombard  War,  423 
and  Cardinals,  458 
troops,  464 

and  Papacy,  497,  566  f.,  598 
and  Gregory's  council,  544  f. 
and  Crusades,  557 
and  Council  of  Lyons,  597 
and  Innocent  IV,  623,  682 
Enzio,  King  of  Sardinia,  natural  son 

of  F.,  as  page,  318 
cheerfulness,  327  ff. 
in  prison,  331,  670  f. 
and  Persian  falcon  book,  363 
knighting  of,  469  f . 
marriage,  470 
Legate  General,  490 
and  Govt.  of  Italy,  492  f. 
invades  Papal  provinces,  511 
in  Tuscany,  541 ,  548 
and  captured  prelates,  549 


INDEX 


701 


Enzio,  and  conspiracy  agt.  F.,  632  f. 

rules  central  Lombardy,  639 

King  of  Lunigiana,  640 

calls  for  help,  643 

before  Parma,  644  f. 

remarriage,  670 

fate  of  his  house,  677 

attempted  escape  and  death,  677 

family,  678 

Epicureans,  in  Dante,  260,  267, 646 
Epidaurus,  9 
Episcopal    elections,   17,  33  f.,  41, 

141  fl.,  154 
Erigena,  82 
Ernest  of  Swabia,  60 

epic  of  Duke  Ernest,  81 
Erythraean  Sibyl,  339 
Esslingen,  553 
Este  family,  493 
Este,  Margrave  of,  57 
Esthonia,  91 
Ethico,  67 
Ethiopians,  404 
Etna,  21,  354>  686 
Etymological  Encyclopaedia,  298 
Euclid,  339,  344 
Eugene  of  Palermo,  339 
Eunuchs,  310  f.,  407,  655,  657 
Exchequer,  Court  of,  484 
Excommunication  of  F.,  173 

ban  lifted,  209 

second,  472 

weakened  effect  of,  537 
Execution  of  Justice,  421,  426,  495 
Experiments,  352  f.,  358 


Fabii,  454 

Fa&iza,  157,  363,  461,  539  f- 

Fairs,  127,  285 

Fakhru'd  Din,  183,  185,  189,  192, 

206,  237,  682 

Falcon  Book,  319,  356  f.,  359  ff. 
Falconer(s),  359,  363 

the  perfect,  316 

Falcons,  359  f.,  v.  also  Hawking 
Fall,  the,  241  ft.,  352 
Familiares,  v.  Household  officers 
Famine,  in  Rome,  158 

in  Parma,  648  f. 
Farinata  degli  Uberti,  650 
Faro  R,,  5* >358 
Feirefiss,  189  and  footnote 
Feltre,  659 
Ferentino,  137 


Ferrara,  398,432 

fall  of,  539 

and  Parma,  645,  658 
Feudal  System 

in  Germany,  109  f.,  379 

in  Sicily,  118  ff.,  222,  540 

F.'s  dislike  of,  118 

armies  under,  427 
Fieschi  family,  579 
Filangieri  family,  314,  316,  492 
Filippo,  677 

Fiorentino,  Castel,  683  f. 
Firdausi,  189 
Flagella,  arsenal,  281 
Flagellants,  398,  595,  688 
Fleet,  Sicilian,  i24ff.,  545,  546 

Imperial,  545  f.,  561,  649,  681 

Genoese,  545 

Pisan,  546 

on  Po,  658 
Florence,  152 

and  poetry,  331 

agreement  with  F.,  460,  541 

and  Faenza,  548 

and  Orlando  di  Rossi,  628 

prophecy  about,  641,  684 

and  Cardinal  Ottaviano,  646  f. 

deserts  F.,  650 
Foggia,  116,  130,  372 

F.'s  capital,  321  ft. 

zoo  at,  358  f. 

diet,  536 

and  Ottaviano,  674 

F.'s  last  stay,  683 
Folco  Ruffo,  331,  683 
Foligno,  6,  n,  13,  512,  513 
Fondaco,  122,  283  f. 
Fondi,  452 

Fontevivo,  monastery  of,  628 
Fonl,  541 
Forlimpopo,  541 
Fortresses,  see  Castles 
Fortuna  Augusti,  Fortuna  Caesarea  : 

448,  642,  657,  659,  670 
Fossalta,  670,  678 
Fra  EHa,  v.  Brother  Elias 
Fra  Gerardo,  t;.  Brother  Gerard 
Fra  Leo  of  Bologna,  v.  Brother  Leo 
Fra  Pacifico,  324 
Fra  Salimbene,  397,  628,  648 
France,  French  :  ally  of  F.,  63, 68  f. 

and  statecraft,  271,  386 

troops,  464 

and  Gregory  IX,  543 

and  Gregory's  Council,  544 


702 


INDEX 


France  and  Papacy,  566  f. 
and  Council  of  Lyons,  597 
and  Innocent  IV.,  623 
v.  also  Philip  II,  Louis  IX  and 

Napoleon 

Francis,  v.  St.  Francis 
Francis  of  Baden,  675 
Franciscans  [Brothers, Minor , Mino 
rites],   democratic   flavour    of, 

154 

rule  of,  161 

hostility  to  F.  in  Syria,  182 
rivalry  with  Dominicans,  394 
attitude  to  F.,  506  f. 
and  Ghibellines,  509 
and  Brother  Elias,  509,  510 
as  reformers,  616  f. 
v.  also  Saint  Francis 
Frank(s),  216  f.,  385 
Frankfurt,  n,  53,  63,  100,  102 
Frederick  II,  of  Aragon  and  Sicily, 

328 

Frederick  II  of  Austria,  Babenberg, 
"  the  Fighter,"  "  the  Quarrel 
some,"  "  the  Valiant,"  384,  428 
Frederick  of  Castile,  318 
Frederick  Lancia,  676 
Frederick  II  of  Prussia,  359 
Frederick,  Duke  of  Swabia,  Hohen- 

staufen,  116 

Frederick  impostors,  404,  686 
Frederick  n,   Hohenstaufen,   Em 
peror,  1194-1250  : 
ZV.B. — For  external  events  of  his 

history  v.  Table  of  Contents 
appearance,   55,   60  f.,   105,  191, 

226,  366 

on  Capuan  Gate,  531 
charm  and  personality,  29  f.,  102, 
105,   185,   217,  307  f-,   368, 
384,403 

cheerfulness,  326  fT.,  366 
children : 

sons — Henry  VII 

Henry  (secundus) 
Conrad  IV 
natural  sons  : 
Enzio 

Frederick  of  Antioch 
Manfred 

Richard  of  Theate 
dau.  m.  Margrave  of  Meissen 
natural  daus.  : 

Selvaggia,  m.  Eccelino 
another  m.  John  Vatatzes 


a  third  m.   Richard   of 

Caserta 
a   fourth   m.    Jacob   of 

Caretto 
a  fifth  m.  Thomas   of 

Aquino  the  Younger 
cynicism,  220,  308  fT.,  582,  606  f. 
dignity,  27,  64,  307,  608  f.,  684 
hate  for  rebels, heretics  and  priests, 
150,  153,  I59»  263  ff->  269  f., 
422  f .,  564  f. 
of  Milan,  422,  460  f. 
of  Viterbo,  352,  586  f. 
human  relations,  to  mother,  408, 

512,  572 

to  wives,  407  f. ;  v.  Empresses 
to  sons,  408 

Conrad,  195 

Manfred,    Enzio,    318,   469, 

490 

to  first-born,  447  f. 
to  intimates,  307,  632 
Muslims  in  East,  v.  al  Kamil, 

Fakhru'd  Din 
to  pages,  314  f . 
toP.d.V.,  241,  299,  303,  447, 

629 

to  Saracen  guard,  131 
to  scholars,  v.  Love  of  know 
ledge 

to  subordinates,  629  f. 
to  women,  310,  334  ;  v.  Harem 
liberality,  61  f.,  109 
love  of  art,  528  ff . 

of    knowledge,    28  ff,,    157  f., 

185,   192,    196,  247  f.,   307, 

334  f.,  343  ff-,  414  f->  669 
of  ostentation,  311,  404 
of  poetry,  328  f. 
of  Sicily,  220  f.,  536  f, 
of    sport,   315  f.,  359  f.,    508, 

656  f. 
luck    and   happy    touch,    53  ff., 

57  ff.,  60,  95,  1 01,  112 
and  providence,  106,  206,  217, 

251  f.,  422 
pride  of  birth  and  race,  73,  193, 

196,  319  f.,  346,  350,  419  f., 

57i 
savagery,  129,    556,   625  f.,  634, 

65 1  £.,654,  667 
scientific   spirit  and   freedom  of 

thought,  197,  218,  226,  251, 

309,   343,   349,   352  f.;    356, 

364,  610 


INDEX 


7°3 


Frederick  II,  Hohenstaufen 

theories  of  empire,  424,  561  f., 
Chap.  VII  passim 

theories  of  immediacy,  son-of- 
Godship,  etc.,  203  ff.,  218, 
Chap.  V  passim,  501  ff., 
519  ff. 

tolerance,  190  f.,  267  ff. 
Frederick  of  Antioch,  natural  son  of 
F.,  King  of  Tuscany,  193 

as  page,  318 

cheerfulness,  328 

as  poet,  332 

married,  452 

government  of  Italy,  492 

in  Tuscany,  631  f . 

in  Florence,  639 

meets  F.,  641 

enters  Florence,  650 

death,  673  f. 

government  of  Florence,  679 
Frederick,  son  of  Henry  VII,  grand 
son  of  F.,  King  of  Austria  and 
Syria,  640,  649 
Frederick,  the  Peaceful,  grandson  of 

F.,  688 

Freedom,   Lombard   principles   of, 
442,  494 

abhorred,  462  f. 

pestilential,  565 

conflict  of,  610 
Freidank,  186,  198 
Freising,  Bp.  of,  620  f. 
French,  in  Syria,  182 

language,  324 

Revolution,  6x6 

v.  also  France 

v.  also  Napoleon 
Friesland,  380 
Frisians,  168 
Friuli  [Friaul],  195 

route  via,  377,  403 

diet,  379  f.,  387,  393 
Fucine  Lake,  450 
Fulda,  Abt.  of,  402,  413 
"  Fugitives,"  650  f. 
Fulgentius,  355 

Gafita,  55 

fortress,  116 

harbour,  546 
Galeazzo,  647 
Galen,  356 
Galla  Placidia,  373 
Gallura,  470 


Galvano  Lancia,  492,  676 

Game-preserving,  358 

Garda  Lake,  104 

Garfagnana,  487,  626,  645 

Gascony,  327 

Gebhard    of    Arnstein,    373,    417, 

430ff. 

Genoa,  25,  56,  105 
trading  rights,  122  ff. 
in  Syria,  182 
friction  with  F.,  376 
alliance  with  Venice  and  Pope, 

466  f. 

and  Sardinia,  470 
and  Gregory's  Council,  544  f . 
receives  Innocent  IV,  589 
attacked  by  F.'s  fleet,  649 
Georgios  of  Gallipoli,  Chartophylax, 

306,  521 

Gerard  of  Cremona,  338 
Gerard  of  Malperg,  Grandmaster  of 

the  Teutonic  Order,  579 
Gerbert   of  Rheims,   335,  v*   Syl 
vester  II 

German (s)  art,  408  f. 
bishops,  489,  537,  620  f.  ;   v.  also 

Princes 

character,  13,  619,  677,  687 
chivalry,  409 
church,  under  Innocent  IV,  621 

reforms,  618  f. 
constitution,  109  f.,  379  f. 

Empire,  384  ff. 
hate  towards,  13  f.,  15  f. 
knights,  82  ff.,  463,  465,  649 
at  Cortenuova,  436  f. 
in  Italy,  660  f. 
v.  also  Teutonic  Order 
language,  14,  411 
legates,  489,  491 
music,  332 

national  feeling,  79  f.,  142,  216 
precocity,  30 
princes,  v.  Princes 
repute,  70 
spirit,  79  f.,  372 
superiority,  12 
towns,  95,  373 
Germanicus,  355 
Gerold,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  170, 

182,  188,  197,  205,  389,  390 
Gertrude  of  Austria,  596 
Gervase  of  Tilbury,  39 
Gesta  Romanorum,  533 
Gherardeschi,  family,  511 


704 


INDEX 


Ghibellines,  12  footnote,  67  f. 

towns  and  poetry,  331 

significance  of,  466 

and  Franciscans,  509 

idol  worshippers,  534 

in  Genoa,  545 

and  Innocent  IV,  579 

and  F.,  625  f. 

knights  of  Parma,  643 

and  Ottaviano,  646  f. 

and  popular  party,  649  f. 
Giacomo  da  Lentini,  333 
Giacomino  Pugliese,  330  ;  v.  Jacob 

of  Morra 

Giglio,  island  of,  549 
Giotto,  355 
Girgenti,  128 
Gnostic  philosophy,  355 
God,  as  expounded  by  Innocent  III, 
40  ff. 

invoked  by  F.,  53,  55, 106,  200  f. ; 
v.  also  Providence 

medieval  conception  of,  230  ff. 

F.'s   conception  of,  238  ff.,  251, 

348 

Chap.  IX  passim 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  167,  202 
Godfrey  of  Hohenburg,  317 
Godfrey  of  Hohenlohe,  401 
Godfrey  of  Morra,  633 
Godfrey  of  St.  Omer,  86 
Godfrey  of  Sabina,  575  ;   v.  Celes- 

tine  IV 

Godfrey  of  Viterbo,  3,  28 
Goethe,  257,  317,  5&*,  687 

and  Karl  August,  329 
Golden  Horde,  552 
Goliard  literature,  305 
Gomorrha,  312,  408,  593 
Gonzaga  family,  493 
Goths,  219 

Gottfried  von  Strassburg,  81 ,  409 
Granada,  Khalif  of,  288 
Grand  Master  of  Teutonic  Order,  v. 
Hermann  of  Salza  and  Gerard 
of  Malperg 
Gratian,  228 
Great  Halleluja,  396  f. 
Greece,  157 
Greek(s),  ancient,  149,  226,  290 

tyrants  of  Sicily,  218 

medieval,  archpriest,  143 

language  in  Sicily,  305  f.,  267,  291 

troops,  464 

v.  also  Byzantium 


Greenland,  361 

Gregory  of  Montelongo,  Legate  in 

Lombardy,  466,  539,  643,  648 
Gregory  VII,  39>  43,  44* »  497 
Gregory  IX  [Hugo  of  Ostia],  acces 
sion,  163 

attitude  to  F.,  170  ft. 

and  fifth  Crusade,  Chap.  IV 

a  "  heretic,"  198 

jurist,  229 

and  F.'s  law-giving,  261 

and  Jews,  268 

dislike  of  youth,  308 

as  arbitrator,  376  f. 

as  F.'s  foe,  388  f. 

and  Romans,  389  f. 

and  Lombards,  393  f. 

and  Henry  VII,  402 

and  Lombard  wars,  416  f.,  428  f., 
457  ff. 

alliance  agt.  F.,  466  f.,  475  f. 

duel  of  encyclicals,  495  ff. 

war,  537  f. 

Council,  543  ff. 

death,  559 

and  St.  Francis,  560 

contrast  with  Innocent  IV,  579  f. 
Grilli  family,  545 
Grosseto,  631 
Grottaf errata,  529,  559 
Guarneri,  66 1 
Guastalla,  646 
Gubbio,  513 

Gubernator  of  Germany,  103,  158 
Gudrun,  poem,  80 
Guelfs,  and  Ghibellines,  12  footnote, 
67  f. 

enemies  of  Empire,  466 

and  F.,  625  f. 

take  Parma,  643 

rising  of,  644  ff. 

of  Florence,  649 

banner  of,  649 

after  Parma,  658 
Guelfo  de  Donoratico  della  Gherard* 

esca,  678 
Guidi  family,  540 
Guido  of  Arezzo,  355 
Guido  Bonatti,  613,  632 
Guido  Cavalcanti,  354 
Guido  Colonna,  333 
Guido  Guerra,  540 
Guido  Guinizelli,  331 
Guido  of  Sessa,  613 
Guiron  de  Courtois,  324 


INDEX 


Guiscard,   218,  291,  443;    v,  also 

Robert  Guiscard 
Gualdrada,  540 

Gundissalinus,  Dominicus,  157,  338 
Gurither  of  Rethel,  4 
Gunzelin  of  Wolfenbuttel,  138 


Hafsids,  288 
Hagenau,  59,  413 

F.'s  hq.,  78,  415 
Half  the  world,  ship,  125,  288 
Hall,  in  Swabia,  618 
Halleluja,  the  Great,  396  f. 
Hannibal,  427,  559.  574 
Hansa,  Hanseatic  League,  284 
Hapsburg,  217,  383  ;  v.  also  Rudolf 

of 

Haramu'sh  Sharif,  187 
Harem,  3x0  ff.,  334,  343>  4°8,  59^ 

in  Victoria,  657 
Hartmann  of  Aue,  81 
Harzburg,  66 
Hashish,  193 
Hashishin,  193  f. 
Hasan  -i  Sabah,  193 
Hawking,  in  East,  192 

F.'s  love  of,  315  f-,  359  f- 

Arab  treatise,  542 

before  Parma,  656 

under  Manfred,  674 

v.  also  Falcon  Book 
Hawkwood,  John,  661 
Hebrew(s),  306 

scholars,  343 

scriptures,  414 

v.  also  Jews 
Hector,  662 
Heidelberg,  405 
Heilbronn,  306 
Helena,  wife  of  Manfred,  675 
Heliand,  old  Saxon  poem,  202,  611 
Hellespont,  9 
Henna,  286 
Henricus  Abbas,  288 
Henry  Aristippus,  339 
Henry  of  Avranches,  English  poet, 

306,411,443 

Henry  Baum  of  Vienna,  483 
Henry  of  Castile,  Senator  of  Rome, 

318,  675  f. 

Henry  of  Cologne,  340 
Henry  Duke  of  Liegnitz,  553 
Henry  the  Lion,  65,  67 
Henry  of  Luxemburg,  680 


Henry  of  Malta,  Admiral,  125,  129, 

136,  i?3>  179,  2°5 
Henry,  Margrave  of  Meissen,  573, 

688 
Henry    of    Morra,    Grand    Court 

Justiciar,  392,  476  f.,  632 
Henry  the  Proud,  67 
Henry  Raspe,  Landgrave  of  Thurin- 

gia,  433,  636  f.,  641 
Henry  of  Sayn,  401 
Henry  of  Veldeke,  81 ,  409 
Henry  II,  Empj.,  407 
Henry  III,  King  of  England,  406, 

408,  414,  570  f. 
Henry  IV  of  France,  327 
Henry  VI,  Hohenstaufen,  Emp.,  3, 
6  ff.,  14,48,88,219,222,388 

savagery,  n 

contrast  with  brother  Philip,  18 

and  Teutonic  Order,  88 

and  Rome,  100 

and  royal  rights,  112 

crusade,  168 

and  Cyprus,  179 

and  Constance,  408 

and  Empire,  442 

and  fellow  kings,  564 

buried  Palermo,  684 
Henry  VII,  son  of  F.  and  Constance 
of  Aragon,  birth,  53 

King  of  Sicily,  55  >  9§ 

Duke  of  Swabia,  99 

King  of  the  Romans,  100 

diet  of  Cremona,  147, 156  f. 

princes  and,  177 

cheerfulness,  327 

diet  of  Ravenna,  373  f. 

summoned,  378  f. 

Pope  and,  389  f. 

fall  of,  400  f . 

and  Lombards,  416,  430 

F.  mourning  for,  447 
Henry  (secundus),  son  of  F.  and 
Isabella  of  England,  birth,  456 

in  Italian  govt.,  492 

King  of  Viterbo,  639 

King  of  Sicily,  640 

death,  673 

Herakles  Musagetes,  365,  688 
Herat,  551 
Hercules,  453,  684 

pillars  of,  9 
Heresy,  Heretics ; 

in  Lombardy,  147 

Milan  forms  of,  148,  152 


706 


INDEX 


Heresy,  edicts  agt.,  109,  153 
of  St.  Francis,  161  f. 
as  treason,  264  ff. 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  161 
Albigensian,  161 
of  Gregory  IX,  198 
as  (<  degenerates,"  269 
and  Gnosticism,  355 
and  rebels,  392,  481 
Heretic  Pope,  198,  618 
Hermann  of  Salza,  Grand  Master  of 

the  Teutonic  Order,  90  f.,  106 
recruits  for  Crusade,  137 
and  F.'s  Jerusalem  marriage,  138 
and  F.'s  illness,  170 
in  Syria,  179,  182,  187 
at  Jerusalem,  198,  199 
ambassador  to  Gregory  IX,  208, 

211 

and  bureaucracy,  273 
diet  of  Ravenna,  373 
and  Henry  VII,  403 
at  Rome,  417 
at  Marburg,  434 
illness,  468 
death,  473 
Hermann,  Landgrave  of  Thuringia, 

81 

Hermes,  355 
Hero  of  Alexandria,  339 
Herod,  546,  593 
Heruli,  64 
Hibernia,  554 
Hildesheirn,  Bp.  of,  401,  621  ;    v. 

Conrad  of 

Hippocrates,  356,  357 
Hohenburg  family,  317,  491,  660; 

•v.  also  Godfrey  of 
Margravine  of,  317 
Hohenlohe  brothers,  89  ;  v.  Conrad 

and  Godfrey  of 

Hohenstaufen,  achievement,  215  f. 
age  (art,  epics,  etc.),  80  ft.,  328, 

408  f.,  526  f . 
ambition,  433 
characteristics,  18,  30 
cheerfulness,  327 
glamour  of  name,  52 
hereditary  domains,  384,  432,  567 
imitators  of,  612  f . 
Italy  and,  639 
pride  of  race,  64,  571 
Sicily  and,  no 
stirps  caesarea,  572  ff. 
theories  of  Empire,  8,  563  f. 


tragedy  of,  299,  379,  673  f. 
and  Welfs,  406 
Holy    Land,    n,    122,    137,    139, 

Chap.  IV  passim,  423,  555 
Holy  Sepulchre,  198,  423,  501,  524 
Holy  Writ,  v.  Bible 
Homer,  338 
Honorius  III,  Pope,  96  f.,  112,  209, 

229 

and  crusade,  135,  137 
correspondence  with  F.,  155  f. 
Lombard  policy,  1541!, 
influence  of  Hugo  of  Ostia,  163 
death,  163 
Horace,  337 

Horses,  of  F.,  366,  404, 415,  585 
symbolical,  609 
sale  of,  485 
of  Mongols,  555 
breeding  of,  358 
healing  of,  364 
Hostages,  474,  482 
from  Ravenna,  539 
from  Italian  towns,  542,  625  f. 
system  of,  652 
Household  officers  [f amiliares] ,  17, 

23,  4?6  f. 
Hubert  Pallavicini,  Margrave,  492, 

548,  614,  649 

rules  in  Lombardy,  639,  680  f. 
Hubris,  178,  534,  573 
Hugdietrich,  81 
Hugh  of  St.  Circq,  330 
Hugo  Boterius,  579,  644 
Hugo,  Dean  of  Capua,  145 
Hugo  Novellus,  649,  658 
Hugo  of  Ostia,    108,   152,   i62-f.  ; 

v.  Gregory  IX 
Hugo  of  Payens,  86 
Huguccio  of  Pisa,  8 
Hungary,  384,  552 
Hunger  Tower  of  Pisa,  678 
Hunting  books,  362,  363  ;    v.  also 

Falcon  Book 
Huri(s),  194 
Hyginus,  355 

Ibelin,  v.  John  of 

Ibn  Abbad,  Amir  of  Saracens,  128  f. 

Ibn  Sabin  of  Ceuta,  348  f. 

Icarus,  21 

Iceland,  361 

Ilsan,  86 

Imola,  541 

Incubators,  358 


INDEX 


707 


India(n),  288,  344,  349 

falcons  from,  361 

astrologers,  355 

numerals,  158 
Indian  Sea,  354 
Indigo,  286 
Indulgences,  for  Crusaders,   168  f., 

556,  621  f. 

Innocent  III,  Pope, 12, 14, 116,  163, 
264,  388,  441,  481 

Sicilian  policy,  16  f. 

Deliberatio  .  .  .  ,  19 

F.'s  guardian,  22  f.,  31  ft. 

seeks  to  pacify  Sicily,  32 

episcopal  elections,  33  f. 

power  of,  39-46 

imperial  politics,  46-54 

meets  F.,  56 

Lateran  Council,  70 

death,  71 

successor,  96 

theories  of  priesthood,  161,  236  f. 

Inquisition,  240 

and  Melchizedek,  45,  259 

and  Otto,  537 
Innocent  IV,  Pope,  229,  566,  578  f. 

courage,  589 

F.Js  foe,  581  ft. 

flight,  589 

as  Antichrist,  6x8 

and  Crusade,  621  f. 

and  Church  patronage,  622  f. 

plots  agt,  F.'s  life,  635  f.,  666  f. 

and  Louis  of  France,  68 1  f. 

v.  also  Sinibaldo  Fiesco 
Innocentius  Papa,  6x8 
Innsbruck,  104 
Inquisition,  240,  393  f, 

in  Germany,  400  f.,  419 

Spanish,  653 

Insula  Fulcherii,  149,  150 
Interamna,  649 
Interdicts,  394,  537,  623 
Interregnum,  473 
Invocation  of  Emperor,  239  f. 
lonians,  385 
Ionian  Sea,  125 
Ippolito  Medici,  648 
Iraq,  196,  348 

Irene,  wife  of  Philip  of  Swabia,  18 
Irnerius,  228 
Isabella  of  Jerusalem,  second  wife  of 

F.,139f.,  193 

Isabella  of  England,  third  wife  of  F., 
406,  492,  639 

L.F.S. 


Isaiah,  395,  426 

Isagoge  of  Porphyry,  344 

Isidore  of  Seville,  336 

Islam,  167,  188,  193,  348 

Ismailites,  193 

Isola  Fulcheria,  149,  150 

Italy,  under  Henry  VI,  8-12 

re-organised  by  F.,  486  if. 

and  Hohenstaufen,  639 

in  chaos,  650  f. 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  608 
Ivo  of  Chartres,  82 

Jacob  ben  Abbamari,  344,  345 
Jacob  of  Aquino,  330 
Jacob,  Abp.  of  Capua,  179,  297 
Jacob    of     Caretto,    Margrave    of 

Savona,  son-in-law  of  F.,  492, 

649 
Jacob  of  Morra,  330,  474 

traitor,  632  f.,  658 
Jacob  of  Palestrina,  Cardinal,  434, 

549 >  .577  f- 

Jacob  of  San  Severino,  114, 117,  141 
Jacopo  Mostacci,  330 
Jacopo  Tiepolo,  Doge  of  Venice,  377 
Jaffa,  184,  187,  192 
Janissaries,  131 
Jehovah,  220 
Jehuda  ben  Salomon,  345 
Jeremiah,  395 
Jerusalem,  patriarch  of,  71 

Isabella  of,  139 

Knights  of,  139 

John  of,  139 

prophecies  about,  167 

F.'s  attitude  to,  168 

F.'s  crusade,  Chap.  IV  passim 

F.  King  of,  390 

triumph,  443,  450 

coronation,  199,  443 

as  penal  settlement,  481 

retaken  by  Muslims,  557 

recovered,  557 

taken  by  Turks,  590 
Jesi,  birthplace  of  F.,  5 

and  Bethlehem,  512,  522,  572 
Jesus  Christ,  500  ;  v.  Christ 
Jews,  laws  for,  121 

status  of,  130 

Jewish  God,  220 

toleration  of,  267  f. 

monopolies,  283 

in  Sicily,  291 

philosophy,  343 


708 


INDEX 


Jews,  ritual,  344 

converts,  413  f. 
Jewish  law  suit,  268  f.,  413  i 
Jinns,  606 
Jizya,  poll  tax,  130 
Joachim  of  Flora,  4,  160,  162 

and  three  ages,  335 

and  Last  Day,  395,  506 

and  Church,  497 
Job,  666 

Johannes  Maurus,  312  f.,  673 
John  of  Brienne,  titular  King  of  Jeru 
salem,  138,  140  f.,  155,  311 

leading  papal  troops,  204 

sons  of,  318 

poems  of,  329 
John  of  Capua,  304 
John  of  Colonna,  Cardinal,  459,  51 1 , 

558,  574  *• 

John  Hawkwood,  66 1 
John  Ibelin  of  Cyprus,  181 ,  317,  389 
John  "  Lackland,'*  King  of  England, 

49,  50,  68 

John  of  Otranto,  306 
John  of  Palermo,  158,  341 
John  of  Polo,  452 
John  of  Procida,  684 
John  of  Salisbury,  8,  306 
John  of  Trajetto,  145 
John  Vatatzes,  Emp,  of  Nicaea, 

embassy,  207 

weakness  of,  442 

troops,  464 

and  Venice,  542 

and  F.,  598 

financial  help,  660 

F.'s  letters,  306,  627,  682 
John  of  Vicenza,  397  f. 
Jordan,  Brother,  510 
Jordan,  Marshal,  66 1  f. 
Jordan  R.,  189,  567 
Jordanus  Ruff  us,  364 
Joseph,  524 

Juda  ben  Salomon  Cohen,  344 
Judas  Iscariot,  664 
Julian,  the  Apostate,  593 
Julier  Pass,  416,  475 
Julius  Caesar,  v.  Caesar 
Julius  II,  441 
Jupiter,  21,327,  521 

Ammon,  215 

planet,  355 

statue,  531 

Justinian,  222  ff.,  228,  263^,  300, 
453,  512 


Justice,    F.'s    conception    of,    113, 

224  ff.,  Chap.  V  passim 
Justitia,  identification  with  self,  424 

on  Capuan  Gate,  532 

High  Mass  of,  526 

as  Avenger,  604  f. 

for  sale,  664  f. 
Justiciar(s),  272  ff. 

training,  294  rl. 

family  origins  of,  313 

and  Lombard  War,  477  f. 

Imperial  Grand,  410 
Justiciar  of  Students,  298,  317 

Kant,  228 

Karakoram,  552 

Karl  August,  329 

Kemp  ten,  Abt.  of,  621 

Kerak,  Muslim  prince  of,  557 

"  Key  Soldiers,"  177,  204,  207,  679  ; 

a.  Papal  Troops 
Khalif(s),  192,  203 
Khwammi,  Turkish  tribe,  590 
King  Arthur,  409 
Kings  of  Europe,  414,  423  f. 

and  Lombard  War,  462  f. 

manifestos  to,  496,  504,  542  f. 

summoned  agt.  Mongols,  553  f. 

F.'s  message,  561-8 

attitude  of,  568 
Klingsor,  21 
Knights,  parties  in  towns,  151 

Orders   of,   v.   Teutonic   Order, 
Templars,  St.  John,  Jerusalem 

German,  v.  German  knights 

Italian,  641 
Korah,  595 
Kulm,  92 
Kunigunde,  Empress,  -wife  of  Henry 

11,407 
Kyffhauser,  688 

La  Cisa  Pass,  509,  641,  645,  679 

and  Pallavicini,  680 
Lambertacci  family,  672 
Lambro  R.,  57 
Lancelot,  324 

Lancia,  Margrave,  645,  656 
Landolfo  Caraccioli,  317,  319 
Landpeace,  of  Mainz,  410  f. 

of  Esslingen,  553 
Landulf  of- Aquino,  115 
Landulf,  Bp.  of  Worms,  404,  405 
La  Rochelle,  68 
Last  Day,  v.  End  of  World 


INDEX 


709 


Latin  language,  325  f, 

style  of  P.d.V.,  300  ff, 
Lateran,  40,  174,  399 
Lateran  Council,  70,  597 
Laurin,  80 
Lawyers,  professional,  132  f.,  278  ff., 

293  ff. 
Lay  culture,  132  ff.,  228,  237,  293 

v,  also  University  of  Naples 
Leather  coinage,  541 
Lebanon,  193 
Lecce,  County  of,  22,  24 
Lechfeld,  104,  421,  433 
Legates,  489^ 
Legate  General,  490 
Legenda  Karoli  Magni,  167 
Legnano,  431 
Leo  XIII,  668 
Leo  the  Franciscan,  397 
Leonardo   Fibonacci  of  Pisa,   157, 

340,  341  f. 

Leonardo  da  Vinci,  357 
Leopards,  404 
Lepers,  420,  614 
Lese  Majesty,  597,  599 
Levant,  122,  377 
Lewis,  the  Bavarian,  Emp.,  668 
Lewis,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  158,  373 
Lewis,  Landgrave  of  Thuringia,  168, 
169  f.,  172 

husband  of  St.  Elizabeth,  419 

M  poisoned  "  by  F.,  499 
Lex  Pompeia,  634 
Lex  regia,  233,  249,  454 
Liber  animalium,  340 
Liber  atiguriorum,  355 
Liber  Augustalis,  223-227 

Gregory  and,  261 

P.d.V.  and,  300 

commentators,  305 

sacrilege,  308 

pages,  315 

Emp.  as  Fate,  400 

forbids  torture,  652 
Liber  censuum,  96 
Liber  introductorius,  342 
Liber  particulars,  342 
Liber  perditionis,  355 
Liber  quadratorum,  342 
Liege  [Liittich],  374 
Liegnitz,  battle  of,  553 
Liguria,  639 
Ligurian  coast,  487 

sea,  122,  546 
Lily  banner  of  Guelfs,  649 


Limassol,  179 
Limburg,  Duke  of,  170 
Limousin,  326 
Lipari  Is.,  354 
Liris  R.,  674 
Literature 

under  Hohenstaufen,  80-82 

in  Sicily,  u  1,324-333 
Liutprand  of  Cremona,  336 
Livonia,  91 
Livy,  303 
Loans,  483  f.,  659 
Lodi,  53,  279,  459,  460,  484 
Logic,  344,  356 
Logos,  231 
Logothetes 

and  sacratissimum  mysterium,  236 

duties  of,  299 

sounding  praise,  524 

on  Capuan  Gate,  527 

appointment,  640 

fall  of,  664 

v.  also  Piero  della  Vigna 
Lombard(s),  Lombardy : 

and  Henry  VI,  8 

and  F.  (in  1220),  105 
(in  1226),  147-154 

factions,  149-154 

and  Gregory  IX,  173-179,  210 

administration,  282 

stock,  314 

diet  of  Ravenna,  372  f. 

war,  416-438,  459  ff. 

conception  of  freedom,  442,  462, 

494 
Lombard  League,  renewed,  147  f* 

ally  of  Pope,  153,  159 

after  F.'s  return,  207 

F.  refuses  recognition,  393 

and  Henry  VII,  4°2 

first  war,  416,  430-438 

second,  459  ff. 
London,  406,  407 
Loreto,  5,  377 
Lorraine,  Duke  of,  59,  77 
Lorsch,  abbey  of,  620 
Lotario  dei  Conti,  v.  Innocent  III 
Louis   IX,  King  of  France,  Saint 
Louis,  388,  423 

and  captured  prelates,  549 

greatness  of,  569  ff. 

as  peacemaker,  587,  642 

and  Innocent  IV,  591 

and  sixth  Crusade,  622,  663 

and  Pope,  68 1  f. 


INDEX 


Louis  XIV,  King  of  France,  543 

Lower  Pavia,  487 

Lubeck,  91,  316 

Luca  Savelli,  399 

Lucan,  447 

Lucca,  331,  626 

Lucera,  130,  190,  267,  310,  358,  418 

castle  of,  529 

loyalty  to  F.'s  house,  676 
Lucia  Viadagola,  672 
Lucifer,  534,  554 
Luciferians,  348,  400 
Lucretius,  337 
Lunigiana,  487,  626,  645 
Luther,  606 
Lyons,  Council  of,  497,  592 

rendezvous  for  Crusade,  556 

and  Innocent  IV,  589 

as  Pope's  hq.,  623,  626 

centre  of  conspiracy,  635  f. 

F.'s  projected  visit  to,  642 

and  Parma,  648 

Macedonians,  217 
Machiavelli,  114,  117,  245,  669 
Machiavellianism,  of  F.,  113,  245 
Magdeburg,  18 

architecture,  82,  662 

Bp.  of,  621 
Magic,  248 

and  God,  238 

and  precious  stones,  354 

numbers,  618 

in  Victoria,  657 

ring,  674,  683 
Magna  Charta,  69,  570 
Magnetic  needle,  354 
Maimonides,  343,  344,  348,  349 
Mainz,  63 

coronation,  63,  443 

diet  of,  409 

Abp.  of,  620 
Majestic,  the,  668,  687 
Malabranca  family,  455 
Malaspina  family,  645 
Malik  Salih,  Sultan,  557 
Maliku'l  Umara,  388 
Malta,  123,  316,  482 
Manfred,  King  of  Sicily,  natural  son 
of  F.  and  Bianca  Lancia 

and  Islam,  190 

and  violation  of  law,  245 

letters,  301 

and  ex-pages,  317 

education,  318 


cheerfulness,  327  ff. 

poems,  332 

and  friends,  345 

and  Falcon  Book,  360 

relations,  492 

the  "  empire  breed,"  572 

on  illegitimate  princes,  612 

Vicar  General  of  Burgundy,  640  f. 

before  Parma,  656 

and  German  knights,  66 1  f. 

and  King  Conrad,  673 

career,  674  f. 

heirs,  675 

at  F.'s  deathbed,  683 

buries  his  father,  684 
Manfred  Lancia,  492,  639 
Manfred  Maletta,  332,  674 
Manfredonia,  Gulf  of,  321 
Manifestos,  F.'s  first,  175 

Jerusalem,  199  f.,  215,  521 

Cortenuova,  446,  457 

after  excommunication,  474, 496  f . 

invading  Papal  States,  512 

Mongols,  553  f. 

substance  of,  561  f. 

Reform,  615,  617  f. 

style  of,  302 
Mansurah,  68 1 
Mantua,  58 

and  penance,  398 

and  Lombard  League,  430 

surrender,  435 

massacre,  626 

and  Parma,  645,  658 
Manuel  Comnenus,  649 
Marburg,  419,  420,  421 

Teutonic  knights  at,  434 
Marcellina ,  Bp .  of  Arezzo ,  649 , 652  f . 
Marco  San,  377 
Marco  Polo,  193,  288 
Maremma,  the,  631 
Margaret  of  Austria,  wife  of  Henry 

VII,  375 
Margaret  Hohenstauf en,  Margravine 

of  Meissen,  dau,  of  F.,  573 
de  Mari  family,  545 
Mariner's  compass,  354 
Marinus  of  Eboli,  547,  634,  670 
Marinus  Filangieri,  146 
Markets,  285 
Markward  of  Anweiler,  15,  24,  26, 

29,  31,48 

Marriage  Laws,  246,  291 
Mars,  planet,  355,  654 
Marseilles,  129 


INDEX 


711 


Marshals  of  France,  217,  277,  629 
Marshal  Jordan,  661  f. 
Martianus  Capella,  355 
Marzukh,  312 
Mathematicians,  Mathematics,  336, 

342,415 
Matilda,  Margravine   of   Tuscany, 

149 

Matildine  Inheritance,  47,  149,  470 
Matthew  Curialis,  279  f. 
Matthew  Fasanella,  658 
Matthew  Orsini,  Senator  of  Rome, 

574  f.,  576 
Matthew  Paris,  406 
Matthew  Visconti,  648 
Maulbronn,  83 

Maundy  Thursday,  174,  472,  587 
Mausoleum  of  Augustus,  452,  558 
Mechanics,  341,  361 
Medici  family,  335,  457,  494 
Medicine,  practice  of,  356  f. 
Medor,  189 

Meissen,  Margravine  of,  573 
Meissner  Poet,  677 
Meistersang,  333 
Meleager,  529 
Melchizedek,  45,  259,  551 
Melfi,  Moors  at,  310 

Court  of  Exchequer,  484 

Constitutions  of,  223  ff.,  305,  356 

trans,  into  Greek,  3°6 
Menagerie,  of  F*,  311,  358,  404,  464 

in  Victoria,  657 
Mendicant  Orders,  84,  89,  154,  294 

satire  on,  305 

and  young  nobles,  330 

expelled  from  Sicily,  480 

and  F.'s  reforms,  617 

casuistry  of,  654 

employed  agt.  F.,  621  f. 
Meno  of  Plato,  339 
Mephistopheles,  102,  606 
Meran,  Duke  of,  58 
Mercaria,  fortress  of,  430 
Mercury,  god,  531 

quicksilver,  354 
Mercenaries,  427,  463,  479,  484 

German,  217 

knights,  277,  428,  430,  649,  660 

archers,  430 

cost  of,  540 

Merlin,  4,  3501  396>  447 
Mesopotamia,  Sultan  of,  184 
Messiah,  3,  259 

Hebrew  hopes  of,  344 


imminent,  395  f. 

reign  of  peace,  609 

Chap.  IX  passim 
Messiah-Emperor,   423,   425,   495, 

508,  523  f. 
Messina,  12,  34,  51,  55, 124 

diet,  121 

law  courts,  278 

rebellion,  280,  320,  391 

Moors  at,  310 

volcanoes,  354 

and  King  Conrad,  673 
Metellus,  155 

Meyer,  Conrad  Ferdinand,  298 
Michael,  archangel,  560 
Michael  Comnenus,  315 
Michael     Scot,     158,    323,    339  f., 
344  f.,  350  £.,357,586 

as  scientist,  364 

as  prophet,  396 
Milan,  57,  72>  i°5 

and  Lombard  League,  147 

hostility  to  Cremona,  148  f. 

focus  of  heresy,  148,  152 

political  importance,  197 

administration,  282 

and  Henry  VIII,  402 

and  Alps,  415 

F.'s  hate,  422 

arrogance,  425 

campaign  agt.,  460  ft.,  475 

and  Pallavicini,  614 

second  campaign  agt.,  649 

Abp.  of,  647 
Minnesang,    Minnesanger,    61,   81, 

104, 323, 333 

Ministeriales,  373,  374,  401,  661 
Minorites,  v.  Franciscans 
Minotaur,  21 

Minstrels,  laws  agt.,  121,  329 
Mirror  of  Manners,  344 
Miracles,  and  God,  238,  251 

of  St.  Elizabeth,  419  f. 

of  Bp.  Marcellina,  653 

of  Michael  Scot,  323 
Mithra,  234 

Modena,  105,  430,  645,  670,  679 
Molise,  114  f. 

campaign,  116  f. 
Monaldo  Aquino,  as  poet,  330 
Monarchs,  v.  Kings 
Monarchy,  birth  of  Western,  203 
Mondragone,  114 
Mongols,  551  ff.,  620 
Monks,  in  Germany,  82  fl. ;  v.  Cister- 


712 


INDEX 


cians,  Dominicans,  Franciscans, 
Mendicant  Orders 
Monopolies,  Jewish,  268  f. 
State,  282  f. 
corn,  286 

money-changing,  484 
Monreale,  128 
Mons  Gebellus,  686 
Mont  Cenis,  642 
Montaperti,  650,  661,  674 
Monte  Albona,  280 
Monte  Cassino,  32,  114,  207 
school  of,  315 
fortress,  479 
Abt.  of,  114 

Monte  Chiaro  fortress,  435 
Monte  Christo,  549,  626 
Monte  Gargano,  130 
Monte  Mario,  107,  108 
Montefeltre  family,  494 
Montefiascone,  13,  514 
Montefusculo  family,  314 
Montenero  family,  314 
Montepulciano,  353 
Montferrat,  324 

Margrave  of,  61,  309,  460,  649 
son  of,  671 

Montieri  silver  mines,  659 
Moors,  in  Spain,  86,  167 
round  F.,  310 

and  negroes,  312  and  footnote 
Moravia,  553 
Morocco,  9,  196,  288 
Morra  family,  313,  316,  492 

as  poets,  330 
Moselle  R.,  12 
Moses,  344,  349,  4*3,  Sob,  524,  609, 

665 

Moses  ben  Salomon  of  Salerno,  345 
Mosio  fortress,  430 
Mosul,  341,350 
Motta,  148  and  footnote 
Muainin,  falconer,  363,  364 
Muazzin,  190 
Mugello,  647 
Muhammad,  131  f.,  139,  193,  500, 

55i,S9S 
Muska,  312 
Music,  323,327,355 
Muslims,  Mussulmans :  in  Sicily,  128 
plantation  of  Lucera,  130  fl.,  267 
in  Syria,  Chap.  TV  passim 
holy  men,  237 
tolerance  of,  267 
banquet,  388 


F.'s  attachment,  627  f. 
interest  in  F.,  638 

Nablus,  183,  184 
Naples,  fortress,  116 

University,  132  fl. 

law  courts,  278 

sea  route,  478 

relief,  527  f. 

bay  of,  321 

castel  nuovo,  530 

harbour,  546 
Napoleon,  mental  development,  78 

in  East,  191 

self  coronation,  198 

and  Marshals,  217,  277,  629 

wars  and  finance,  289 

and  chase,  359 

personality,  368 

and  Caesars,  447 

relatives,  493 

God  of  French,  508 

and  Church,  272,  525 

Empire,  488,  543 

and  priesthood,  567 

and  Blilcher,  580 

last  years,  605 

and  Egypt,  627 
Narni,  487,  588 
Narses,  219 
National  self-consciousness 

in  Germany,  79  f,,  142 

in  Sicily,  219,  289  ff. 

in  Europe,  142,  289  ff.,  564 

in  Italy,  325 

Nature,  feeling  for,  364  f. 
Natural  Law,  250  ff.,  364 
Natural  Science,  336  f,,  363  *• 
Naumburg,  81 
Navarre,  8 

King  of,  556 
Nazareth,  187,  229 
Necessitas,  243  ff. 
Neckar  R.,  404 
Negroes,  312  and  footnote 
Nemesis,  678 
Neo-Manichaeism,  348 
Neo-Platonism,  254,  337  f. 
Nero,  546,  593 
Nibelungenlied,  80 
Nicaea,  442 

Emp.  of,  207  ;  v.  John  Vatatzes 
Nicastro,  405 
Nice,  544 
Nicephorus,  336 


INDEX 


7*3 


Nicolas  of  Ajello  Abp.  of  Salerno, 

*45 
Nicolas  the  Peripatetic,  340 

Nicolas  of  Pisa,  535  f. 
Nicolas  of  Rocca,  302 
Nicolas  Spinoia,  Admiral,  545 
Nicolas,  Abp.  of  Taranto,  141 
Nicolas  of  Trani,  318 
Nicomachaean  ethics,  340 
Nicosia,  34,  280 
Nietzsche,  357,  387>  603 
Nigidius-,  355 
Nile  R.,  136,  173 
Nimrod,  593 
Niobe,  678 

JNisfu'd  Dunya,  ship,  125,  a88 
Nola,  145 

Normandy,  Normans  ;  8,  9,  no 
sack  of  Amain,  X22 
and  Saracens,  128 
kings  of  Sicily,  218,  219*  ^22,  290 
and  French  language,  325 
and  falconers,  363 
v.  also  Roger  II  and  William  II 
North  Albingia,  158 
North  Pole,  361 
North  Sea,  412 
Norway,  354,  36*,  554 
Notaries,  278  fl.»  295  rj. 
Notker,  trans,  of  Vergil,  81 
Novara,  460,  541 
"  Nous,"  334 
Numbers,  prophetic,  618 

Indian  numerals,  158 
Nuremberg,  52,  53,  78,  9* 

Occursius,  327 

Ode  of  Montbeliard,  Constable  of 

Syria,  182 
Odysseus,  337 
Oglio  R.,  435  f- 
Ogotai,  553 

Old  Man  of  the  Mountain,  193,  388 
Olmiitz,  Bp.  of,  621 
Optics,  339,  356 
"  Oracles  "  of  F.,  219 
Ordeal,  trial  by,  410 
Orfinus  of  Lodi,  poet,  448 
Orlando  di  Rossi,  v.  Bernardo 
Orleans,  82 
Ornithology,  360 
Orosius,  218 
Orsini,  455 

Colonna  feud,  576 
Orta,  514 


Ortnit,  81,  139,  189 
Osimo,  649,  652 
Osmanli  Sultans,  131 
Ostriches,  358 
Otranto,  170,  171 

castle  of,  479 

Ottaviano  degli  Ubaldini,  Cardinal, 
646  f.,  658 

and  Foggia,  674 

Otto  of  Brunswick-Luneburg,  412 
Otto  of  St.  Nicolas,  Cardinal,  577, 

586 

Otto  Visconti,  647 
Otto,  Palgrave  of  Witteisbach,  35, 

46,  133 

Otto  I,  Emp.,  330 
Otto  II,  Emp.,  336 
Otto  III,  Emp.,  149,  a*6 

and  Constantine,  335,  44* 
Otto  IV,  Emp.,  Duke  of  Brunswick, 

12,  17,  18,  46  ff.,  58  ff.,  122, 

145,  ^77 

and  England,  68 

death,  77 

coronation  in  Rome,  109 

and  Innocent  III,  537 
Ottos,  the,  296,451 
Ottocar  II  of  Bohemia,  573 
Ovid,  307,  337 

translated,  81 
Ovindoli,  116 

Paderborn,  Bp.  of,  621 
Padua,  Giotto's  paintings,  355 

and  penance,  398 

Lombard  war,  430  f- 

capture,  432 

winter  quarters,  470  f. 

and  Eccelino,  612 
Paestum,  634 
Pages  at  F.'s  court,  314  ff. 
Palamedes  of  Guiron  de  Courtois, 

324 

Palermo,  Henry  VI  enters,  6,  219 
Norman  capital,  9,  2!,  325 
F.'s  home,  13,  22,  27-29,  48,  no 
coronation,  15,  443 
taken  by  Markward,  24 
wedding,  34 
F.'s  hq.,  51,52,53,55 
and  Genoa,  123 
import  duties,  127 
massacre  of  Muslims,  128 
Sicilian  Vespers,  292 
sugar,  286 


INDEX 


Palermo,  court  at,  320 

centre  of  culture,  339 

tomb  of  Constance,  529 

tomb  of  F.,  684 

Palestine,  557  ;    v.  also  Syria,  Jeru 
salem,  etc. 

as  penal  resort,  481 
Pallavicini,  v.  Hubert 
Pandulf  of  Fasanella,  631  f,,  658 
Papa  angelicas,  560,  604 
Papal  States,  u.  Patrimonium 
Papal   troops,    177,  204,    207,  298, 

634,  679 

Papal  vacancy,  560  f. 
Paquera,  399 

Paradise,  193, 259, 309,  347, 351 , 614 
Paris,  39,  82 
Parma,  loyalty,  151 

defeat  at,  359,  362,  366 

and  penance,  396 

troops,  430 

F.podesta,  471,474 

and  Pallavicini,  614 

and  Orlando  di  Rossi,  628 

and  Tebaldo  Francisco,  632 

and  conspiracy,  633  f. 

F.  visits,  641 

taken  by  Guelfs,  643  f. 

siege,  654  ft. 

retribution,  680 
Pasiphae,  21 
Parzival,  16 

poem,  81,  189 
Passau  Confederation,  619  f. 

Bp.  of,  621 

Passes,  v.  Alpine  Passes  and  La  Cisa 
Passports  in  Sicily,  479 
Patarenes  ["  Sufferers  "],  270 
Patrimonium  Petri    [States  of    the 
Church;  Papal  States],  8,  47, 
130,  .486  ff.,  509  ff.,  513,  536, 
558  ff.,  561,578,  583,588,591 

coveted  by  Roman  plebs,  389 
Pax  et  Justitia,  224  ff. 
Paul  of  Baghdad,  613 
Paulus    Traversarius,    podesta     of 

Ravenna,  474,  482,  539 
Pavia,  57,  151 

diet,  460 

and  Pallavicini,  614 

F.  visits,  642 

levies,  644 

and  Conradin,  675 

v.  Upper  Pavia  and  Lower  Pavia 
Peacocks,  358 


Pelicans,  358 
Pellegrino,  27 
Penance  movement,  396  f. 
Percival  Doria,  332,  492 
Perduellio,  266 
Peronnus,  Master,  145 
Persia(n),  189 

astrologers,  355 
Perugia,  71,  154 
Peter,  Apostle,  40,  45,  304,  524 

festival  of  chair,  40,  516 
Peter  II  of  Aragon,  31 
Peter  Capoccio,  Cardinal,  679 
Peter  Capuanus  of  Amalfi,  288 
Peter  of  Eboli,  3,  ix 
Peter  of  Ga£ta,  Admiral,  68 1 
Peter  of  Ireland,  298,  345,  347 
Peter  Murrone,  v.  Celestine  V 
Peter,  Bp,  of  Ravello,  297 
Peter  the  Spaniard,  341 
Peter  of  Verona,  the  Martyr,  397, 

653 

Pfaffers,  Advocate  of,  58 
Phaedo  of  Plato,  338,339 
Pharaoh,  560,  665 
Pha/salia,  202 
Pharisees,  505 
Philip  II,  Augustus  of  France,  8,  49, 

50,  52,  54,  63,  68 

Philip    of    Swabia,    King    of    the 
Romans,  12,  13, 17  f.t  24 

murdered,  35 

buried,  78 
Phoenicians,  128 
Phoenix,  362 
Physicians,  357 
Physiognomy,  357 
Physiologus,  336 
Piacenza,  57 

knights  of,  151 

administration,  282 

penance,  397 

diet,  423 

P.  d.  V.'s  address,  426 

lost  to  F.,  431 

defies  F.,  461 

war  agt.,  475 

alliance  with  Pope,  475 

and  Pallavicini,  614,  68 1 

refuge  of  Guelfs,  643 

and  Parma,  645 
Piedmont,  460,  486,  663 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  397 
Piero  della  Vigna,  Petrus  de  Vinea  : 

discovered,  144 


INDEX 


Piero  della  Vigna,  career,  144,  298  ff. 

F.  and  Reason,  257 

and  Naples  Univ.,  898  f. 

and  poets,  330 

as  poet,  332 

sweetmeats,  341 

as  arbiter,  346 

as  ambassador,  392 

to  England,  406 

at  Rome,  417 

address  at  Piacenza,  426 

victory  manifesto,  446 

relation  to  F.,  447 

on  Cortenuova,  450 

speech  in  Padua,  472  f. 

proclaims  ban,  474 

and  Sicilian  Chancery,  477  f, 

quotes  scripture,  495 

as  priest,  513 

and  F.  cult,  523  f. 

bust  of,  532,  669 

outside  Rome,  559 

ambassador  to  Pope,  579,  583 

in  the  field,  585 

peace  ceremony,  587 

to  Parma,  628 

F.'s  letter,  629 

Logothetes,  640 

Italian  knights,  641 

as  Judas,  664  f. 

and  finance,  679 
Pietro  Asinelli,  672,  677 
Pietro  Ruifo,  683 

•Pietro    Tiepolo,    son   of   Doge   of 
Venice,  podesta  of  Milan,  437  f . 

prisoner,  467 

hanged,  542 

Pilgrims,  assembling  for  F.'s  Cru 
sade,  i68fT. 

for  St.  Louis's  Crusade,  557,  68 1 

plunder  of  returning,  1 5 

tax  on,  485 
Piombino,  548 
Pilate,  505 
11  Pious,"  the,  197 
Pirates,  Dalmatian,  388,  542 
Piuma2zo,  474 

Pisa,  Pisans  :  in  Sicily,  25,  56,  123, 
206,  546 

and  Kaiser  Otto,  48 

trading  rights  in  Sicily,  122 

fleet,  52 

in  Syria,  182 

and  poetry,  331 

and  Sardinia,  470 


sea  route,  478 

factions,  511 

baptistery,  535 

art,  535 

and  F.,  626 

and  Conradin,  675 

hunger  tower,  678 

troops,  157 
Pistoia,  535,  641 
Plague,  at  Brindisi,  169 

of  caterpillars,  286 

cattle,  465 

Great  Plague,  688 
Planetarium,  195,  388 
Planets,  355 
Plantagenets ,  406 
Plato,  on  Tyrants,  117 

search  for  Dikaiosyne,  255 

and  Arabs,  338  f. 

ibn  Sabin  and,  349 

Meno,  Phaedo,  339 

Timaeus,  Phaedo,  Republic,  338 
Players,  laws  agt.,  121 
Plebs  rise  in  Italian  towns,  151  fl. 
Pliny,  336,  337,  362 
Plotinus,  255 
Pneumatica  of  Hero  of  Alexandria, 

339 
Po  R.,  57,  H9»  435, 460,  475,  645  f., 

655,  658,  670 
Podesta,  judges  and,  295 

elections  of,  376 

papal,  417 

Piacenza,  434 

Mantua,  435 

Milan,  437 

Florence,  460,  628,  632,  649,  680 

Genoa,  467 

Parma,  471,  632,  643 

Treviso,  474 

Ravenna,  474,  482 

F.  as,  490,  492,  493 

Fae"nza,  547 

Siena,  628 

and  clergy,  653 
Poetry,  in  Sicily,  328  f. 

under  Hohenstaufen,  80  f. 
Poggibonsi,  652 
Poisoning,  666 
Poitou,  68 
Poland,  8,  552 
Polar  bear,  196,  358 
Poli  family,  452,  455 
Police,  277 
Polis  of  Greeks,  149,  226 


7i6 


INDEX 


Politics  of  Aristotle,  341 

Pompey,  447 

Pontevico,  435 

Pontoglio,  436 

Pontremoli,  641,  645,  658 

"  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,"  161 

Poor  Henry,  poem,  81 

Popular  party,  151 

Pordenone,  379 

Porphyry,  344 

Porta  Collina,  107 

Pozzuoli,  170,  315,  353 

Praefectus  Urbi,  107 

Prag,  Bp.  of,  621 

Prato,  548,  650 

Precious  stones,  354,  541,  647 

Pre"montr6,  Abt.  of,  549 

Prester  John,    197,  323,   354*  55*, 

683 

Primeval  Matter,  348 
Primeval  Speech,  352  f. 
Primo  popolo,  649 
Prince  of  Peace,  224,  504,  511,  514 
Princeps,  215,  233,454 
Princes     of     Germany,     and     F.'s 
minority,  18 

choice  of  F.,  52  f. 

elect  F.  Emp.,  63 

confirm  Bull  of  Eger,  70 

F.'s  policy  towards,  78  f. 

selfishness  of,  103 

relation  to  Emp.,  109 

meet  F.  in  Italy,  158 

on  Crusade,  168 

loyalty  to  F.,  177,  537  f. 

diet  of  Friuli,  195 

mediators  with  Pope,  208 

diet  of  Ravenna,  372 

and  King  Henry,  374 

and  Lombards,  375,  437 

at  Aquileia,  378 

rdle  in  Constitution,  397  !. 

at  Mainz,  409  f. 

and  Gregory  IX,  418  f. 

diet  of  Vienna,  432 

spiritual,  501 

diet  of  Verona,  596 

and  Church  reforms,  619 

cease  to  visit  Italy,  660 
Principato,  the,  279,  285 
Privilege  of  Worms,  374,  379,  381 
Privileges,  Law  of,  114  f.,  121,  124, 

126,  145,  147 
Problemata,  341 
Proclus,  339 


Prophecies,  F.'s  birth,  3  f. 

Emp.  of  West,  167  f. 

Arab,  197 

End  of  World,  224  ff.,  395 

Merlin,  4,  350 

Abt.  Joachim,  4,  160,  335,  395 

Michael  Scot,  396 

O.T.,  395 

Messiah,  551 

Messiah-Emperor,  423 

Vergilian,  3,  524,  685 

of  F.'s  death,  641 

of  F.'s  return,  685  f. 

v.  also  Sibyls 
Proserpine,  21 
Prosody  in  Sicily,  333 
Protestantism,  270 
Proteus,  599 
Protonotary,  664 
Provencal,  language,  330 

poetry,  324,  330,  332 
Provence,  122,  161,  325,  344 

singers  of,  326 

knights,  391 

Providence,  Divine,  and  F.,  53,  106, 
206,  217,  251,  258  ff.,  442,  443 

and  kings,  243 

creation,  258 

and  Sicily,  290 

and  astrology,  342 
Prussia(n),  91-94,  158,  385 

state,  273 

Pseudo- Aristotle,  337  f. 
Ptolemy,  339,  344 
Puer  Apuliae,  Chap.  II  passim,  179, 
194,  262,  324,  403,  409,  469, 
550, 675, 684 
Purgatory,  351 
Purpose  in  Nature,  347 


Qazi,  190 
Quicksilver,  354 
Quedlinburg,  68 
Qur'an,  194 


Rainer  of  Manente,  1 1 1 
Rainer  of  Palermo,  331 
Rainer  of  Viterbo,  Cardinal 

584  f.,  591 

pamphlets,  592  f.,  609 
and  conspiracy,  634  f. 
and  Bp.  Marcellina,  653 
Ranke,  360 


INDEX 


Raphael,  painter,  5 

Ratisbon  [Regensburg] ,  63,  403 

Bp.  of,  620 
Ravello,  535 
Ravenna,  174,  282 
diet,  372-376 
secession,  474 
capture,  539,  541 
surrender,  658 
retaken,  679 
battle  of,  poem,  80 
Re  Federigo,  332 
Re  Giovanni,  v.  John  of  Brienne 
Reason,  Providence  as,  252 
Mother  of  all  Law,  253  f . 
inherent  in  Justice,  257 
not  all-sufficient,  262 
all-powerful,  448 
Rectors  of  Lombard  League,  156 
Recuperations,  47,  138,  140,  153 
Redondesco  fortress,  435 
Reform  Manifesto(s) ,  615,  617  f. 
Reformation,  270,  617 
and  indulgences,  622 
and  Innocent  IV.,  624 
F.  and,  688 

Reggio,  430,  626,631,  645 
Regensburg,  v.  Ratisbon 
Reginald  of  Aquino,  330,  331,  333 
Reginald  Abp.  of  Dassel,  133,  299 
Reginald  of  Monterero,  331 
Reginald  of  Palermo,  331 
Reginald    of    Urslingen,    Duke    of 
Spoleto,  Regent  of  Sicily,  176, 
204,  206 
Reichenau,  621 

Abt.  of,  59 

Renaissance,  and  antique,  225 
and  justice,  228 
and  secular  learning,  229 
and  secular  state,  239 
princes,  245 
Sicily  and,  254 
Christian  and  Pagan,  303 
and  Greek,  305 
art  patronage,  329 
astrology,  343 
dawn  of,  346 
astronomy,  355 
and  Caesar,  446 
concentration  of,  488 
signers,  492 
tyrants,  494,  669 
art,  535,  548 
conflict,  611 


materialism,  614 

and  Innocent  IV.,  624 

German  contribution,  66 1  f. 

Reno  Valley,  641 

Renovatio  imperil,  425,  441,   443, 

454,  4^9 

Republic  of  Plato,  338 
Resurrection,  352 
Reval,  204 

Revelation  of  St.  John,  395 
Rex  Clericorum,  637 
Rex  Versuum,  324 
Rhine  R.,  59,  404,  620,  642 

Abps.,  620  f.,  68 1 
Rhodes,  179 

Richard  of  Ajello,  114,  145 
Richard,  Count  of  Caserta,  son-in- 
law  of  F.,  317,  492,  585 

and  conspiracy,  632 

counsellor,  640 

letter  to,  664 

at  F.'s  death-bed,  683 
Richard,  Coeur  de  Lion,  8,  65,  1 88, 

189 

Richard  of  Celano,  114 
Richard,  Chamberlain,  179,  481 
Richard  of  Cornwall,  323, 557  f.,  570, 

687 

Richard  of  Fasanella,  633 
Richard    (primus),   Filangieri,    146, 

176,  179,  182,  389 
Richard  (secundus),  Filangieri,  318, 

557 

Richard  of  Montenero,  640,  683 
Richard  of  San  Bonifacio,  435 
Richard  of  San  Germane,  305 
Richard  of  Theate,  natural  son  of  F., 
492,  639,  649,  658 

death,  669  f. 
Richard  of  Venusia,  305 
Rieti,  174,  399,  559 
Rimini,  403,  541 

Golden  Bull,  92,  94,  158 
Rispampani,  399 
Ritual  murder,  268,  413  f. 
Rivotorto,  47 
Robert  of  Artois,  543 
Robert  of  Castiglione,  649 
Robert  of  Fasanella,  633 
Robert  Guiscard,  9,  218,  442 
Robert  of  Somercote,  Cardinal,  575 
Rocca  d'Arce,  116 
Rocca  d'Evandro,  114 
Rocca  Mandolfi,  116 
Rocca  San  Felice,  405 


7i8 


INDEX 


RofTredo   of  Benevento,  105,    134, 
175,  228,  231 

Professor  at  Naples,  298 

High  Court  Judge,  302 

reads  F.'s  manifesto,  451 
Roger  de  Amicis,  331,  477,  557 

traitor,  633 

Roger  of  Aquila,  114,  116,  117,  141 
Roger  Bacon,  364 
Roger  II,  King  of  Sicily,  4,  9 

treasure  of,  21 

statesmanship,  no 

Assize  Collection,  229 

law-giver,  236 

and  silk,  283 

buried  Palermo,  684 
Romagna,  474 

Vicariate,  487 
Rome,  Romans  :  under  Henry  VI,  8 

reception  of  F. ,  55  f . 

Coronation  visit,  106  ff. 

asylum  for  Sicilian  exiles,  141 

famine,  158 

eject  Gregory  IX,  174 

craving  freedom,  389 

F.Js  wooing  of,  425  f.,  433,  451  f. 

caput  mundi,  443  f. 

F.  playing  Caesar  to,  438,  441  ff. 

F.'s  exhortations  to,  514  f. 

and  Conradin,  675 

and  Hohenstaufen,  676 

Ancient  Rome,  56,  115,  216,  233 

fame  of,  425  f. 
Roman  culture,  79  ff. 
Roman  Equestrian  Order,  442,  453 
Roman  Law,  and  Hohenstaufen,  81, 
109 

Justinian,  223 

Barbarossa,  109,  228,  451 

and  Christ,  230 

priest  and  judge,  237 

ratio ,  253 

and  heretics,  264 

perpetua  infamia,  276 

and  Medieval  Romans,  442 

and  Emp.  of  Peace,  444 

in  F.'s  Italy,  489 
Roman  Senate,  442,  449,  453 
Roman  Senator(s) 

at  Coronation,  107 

pro-Kaiser,  452  f. 

Matthew  Orsini,  574  f . 

and  provisional  peace,  587 
Romanus  of  Porto,  Cardinal,  575, 
577 


Romulus,  514 

"  blood  of  R,"  455,  489,  676 
Rose  Garden  of  Worms,  80,  86 
Rosetta,  288 
Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  Count,  59 

King  of  the  Romans,  77,  404, 410, 

558 

and  Anjou,  677 
RufB  family,  314,  331 
Russia,  415,  552 


St.  Andre'a  Island,  169 

St.  Agatha,  21 

St.  Ambrose,  647 

St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  394,  396 

St.  Augustine,  228,  243 

St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  71,  83, 

86  f.,  167,  260 
St.  Dominic,  394,  396 
St.  Elisha,  373 
St.  Elizabeth,  168,  419  f. 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  47,  71 

in  Egypt,  98 

preaching,  154 

and  F.,  160  ff. 

and  Gregory  IX,  170,  560 

sufferer,  202  f. 

teachings,  239,  256 

and  prayer,  260 

poetry,  326 

as  disciple,  335 

nature  lover,  364  f. 

canonised,  394 

fulfils  prophecy,  396 

and  St.  Elizabeth,  419 

frugality,  497 

poverty,  505 

and  successor,  509 

painting,  536 

antithesis  of  F.,  239,  6u,  615  f. 

as  reformer,  616 
St.  Gall,  58 

Abt.  of,  58  f.,  621 
St.  George,  661 
St.  Gothard  Pass,  415,  475 
St.  Hedwig,  553 
St.  Helena,  627 

St.  John,  Knights  of,  182,  207,  557 
St.  Louis,  v.  Louis  IX 
St.  Lucy,  feast  of,  683 
St.  Mark  of  Venice,  377 
St.  Maurice  tomb,  108 
St.  Peter's,  107  f.,  169,  515 
St.  Rosa,  653 


INDEX 


719 


St.  Thomas  of  Aquino,  v.  Thomas 

Aquinas 
St.  Victor's,  654 
Sakhrah  mosque,  191 
Sala,  634 
Saladin,  Sultan,  168,  183.  187,  189, 

191 

Salerno,  140,  145,  279,  315,  468,  634 
Salians,  the,  296,  451 
Salimbene  of  Parma,  v.  Fra  Salim- 

bene 

Salinguerra,  432,  613 
Sallust,  628 
Salpi,  476 
Salt,  monopoly,  283 

water,  353 
Saluzzo,  324 
Salzburg,  Abp.  of,  620  f. 
Samnites,  115 
San  Angelo,  675 
San  Bonifacio,  431 
San  Domenico,  678 
San  Germano,  32,  187,   147,  171, 

207,  227 

San  Gimignano,  652 
San  Giorgio,  662 
San  Marco,  377 
San  Miniato,  549,  641,  667 
San  Severino,  Counts  of,  633 
San  Zeno,  monks  of,  470 
Sancha  of  Aragon,  31,  32 
Sancho  II  of  Portugal,  571 
Santa  Justina,  470 
Santa  Maria  in  Turribus,  107 
Santa  Maria  Transpadina,  108 
Sappho, 306 

Saracens  in  East,  v.  Chap.  IV passim, 
389,    470.      Also   Al    Kamil, 
Fakhru'd  Din,  Saladin 
Saracens  in  Sicily,  trumpeters,  6 

island,  25  ff.,  51,  117 

war,  127, 128  f. 

bodyguard,  131,  288,  404,  651 

women,  310,  311 

dancing  girls,  323 

eunuchs,  310  f.,  407,  655,  657 

augurs,  4x5 

troops,  463 

executioners,  652  f. 

loyalty  to  F.'s  house,  676 

v,  also  Lucera 
Saragossa,  34 
Sarai,  552 
Sardinia,  122,  470 
Sarno,  145 


Satan,  348,  611,  Chap.  IX  passim; 

v.  also  Luciferians 
Saul,  433 
Savanarola,  398 
Savona,  460,  681 
Savoy,  460 

count  of,  v.  Thomas 
Saxons,  216  f.,  385 
Scala  family,  494 

Scholasticism,  Scholastic  Philo 
sophy  :  247,  252,  335  f.,  351, 
356, 362 

Scholia  of  Germanicus,  355 
Scipio(s),  223,  628 
Scotland,  554 

Sculpture,  530  f . ;  v.  also  Art,  Sicilian 
Art,  German  Art,  Renaissance 
Art 

Sea  powers,  121  f.,  127 
Sea  waters,  353 
Secretum  secretorum,  341 
Selvaggia,  natural  dau.  of  F.,  m. 

Eccelino,  471 

'Semprebene  of  Bologna,  332 
Senate,  Senator  :  v.  Roman  Senate 
Sep timer  Pass,  416,  475 
Septizonium  of  Septimius  Severus, 

452, 575 

Seraph,  199,  202,  203 
Serfs,  Saracen,  128,  130 

Jew,  268  f. 
Serio  R.,  149 
Shamsu'd  Din,  Qazi,  190 
Sheep-farming,  286 
Shihabu'd  Din,  356 
Sibyls,    Sibylline    sayings:    4,  167, 
259,  339,  396,  447>  573,  685, 
686 

Sicily,  Sicilian(s)  :  v.  also  Table  of 
Contents  and  Maps  inside  back 
cover 

conquest  by  Henry  VI,  6,  9 
chaos,  25,  no 

re-organisation,  110-135,  221  f. 
"  mother  of  tyrants,"  218 
and  Lombard  War,  476  ff. 
art,  526  f. 

barons,  25,  48,  111  ff. 
bureaucracy,  133,  272  ff.,  293  ff., 

477  ff. 

chivalry,  314,  320,  323  ff.,  334 
church,  17,  33,  142  f. 
Ceperano,  209  f.,  280 
after  excommunication,  480  fl. 
constitution,  282  ff. 


720 


INDEX 


currency,   17   and  footnote,   127, 
225  f.,  484,  541,6545.,  659 

education,  132  ff, 

fleet,  124  f- 

laws,  121,  124,  223  ff. 

literature,  324 

national  Defence,  119  f. 

national  Feeling,  219,  289  ff. 

romance,  20  f.,  219 

temperament,  218  ff. 

towns,  280 

trade,  121  f,  125,  127,  283,  285; 
v.  also  Monopolies 

volcanoes,  354 
Sidon,  187 
Sidrach,  350 
Siege,  technique,  427,  654 

of  Brescia,  464  f. 

of  Ravenna,  539 

of  Faenza,  539  f. 

of  Viterbo,  585 

of  Parma,  654  ff. 

cost  of,  540  f . 
Siege  of  Parma,  poem,  306 
Siena,  152 

poetry,  331 

art,  535 

and  Orlando  di  Rossi,  628 

F.  visits,  641 

popular  party,  649 

Como  hostages,  652 

money-lending,  659 

and  Conradin,  675 
Sigfrid  II,  Abp.  of  Mainz,  73 
Sigfrid  III,  Abp-  of  Mainz,  Regent 
of  Germany,  433,  620,  636 

the  King-maker,  638 
Signor(s),492ff. 
Sigilgaita,  535 
Sigismondo  Malatesta,  612 
Silesia,  552 
Silk  monopoly,  283 
Silver  mines,  659 
Simon  of  Tournai,  500 
Simon  ides,  502 

Sinibaldo  Fiesco,  Count  of  Lavagna, 
474,  578,  628  ;  v.  Innocent  IV 
Slave  markets,  129 
Slaves,  310 
Smoke,  volcanic,  354 
Sodom,  408 
Sodomy,  312,  540 
"  Soldiers  of  the  Keys,"  177,  204, 

206  f.  ;  t;.  Papal  Troops 
Solms,  Count  of,  401 


Solomon,  413 

temple  of,  187,  609 
Soncino,  436 
Sonnet,  333 
Sora,  51,  115,  116 

razed,  207 
Sorella,  116 
Sorcery,  338  ff.,  354 
Spain,  Spaniards  :    132,   157,   168, 
196 

as  market,  288 

spirit  of,  341 

falcons,  361 

horses,  415 

and  Romans,  426 

Gregory's  council,  544  f . 

Bps.,  597 
Spello,  634 
Speyer,  78,  433 
Spherics  of  Alpetragius,  339 
Spinola  family,  545 
Spoleto,  8,47,  138,  153,486 

Vicariate  General,  487 

hostages,  652 

Duchess  of,  6 

v.  also  Patrimonium 
Spolia  opima,  448 
Springs,  353 
Squillace,  Bp,  of,  141 
States  of  the  Church,  v.  Patrimon 
ium 

Stirps  regia,  64  f.,  572 
Strasburg,  677 

Bp.  of,  59 
Stromboli,  354 
Stupor  mundi,  356 
Style,  of  Capuan  school,  302 

of  Papal  chancery,  302 

ofP.d.V.,  300  ff. 

of  Falcon  Book,  362 
Styria  [Steiermark] ,  384,  403 
Suessa,  114 

"  Sufferers,"  Paterenes,  270 
Sugar  cane,  286 
Surgery,  356 

Susa,  Marriage  Feast  of,  197 
Suspects,  277  f.,  481,  625 
Sutri,  514,515,  589 
Swabia,  385,  404 

F.'s  rights  in,  415 

v.  Philip  of 
Swabians,  216  f. 

Sylvester  II,  Gerbert  of  Rheims,  335 
Symbols,  Symbolism ; 

of  world  sovereignty,  51 


INDEX 


721 


oriental,  192 

number,  355 

Empire,  429 

of  Rome,  516 

coins,  226,  529 

on  Capuan  Gate,  533 

macrocosm,  561 

F.'s  horses,  609 

horns,  609 

F.'s  tomb,  684  f. 
Synod,  v.  Church  Council 
Syntax  of  Ptolemy,  339 
Syracuse,  128  L,  380,  476 

rebellion,  280 
Syria,  157,  Chap.  IV  passim,  348 

Christian  factions,  389 

Tacitus,  149 
Tagliacoxzo,  676 
Talmud,  414 

Tancred,     King    of    Normans    in 
Sicily,  22,  24 

as  Crusader,  167 
Taormina,  21 
Tar  an  to,  22,  24 

Bp.  of,  141 

Taren,  gold  coin,  17  and  footnote 
Taro  K.,  645 
Tartars,  55*  f- 

manifesto,  553  f. 

Tartarus,  554  ,    J      0 

Taxation,  Taxes  :  F.'s  methods,  287 

arrears,  484 

on  pilgrims,  485 

advance,  541 

after  Parma,  659 
Teano,  114 

Tebaldo  Francisco,  podesta  of  Par 
ma,  632,  634  f. 
Templars,  86  fl. 

glory  of,  88 

and  F.  in  Syria,  182 

treachery,  189 

F.'s  retaliation,  205,  207 

untrustworthiness,  557 
Terence,  337 
Termola,  541 
Terni,  559>  5.88 
Terra  Laboris,  115,220 

F.'s  love  of,  321 
Terracina,  140 
Terragium,  13° 
Terrible,  the,  668,  687 
Terrisius  of  Atina,  298,  305 
Tertullian,  266 


Teucer  of  Babylon,  355 
Teutonic  Order,  88  ff.,  116 

in  Prussia,  158,  273 

in  Syria,  182 

in  Sicily,  206 

and  Hansa,  284 

burial,  St.  Elizabeth,  420 

and  Lombards,  434 
Thaddeus  of  Suessa,  295,  346,  470 

and  Sicilian  Chancery,  477  *• 

bust  of,  532 

ambassador  to  Pope,  579,  583*  587 

advocate  at  Lyons,  596  f. 

slain,  656 

loss  to  F.,  669 
Thebes,  283 

Theodore,    Master,    Court    Philo 
sopher,  158,  341  f.,  357,  363 

Tunis,  287 

trans.,  542 
Theodoric,  447 
Theodosius  II.,  373 
Theophrastus,  344 
Thessalonica,  9 

Thomas   Aquinas,   Dominican   [St. 
Thomas  of  Aquino],  297,  298, 

313 

education,  315,  33° 
Thomas  of  Aquino,  the  Elder,  Count 

of  Acerra,  115,  116 
Regent  of  Syria,  168,   i79>   183, 

185,  206,372 
Captain  of  Sicily,  376 
ambassador  to  Pope,  470,  476 
Thomas  of  Aquino,  the  Younger, 

son-in-law  to  F.,  317,  49^ 
counsellor,  640 
death,  676 

Thomas  a  Becket,  298 
Thomas  of  Capua,  Cardinal,  114 
Thomas  of  Celano,  Duke  of  Molise, 

114,  n6f.,  141 

Thomas  of  Celano,  Franciscan,  117 
Thomas  of  Gaeta,  117 
Thomas  of  Montenero,  279 
Thomas  of  Savoy,  492,  639,  642  f., 

680 
Three  Ages  of  Joachim  of  Flora, 

395  f . 

Three  Deceivers,  500  f.,  515 
Three  Kings  of  East,  72 
Thuringia,  Margrave,  t>.  Lewis 
Margravine,  v.  St.  Elizabeth 
Tiber  R.,  9,  544 
Tiberius,  225 


722 


INDEX 


Tiburtine  Sibyl,  4,  686 
Timaeus  of  Plato,  338 
Tiraz,  283 
Titus,  arch  of,  452 
Tivoli,  514,  559 
Toledo,  167 

school  of,  338 
Topica  of  Aristotle,  339 
Torre,  470 
Totem,  226 

Tolerance  of  F.,  190  f.,  267  f. 
Tortona,  434 

and  Pallavicini,  614 
Torture,  of  Sicilian  traitors,  n 

by  Eccelino,  613 

of  Alberigo  of  Romano,  613 

forbidden    by   Liber  Augustalis, 

652 

wholesale,  652,  654 

Pallavicini,  680 
Totila,  King  of  Goths,  313 
Toul,  63 

Toulouse,  Count  of,  585,  587 
Tower  of  London ,  407 
Tower  of  Pisa,  678 
Town(s)  built  by  F.,  Flagella,  281 

Aquila,  281 

Augusta,  280,  654 

Lucera,  130 

Victoria,  654,  680 
Town  planning,  654  f . 
Trade,  foreign,  122  ff, 

regulation  of,  282  ff. 

agreements,  287  ff. ;  v.also  Mono 
polies 

war-time  measures,  484  ff. 
Traina,  280 
Trajan,  223 
Translations,  Ovid,  81 

Vergil,  8 1 

from  Arabic,  338  f. 

of  Falcon  Book,  363 

from  Persian,  363 
Trani,  104,  283 

castle,  479,  558 
Transubstantiation,  43 
Trapani,  124 
Trent  [Trient],  58,  104,  156,  157 

Bp.  of,  621 
Treviso,  388 

and  penance,  398 

and  Lombard  War,  430 

captured,  432 

fall  of,  474 

the  Devil  of,  612  f. 


Tribonian,  300 

Trient,  v,  Trent 

Trifels,  21,  405 

Trinacria,  328 

Tripoli,  9,  288 

Tristan,  poem,  81,  324 

Triumph,  in  Jerusalem,   199,   443, 

45° 

at  Cremona,  437  f. 

of  Bologna,  671 
Trojans,  Troy  :   64,  433 
Troubadour(s),  209,  324,  334,  404 
Tullii,  454 
Tunis,  128 

slave  market,  129 

famine,  286,  484 

trade  with,  287  f. 

intellectual  intercourse,  350 

and  Venice,  542 
Turin,  diet,  460,  486 

F.  at,  597,  642 

taken, 649 

Tuscan  Alps  ;  v.  La  Cisa  Pass 
Tuscany,  8,  9,  50 

culture,  314 

conquered,  460 

Vicariate  General,  487,  488,  492 

levies  from,  541 

King  of,  640 
Tuscany,  Papal,  399,  487,  514,  584  ; 

v.  Patrimonium 
Twins,  constellation,  343 
Two^luminary-theory,    of    Empire 

and  Papacy,  271,  502,  562 
Two-sword-theory,  of  Empire  and 

Papacy,  392  f. 
Tyrol,  379 
Tyrrhenian  Sea,  125,  554 

tJberlingen,  58 

Uberti  family,  650  ;  v.  also  Hubert 

Pallavicini 
Udine,  379 

Ugolino  della  Gherardesca,  678 
'UlamS,  237 
Ulm,  78 

Ulrich  of  Kiburg,  59 
Ultima  Thule,  64 
'Umar,  mosque  of,  187, 190,  192 
Unicorn,  336 
University  of  Naples,  132  flL,  228, 

237,  893  ff.,  297  ff.,  301,  305, 

3i8,  345 
charter,  346 
closed  to  rebels,  480 


INDEX 


723 


Upper  Pavia,  486,  488,  492,  547 

Urbino,  668 

Uri,  415 

Usury,  268,  496 

Utrecht,  Bp.  of,  621 

Uzzah,  146,  595 

Uzziah,  595 

Vacancy  of  Papal  Chair,  560  f. 

Valetti  imperatoris,  314  ;  v.  Pages 

Valois,  the,  569 

Vasari,  535 

Vasto,  541 

Vatatzes,  v.  John 

Vaucouleurs,  63 

Vegetius,  337 

Veitshdchheim,  637 

Venice,  trading  with  Sicily,  122, 126, 

485 

trade  with  Cremona,  149 

route  via,  158,  373 

and  Lombardy,  430,  432,  434 

alliance  with   Genoa  and  Pope, 
466  f. 

and  Bologna,  474 

with  Piacenza  and  Milan,  475 

and  F.'s  sea  routes,  541  f. 
Venus  genetrix,  215 
Vercelli,  460,  541 

and  Pallavicini,  614 

and  Montferrat,  649 

joins  F.,  659 

diet,  663 
Vergil,  3 

and  Dante,  259,  335 

as  magician,  20,  337 

and  Augustus,  447 

herald  of  an  era,  611 
Vernacular  speech,  324  ff. 

for  Sicilian  poetry,  329  f.,  633 

for  German  laws,  411 
Veroli,  137 
Verona,  58,  104,  156,  377 

and  passes,  388,  393 

and  Pope,  394,  417 

road,  430 

and  Lombard  War,  474 

diet,  588,  591,  596,  660 

and  Eccelino,  612 

and  Conradin,  675 
Versiglia,  487 

Vespers,  Sicilian,  292,  675,  677,  684 
Vesuvius,  354 
Veterinary  science,  363  f. 
Via  Appia,  530 


Via  Flaminia,  106 
Via  Triumphalis,  107 
Vicars  (General),  Vicariates  :  486  f., 
492 

Emp.  and  his,  629  f. 

training  for,  295 

type  of  nominee,  313 
Vicenza,  366 

Lombard  War,  430 

capture  of,  431 

and  Eccelino,  612 
Victoria  town,  654  f.,  680 
Victorines,  coins,  654  f. 
Vienna,  317,  433 

diet,  432 

loans  from,  484 

and  Mongols,  553 
Vigevano,  460 
Villard  de  Honnecourt,  311 
Virgin  Birth,  500 
Visconti  family,  493,  494,  511 
Viterbo,  352,  389,  399 

joins  F.,  514 

baths  of,  559 

defection,  584  f. 

skirmish  agt.,  592 

reconciliation,  639 

and  St.  Rosa,  653 
Vivarium,  358 
Volcanoes,  353 
Volga  R.,  552 
Voltaire,  307 
Volterra,  659 
Vulcan,  21 

Waiblings,  12  and  footnote 

regia  stirps,  64,  412,  572 

fate  of,  66 

end  of  Welf-Waibling  feud,  412 
Waldemar,  King  of  Denmark,  91 
Wales,  554 
Walter  of  Ascoli,  298 
Walter  of  Brienne,  22,  24  f. 
Walter  of  Manupello,  640 
Walter  of  Ocra,  296 
Walter  of  Palear ,  Bp .  of  Troia,  Chan 
cellor  of  Sicily,  15,  17,  23  f., 
26,  29 

deposed,  50 

Bp.  of  Catania,  136,  141 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  8,  18, 
54,  81,  103 

his  fief,  104,  409 
War,  art  of,  277,  427 
Wartburg,  419 


724 


INDEX 


Wazir  of  al  Kamil,  186 
Weights  and  Measures,  285 
Weimar,  360 
Weingarten,  65 
Weissenburg,  Abt.  of,  621 
Welfs,  12  and  footnote 
fate  of,  66,  412 
protege's  of  Gregory  IX,  177 
and  Hohenstaufen,  406 
end  of  Waibling  feud,  412 
Werner  of  Urslingen,  661 
West  Lombardy,  486 
Westminster,  407 
Wetterau,  620 
Whores,  laws  about,  121 
William  Capparone,  24 
William  Franciscus  (primus),  F.  s 

tutor,  26,  28 

William  Franciscus  (secundus),  Sici 
lian  official,  633 

William  of  Holland,  638,  681,  687 
William  Porcus,  Admiral,  124 
William  II,  Norman  King  of  Sicily, 

112 

Wimpfen,  404 
Wind  currents,  353 


Windsor,  414 

Witchcraft,  354 

Woden,  687 

World,  End  of,  v.  End  of  World 

Worms,  10,  78 

diet,  374 

Privilege  of,  374  f->  379,  381 

court  at,  404  f.,  443 

F.'s  wedding,  407  f. 

mourns  Conradin,  677 

Bp,  of,  402,  621 
Wurzburg,  78,  637,  653 

Bp.  of,  402 

Yato,  128, 129 
Yemen,  196,  348 

Zacharias,  King  of  Sicilian  Saracens, 

Qrtnit,  139,  189 
Zahringen,  77 
Zara,  542 
Zero,  158 
Zeus,  306 
Zoological  garden,  in  Byzantium,  336 

in  Sicily,  358  f. 
Zoology,  336,  360 


continued  from  front  flap 

ft* 

style  and  scholarship.  From  the  reviews 
of  the  English  edition:  "A  first-rate  book 
on  a  remarkable  man.  The  narrative  runs 
to  700  pages,  but  Frederick's  career  was 
so  dramatic  and  surprising  that  the  story 
never  flags/' — Jhe  Spectator, 


ABOUT  THE  AUTHOR 

Ernst  Kantorowlcz  is  an  American  his 
torian  born  !n  Germany  In  1895.  He 
received  his  doctorate  of  philosophy  from 
the  University  of  Heidelberg  in  1921, 
He  was  a  member  of  the  history  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Frankfort  and  of 
New  College,  Oxford  University  before 
coming  to  the  United  States  during  the 
3Q's.  In  this  country  he  taught  at  Johns 
Hopkins  University  and  at  the  Univer 
sity  of  California,  where  he  was  Profes 
sor  of  Medieval  History.  Since  1951  he 
has  been  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the 
Institute  for  Advanced  Studies,  Princeton, 
Professor  Kantorowicz'  special  interest 
in  medieval  history  had  wide  scope  in 
his  distinguished  biography  of  Frederick 
II,  an  outstanding  work  that  received 
highest  critical  praise  upon  its  publica 
tion  in  Germany  in  1927,  matched  by 
Its  reception  in  English  translation. 

Jacket  design  fry  Brands  ftdte 

FREDERICK  UNGAR  PUBLISHING  CO. 
Ui  £«st  23fd  Street,  New  Jork  to,  SV.  y. 


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